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Meeting our goals: FAO’s programme for gender equality in agriculture and rural development

FAO recognizes the potential of rural women and men in achieving food security and nutrition and is committed to overcoming gender inequality, in line with the pledge to “leave no one behind”, which is at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda. The publication illustrates the consistent and sustained work of FAO towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, which are at the core of the Organization’s work to eliminate hunger and rural poverty. Each chapter highlights the relevance of gender work to achieving the FAO Strategic Objectives, and describes main results achieved, showcasing activities implemented at country and international levels. Stories from the field demonstrate the impact of FAO’s work for beneficiaries, highlighting successes and significant insights gained.

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Gender and desertification: expanding roles for women to restore dryland areas

This review examines the impact of desertification on women, their role in the management of natural resources and drylands, and the constraints they face. It presents the experiences of several IFAD-supported programmes and projects in addressing women as natural resource users and managers in dryland areas, and highlights some of the approaches used to reach women more effectively. It also presents lessons learned from IFAD programmes and projects, and recommendations for expanding women’s roles in order to restore dryland areas.

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Promoting the leadership of women in producers’ organizations

This paper explores aspects of promoting rural women’s leadership in producers’ organizations (POs). Despite the vast amount of work that women perform in the agriculture sector, their role remains largely unrecognised. The concerns and issues of women farmers are scarcely heard at the local, national and global levels. One reason for this silence is that there are not enough women in leadership positions to be able to represent the interests of rural women. This shortage is compounded by women’s lack of voice in decision making processes at all levels − from households to rural organizations − and in policymaking. Ensuring that women have a greater voice is not only a matter of gender equality. Women’s leadership, especially in POs, is essential for increasing the production of smallholder agriculture, as women make massive contributions to the sector. Women leaders can advocate for women’s better access to and control over assets and productive inputs, thus boosting their productivity and incomes, leading to food security and increasing their employment opportunities and real wages. This paper has three main purposes: (i) to identify relevant aspects that relate to the promotion of rural women’s leadership within POs; (ii) to identify related good practices that are implemented by IFAD, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and their partners; and (iii) to present key messages and recommendations for guiding the design and implementation of interventions in support of women’s leadership.

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Changing lives through IFAD water investments: a gender perspective

This study was designed by IFAD in order to contribute to the knowledge about the relationship between gender, water investment and time saving. It is also intended to contribute to gender mainstreaming in IFAD’s water projects. The focus of the study is to see how much time women and men gain when they have improved access to sources of water and to establish what individuals, particularly women, do with the time they save by not having to walk long distances in search of water. The study further aims to discover to what extent the projects/investments contribute to reducing drudgery and to achieving equitable workloads between men and women. The survey targeted ongoing projects from the five regions in which IFAD operates that were either in their second phase or a mature stage of operation. In each project, one community was covered and 24 households were targeted. The survey successfully covered seven communities and 140 households and was mainly conducted through project officers facilitated by country programme managers or country programme officers.

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Rural-urban linkages and food systems in sub-Saharan Africa

Given the context of transitions related to rapid urbanization, the roles that rural economies and societies will have to play (particularly smallholder farmers and other rural producers) in creating sustainable and inclusive food systems, in generating employment and incomes and in contributing to more balanced, equitable and mutually reinforcing patterns of rural-urban development in Africa require the attention of analysts, policymakers and development programmes in the years ahead. Addressing challenges related to a bulging population of young people will be particularly important in any work on the rural-urban nexus, in which youth migration plays critical roles. This is borne out by an analysis of evidence from sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, which stresses the importance of increasing productivity and incomes among rural people, particularly smallholders, during processes of economic and social transformation. Emerging trends and opportunities – such as the increasing demand for food and the changing nature of that demand as consumer preferences evolve, urbanization, demographic patterns that mean young people are an increasingly important proportion of the overall population, and more integrated food value chains – all point to the importance of ensuring key rural dynamics are taken into account in developing rural-urban linkages. Taking account of these dynamics will mean addressing key rural-urban inequalities and connectivity gaps, developing more integrated and inclusive links within food systems and agricultural value chains, testing spatial and territorial approaches to development that provide valuable tools to integrate the rural dimension into debates surrounding urbanization, the promotion of a more sustainable urbanization, and building decent employment in food value chains. Nonetheless, the review of evidence in this paper suggests that, while urbanization potentially opens up opportunities for inclusive rural and structural transformation, this can only be achieved when suitable policies and investments are put in place to adequately address the particular needs of often-neglected rural people who play critical roles in food systems.

