"www.fao.org/about/meetings/sustainable-food-systems-nutrition-symposium The International Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition was jointly held by FAO and WHO in December 2016 to explore policies and programme options for shaping the food systems in ways that deliver foods for a healthy diet, focusing on concrete country experiences and challenges. This Symposium waas the first large-scale contribution under the UN Decade of Action for Nutrition 2016-2025. This presentation was part of Parallel session 3.3: Empowering women as key drivers of food system change"

2. EMPOWERING WOMEN AS KEY
DRIVERS OF FOOD SYSTEM
CHANGE
Lindiwe Majele Sibanda

3. • Women comprise 43% of the agricultural labour
force in developing countries
• Women account for two-thirds of the world's 600
million poor livestock keepers
• In developing countries, most women’s work is
devoted to agriculture. Women are involved in
every stage of food production.
• Female farmers receive only 5% of all agricultural
extension services worldwide.
The Challenge We Face

4. Household Assets Vulnerability Assessment (HAVA)
Livelihood Capital Assets
Low Moderate High
Vulnerability Vulnerability
Vulnerability
a comprehensive tool
measuring the vulnerability
of households and
communities in relation to
the impact of shocks such as
HIV/AIDS, erratic weather
patterns, and poverty

5. From Agriculture to Food System
ATONU
Interventions
Crop / animal
husbandry
Aflatoxin
control
Storage and
handling
Food
processing
Nutrition
knowledge
Fortification
Biofortification
Women
Empowerment
Soil fertility
Market
Enhancement
Policy
environment
Cooking
Labor saving
technologies
GenderEnvironment
Germplasm

6. Why Women Empowerment
• Is a means by which other important development
outcomes including improvements in child nutritional
status
• Women are primary caretakers in a household, intra-
household dynamics that determine allocation of
resources (including food)
• Gender division of labour also influences the amount
of time women have to care for themselves and
children, and women’s power in decision making in
farming and expenditure influences the ability to
translate economic gains to nutritional improvements
• Lack of women’s empowerment increases maternal
under-nutrition, and limits women’s ability to practice
positive care behaviours, such as attending ante-natal
visits or providing sufficient and nutritious
complementary foods

7. Demystify the Concepts
Gender Equality: absence of discrimination based on gender in
the allocation of resources, benefits and access to services
Gender Equity: means the just and fair distribution of benefits,
rewards and opportunities between women, men, girls and boys
Empowerment: the range of options that create opportunities and
reinforce individual and collective capacities to exercise control
over the life of individuals and offers them more choices
Empowerment of women is linked to having awareness of themselves, of
knowledge, of their skills, their attitude and aptitude to have a voice

8. Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture - Index (WEAI)
• Five domains of empowerment
Domain Indicators
decisions about AGRICULTURAL
production
Input in productive decisions
Autonomy in production
access to and decision making power over
productive RESOURCES
Ownership of assets
Purchase, sale, or transfer of assets
Access to and decisions on credit
control over use of INCOME Control over use of income
LEADERSHIP in the community
Group member
Speaking in public
TIME use
Workload
Leisure

9. Ag-Nutrition Pathways
Food production
for household
consumption
Income-oriented
production for
food, health and
other non-food
items
Empowerment of women as agents
Nutrition-Sensitive
Agricultural
Growth
Reduction in real
food prices
associated with
increased
agricultural
production

10. We are What We Eat From the Day
One of Conception!
Invest in nutrition-sensitive agriculture so that pregnant mothers are well nourished
at the onset of pregnancy - even better if we focus on nourishing every girl child for the
benefit of humankind.
This can only happen if :
1. decision makers and agriculture investors say no to investments that do not deliver nutrition
outcomes;
2. project designers know how to design nutrition sensitive agriculture interventions;
3. intensified communication on healthy diets and behaviour change;
4. policies to boost in availability, affordability and accessibility of nutrient dense foods, including
animal source foods, fruits and vegetables; and
5. women are empowered.”

11. • Focus on how agriculture can deliver
positive nutrition outcomes to
smallholder farm families through the
generation of robust evidence
• Target groups: women of child-
bearing age and children in first
1,000 days of life, high burden of
malnutrition
• Six-year project being
implemented in Ethiopia, Nigeria
and Tanzania for now
1,000 Days
Life cycle
Pre-conception
Conception to birth
0-6 months
6-24 months
Agriculture to Nutrition: ATONU

