Gender equality and women’s empowerment are key components of smart risk management in the agricultural sector. Agricultural Risk Management (ARM) and Climate-Risk Insurance (CRI) stand as vital components in securing the resilience and sustainability of global agricultural systems. Nevertheless, amidst the predominant attention on financial, climatic, and pest/disease-related risks, the crucial matters of gender equality and, namely, of gender-based violence (GBV) often remain overlooked. Aware of this gap, the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) is committed to integrating a gender perspective into its activities, aiming to bolster the resilience of rural women and communities through gender-responsive risk management that unlocks the potential of all smallholder farmers. PARM’s dedication resonates with other global engagement, as demonstrated during the 68th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) with the launch of the Gender Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction, which offers several areas for alignment with the Platform’s mandate to strengthen gender-responsive agricultural risk management systems.
Gender-based violence in the context of agriculture and ARM
In agricultural communities, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevalence remains high, exacerbated by climate change impacts. GBV encompasses various harmful behaviors, from physical and sexual violence to discriminatory practices that restrict women’s access to resources and economic opportunities. These dynamics, driven by unequal power relations and social norms, significantly affect women’s roles in agriculture and hamper their resilience to climate-related risks. GBV undermines agricultural resilience by limiting women’s mobility, market access, and decision-making autonomy.
Examples from PARM’s work highlight how GBV exacerbates agricultural risks and impedes efforts to reduce poverty. In Madagascar, for instance, PARM’s Risk Assessment Study (RAS) found that the high prevalence of GBV, namely domestic violence, affecting women in rural areas prevent them from developing further their agricultural activity. According to persisting gender norms, men perceive women’s economic independence as a threat and use domestic violence as a response to counter it. In Tunisia, while women represent up to 80% of the workforce in the olive value chain, they are much less paid than men for the same work, and are even exploited. This represents a gender-based economic violence, since they are deprived from resources they should access because of their female gender. Economic violence against women, in addition to other forms of GBV that affect one in two women in Tunisia, is a major constraint to the uplifting of the potential of women and of the whole olive sector that would benefit from gender equality.
What is the way forward to addressing GBV in ARM? Read the full publication to find out more.
By Johana Sophie Maria Simao, Senior Gender Expert, PARM