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Rural Development Report 2016: fostering inclusive rural transformation

The 2016 Rural Development Report focuses on inclusive rural transformation as a central element of the global efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger, and build inclusive and sustainable societies for all. It analyses global, regional and national pathways of rural transformation, and suggests four categories into which most countries and regions fall, each with distinct objectives for rural development strategies to promote inclusive rural transformation: to adapt, to amplify, to accelerate, and a combination of them. The report presents policy and programme implications in various regions and thematic areas of intervention, based on both rigorous analysis and IFAD’s 40 years of experience investing in rural people and enabling inclusive and sustainable transformation of rural areas.

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Agricultural and rural development reconsidered

This paper is a guide to current debates about agricultural development. It analyses the changes in development approaches and thinking in recent decades and explores today's critical issues in agricultural and rural development policy. With the main focus on Africa, the paper also includes insights from Asia and Latin America.

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Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2016. Education for people and planet: creating sustainable futures for all

The Incheon Declaration for Education 2030 has been instrumental to shape the Sustainable Development Goal on Education to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. It entrusts UNESCO with the leadership, coordination and monitoring of the Education 2030 agenda. It also calls upon the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report to provide independent monitoring and reporting of the Sustainable Development Goal on education (SDG 4), and on education in the other SDGs, for the next fifteen years. The ultimate goal of this agenda is to leave no one behind. This calls for robust data and sound monitoring. The 2016 edition of the GEM Report provides valuable insight for governments and policy makers to monitor and accelerate progress towards SDG 4, building on the indicators and targets we have, with equity and inclusion as measures of overall success.

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Empowering young women and adolescent girls: fast-tracking the end of the AIDS epidemic in Africa

Fast-tracking the end of the AIDS epidemic by 2030 requires strong political leadership and commitment to stop new infections and deaths among young women and adolescent girls and eliminate mother to child transmission of HIV. This requires building on, and extending Africa’s commitments on sexual and reproductive health and rights, expanding ministerial commitments on comprehensive sexuality education and stopping early marriage, adolescent pregnancy and expanding treatment service coverage.

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Communities deliver: the critical role of communities in reaching global targets to end the AIDS epidemic

This report draws on multiple sources to document the many ways in which communities are advancing the response to AIDS, and the evidence for the effectiveness of these responses. Core areas of community-based activities include advocacy, service provision, community-based research and financing; each of these areas is illustrated by examples of community-based actions.

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UNAIDS 2016–2021 strategy: on the fast-track to end AIDS

The 2016–2021 Strategic Leadership Agenda is deliberately organized within the SDG framework around five SDGs most relevant to the AIDS response. Fast-Tracking the response will require development efforts to ensure good health, reduce inequalities, achieve gender equality, promote just and inclusive societies and revitalize global partnerships. Other SDGs are, however, pertinent to the AIDS response. Ten critical targets have been set—measurable targets that have been modelled as those most critical to ensure that the ambitious Fast-Track goals will be met. The targets, however, do not represent the totality of concerted effort needed across the result areas. The result areas constitute core dynamic and cross-cutting programmes of work, which will contribute to the achievement of all the targets. Achieving a set of prioritized targets and results will translate into better social, educational and economic outcomes and into health, human rights and dignity for millions of people—a continuation of the role of the AIDS response as a pathfinder for social justice and sustainable development

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HIV, HPV and cervical cancer: leveraging synergies to save women’s lives

This report presents recent scientific evidence about the links between HIV, HPV and cervical cancer, and it supplies relevant epidemiological, screening, vaccination and innovation data. Ultimately, its goal is to (a) promote synergies between HIV and cervical cancer prevention programmes, (b) make the case for integrating cervical cancer prevention into existing HIV treatment and prevention programmes, (c) explain the opportunities for women’s health that exist in coordinating HIV and cervical cancer prevention, and (d) advance prevention and treatment literacy among affected populations.

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The changing nature of poverty and inequality in the Caribbean: new issues, new solutions

This publication is intended to: (a) provide fresh thinking on the transformative shifts in policies, approaches, strategies and institutions that are required to speed up poverty reduction in the Caribbean and also to expand opportunities for the most vulnerable groups in the society; (b) propose a new framework for assessing the effectiveness of existing approaches to poverty reduction in the Caribbean; and (c) offer new and innovative solutions to address poverty and promote shared prosperity.

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How inclusive is inclusive business for women? Examples from Asia and Latin America

Inclusive businesses are commercially viable business models that provide in-scale innovative and systemic solutions to problems relevant to the lives of low-income people. Inclusive business companies often involve women in their value chain and provide specific services that help low-income women. This report assesses the extent to which inclusive business models promote women's economic empowerment. Examples come from the inclusive business portfolios of the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation.

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Bangladesh: looking beyond garments - employment diagnostic study

Economic growth in Bangladesh, above 6% in most years since the 2000s, has been on the fast track since the 1990s. Not many developing countries, especially the least developed, have been able to achieve this consistently for such a long period. Yet despite the jobs generated in the export-oriented ready-made garment industry, the fruits of growth have not been widely shared. This joint study by the Asian Development Bank and the International Labour Organization examines the nature and magnitude of the employment challenge Bangladesh faces, looking at the nature of productive employment and its role in transmitting the benefits of growth into incomes for the poor. It indicates that the positive economic turnaround in Bangladesh is largely due to the rising presence of women in the workplace.

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Mainstreaming gender into climate mitigation activities

Actively engaging women in climate mitigation activities can yield multiple benefits, including improved jobs, better livelihoods, and more equitable revenue flows. Efforts are moving forward to design climate funding mechanisms to help capture these benefits, but policy makers and other stakeholders need more guidance on designing gender-responsive climate policies and funding proposals. The guidelines in this publication fill this void. It is hoped that these guidelines would equip policy makers with pragmatic advice on how to mainstream gender into climate change mitigation actions and funding proposals. This publication reflects on applications for the guidelines as well as relationships between climate planning and funding proposal.

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The development economics of landlockedness

The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of landlockedness on the development prospects of Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs). In particular the study assesses the impact of landlockedness on the overall development performance of LLDCs on a large number of economic, institutional, and social indicators; empirically estimates the development cost of being landlocked using an econometric approach; and based on the findings, proposes recommendations that can provide a more holistic strategy to the development of LLDCs. The distinctive feature of the econometric approach used is that it does not limit landlockedness to affect income (or economic growth) through its effect on trade. The logic underlying the modelling approach is that landlockedness can affect both economic and non-economic dimensions of development and that these development effects can be transmitted through several channels that include international trade and quality of institutions.

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State of the Least Developed Countries 2016

The current report builds on the first and second editions, which considered the issues of productive capacity building as well as extreme poverty eradication in the least developed countries (LDCs) and the post-2015 development agenda. These reports provided analysis relating to the inclusion of LDC issues in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. This year’s report is dedicated to the implementation of the SDGs in LDCs using synergies with the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA). Part 1 of the report assesses progress towards achieving the goals and targets of the IPoA, particularly in the eight priority areas; reviews efforts towards this end; and identifies challenges ahead. The report argues that enhanced, coordinated and targeted support to the LDCs fulfilling ODA commitments but also going beyond, will remain critical to effectively implementing the IPoA. Part 2 of the report assesses the complementarities of the IPoA and the 2030 Agenda. It maps the goals, targets and actions of the IPoA with the SDGs, focusing on means of implementation. Furthermore it looks at how the implementation of the SDGs in LDCs can be fostered, including its mainstreaming and monitoring and followup. The conclusions and policy recommendations cover the findings in both parts of the report. As the report finds significant synergies between the IPoA and the Agenda 2030 it highlights the importance of leadership and political will and effective global partnership.

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Supporting vulnerable countries on their path to poverty eradication and prosperity

From the General Assembly in 1971 that established the LDC status, to the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, this brochure will highlight the evolution of the different international mandates supporting the UN’s most vulnerable countries, and UNIDO’s intervention within them, taking into account previous achievements and unmet challenges. The brochure concludes with a discussion of the future path for these countries, emphasizing issues that development strategies must address in order to reach their goal of poverty eradication and increased prosperity. Effort is being made to highlight selected UNIDO interventions, however the mentions in this brochure are non-exhaustive.

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Guide on gender mainstreaming: agribusiness development projects

By systematically mainstreaming gender into its interventions, UNIDO’s Agribusiness Development Branch (AGR) can ensure equal opportunities for women and men, thus furthering UNIDO’s Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID) agenda and contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the post-2015 development framework. This guide showcases UNIDO’s work in the area of Agribusiness development and gender mainstreaming. The Guide is divided into six chapters and is meant to be read in its entirety. The first two chapters cover a general background of gender concepts and the gender dimensions of agribusiness development projects, while the remaining chapters provide a step-by step road map of gender mainstreaming in the different stages of the project cycle. Given the wide scope and diversity of the AGR portfolio, the relevance and application of this guide may vary. Therefore, the guide must be considered in view of each individual project’s specificities and applied where appropriate.

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Pro-poor value chain development

The aim of this practioner's guide is to assist programme designers and project managers working for governments, development agencies and the private sector alike, in designing and implementing projects for the development of agricultural and agro-industrial value chains. It addresses two challenges in particular: a. Making transformation and value addition processes integral to value chain development, in addition to primary agricultural production and marketing; and b. Overcoming difficulties of designing value chain development initiatives that focus on social benefits, especially poverty reduction and gender equity.

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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: achieving the industry-related goals and targets

UNIDO’s vision to address today’s economic, social and environmental challenges is enshrined in the Lima Declaration, which was adopted by UNIDO Member States in December 2013. On this basis, the Organization pursues Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID) to harness industry’s full potential to contribute to lasting prosperity for all. The mandate is based on the recognition by Member States that poverty eradication “can only be achieved through strong, inclusive, sustainable and resilient economic and industrial growth, and the effective integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.” The present document summarizes the contribution of UNIDO’s mandate as well as current and planned future activities vis-à-vis the SDGs, with a special focus on SDG-9, which highlights and affirms the critical importance of ISID and its contribution to all 17 goals.

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Men in families and family policy in a changing world

The perceptions of the role of women and men in families have changed over the past few decades. Men are no longer perceived as the economic providers to families. The role of men in the family has undergone many “diverse demographic, socio-economic and cultural transformations” impacting the formation, stability and overall well-being of families. In light of this development, DESA’s Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD) launched this publication, focusing on the shifting roles and views of men in families.

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World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) 2016: Climate Change Resilience

Evidence is increasing that climate change is taking the largest toll on poor and vulnerable people, and these impacts are largely caused by inequalities that increase the risks from climate hazards. This survey found that governments can play a significant role in reducing the risks of climate change to vulnerable populations. Through transformative policies, the report shows that governments could address the root causes of inequalities and build climate change resilience. While there is considerable anecdotal evidence that the poor and the vulnerable suffer greater harm from climate-related disasters, the report determined that much of the harm is not by accident, but that it is due to the failure of governments to close the development gaps that leave large population groups at risk. The report argues that while climate adaptation and resilience are overshadowed by mitigation in climate discussions, they are vital for addressing climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

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Investment by TNCs and gender: preliminary assessment and way forward

Through their activities in foreign direct investment (FDI) -- trade, non-equity modalities and business relationships with local suppliers -- transnational corporations (TNCs) have significant gender-specific impacts in developing countries. This report is a preliminary assessment of this impact. It focuses mainly on gender equality, spanning the wage and employment impact of TNCs, and the related potential for women's empowerment. Based on the analysis presented, the report proposes three key policy recommendations for governments.

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