12. Agriculture to Nutrition (ATONU) – Key Research Questions for mapping nutrition sensitive
interventions (NSI) along the agricultural value chains
Utilisation and consumptionPrimary Production Post harvest and marketing
Inputs: soil, germplasm (seed varieties,
breeds), fertilizer, environmental
implications
What can soil fertility management, fertilizer
use, germplasm (seed variety/ animal breeds),
and agrochemical use, do for nutrition?
Crop Agronomy and Animal husbandry
What can agronomic and husbandry
practices do for nutrition?
What can harvest practices do for nutrition?
Women empowerment - Which entry points along the agricultural value chain have the greatest potential impact for empowering
women of child bearing age and improving children’s nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life (from conception to two years)?
What aspects of women’s empowerment have the greatest impact on nutritional outcomes (e.g. control over crop/animal choice,
decision-making regarding use of income, etc.)
Post-harvest handling, storage,
and processing, packaging and
marketing
How can product handling and
processing (harvesting, processing,
storage, food preparation, etc.)
contribute to nutrition?
How do we ensure that increases
in agricultural income lead to
improved nutritional outcomes?
Quality of food on the plate
Behaviour Change - How can best
practices in nutrition and health,
including behaviour change, be
integrated into agricultural
programmes and projects to
improve the nutrition status of
women and young children?
What are the best delivery
mechanisms for educating farming
households about nutrition?
Cross-Cutting Issues
Programme Design - How can agricultural programmes be designed to improve nutritional outcomes within smallholder farm
families? What are the appropriate indicators and “standards of credible evidence” for measuring the nutritional impact of agricultural
interventions across the value chain?
Capacity development - How can multi-sectoral agriculture-nutrition decision makers, practitioners and policy advocates be most
effectively equipped with knowledge/evidence and their capacity strengthened to support and advocate for the integration of
agriculture and nutrition, and up-scaling of successful programs?
Delivery Mechanism - How can agriculture and health help to effectively reduce hunger and malnutrition among women of child
bearing age and children?

13. ATONU Frameworks and Technical Assistance
ATONU has developed frameworks that may be used to do the
following:
• Assess country readiness for nutrition-sensitive agriculture
• Assess project/program suitability for integrating nutrition-sensitive interventions
• Selection and design of nutrition-sensitive interventions
• Impact evaluation of nutrition-sensitive interventions
ATONU is available to provide technical assistance to existing and
pipeline projects that would like to deliver positive nutrition outcomes.

14. ILRI Chicken Genetic Gains Project
• Ethiopia and Tanzania:
‾ African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG)
• The ACGG Project’s aim is to improve the production and productivity of
chickens by smallholder households by introducing improved and tropically
adapted genotypes in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania
• The ATONU project activities are being embedded within the ACGG Project.

15. II.
Nutrition and
Hygiene Education
III.
Women empowerment
for income decision
making
IV.
Vegetable
production
BCC
• Optimal diets in
(MIYCF) Maternal Infant
and Young Child
Feeding
• Maternal and young
child feeding (MIYCF)
care group model
learning sessions
• Hygiene in food
processing, preparation
and handling
• Community mobilization
and sensitization on
gender
• Men sensitization on child
and maternal nutrition
• Joint financial planning and
budgeting lessons
• Alternative energy and
time saving technologies
• Vegetable
production
• Processing
• Storage
• Utilization
Rigorous evaluation of the nutrition-sensitive interventions
ILRI – ATONU NSIs to Achieve Nutrition Outcomes
I.
Improved
Consumption of
Animal Source
Foods
• Intake of chicken
meat
• Intake of eggs

16. Six Steps to Empower Women in Agriculture to Nutrition:
ATONU
Measure the assets and food needs in communities
Evaluate the food systems cycle from inputs to production, distribution, processing, consumption, and waste
management
1. Food System
Assessment
Undertake health needs assessment to describe prevailing health problems to deduce malnutrition related problems .
2. Health Status
Assessment
Determine who makes decisions about: (1) Agriculture production; (2) access to agriculture resources; (3) use of
income-oriented production for food, health and other non-food items (4) leadership in community; (5) time use
3. Women
Empowerment Status
Healthy diets & diet diversity: the household and individual-level ones (woman and child) are good indicators of diet
quality associated with micronutrient adequacy of the diet
4. ATONU Outcomes
Potential NSIs: (1) Labor saving technologies; (2) Biofortification; (3) Intercropping and rotation; (4) Animal
husbandry; (5) Aflatoxin control; (6) Storage and handling; (7) Food processing, fortification and cooking; (8) Market
Enhancement; (9) Women Empowerment; (10) Nutrition knowledge; (11) Behavior Change Communication; (12)
Policy environment
5. Nutrition-Sensitive
Agriculture Identified,
Designed and Implemented
(1) Coordination mechanisms and partnerships for a food systems wide view; (2) involvement of communities to
identify nutrition problems and develop interventions; (3) knowledge on nutrition quality of traditional and herbal
foods; (4) capacity to design and implement NSIs that deliver evidence for ATONU impact; (5) appropriate tools to
identify opportunities for agriculture interventions for NSIs within the broader context; (6) communities of practice
6. Capacity
Development of all
Actors
Healthy Food Systems & Health People

17. What Will Success Look Like by 2030?
EMPOWERED
WOMEN
Well-nourished women
and children in rural
smallholder farm
families
Policy makers and investors
incorporate nutrition in the
design of agricultural policies
and programmes
Validated evidence
of nutrition-sensitive
interventions
Ag-Nutrition
community of practice
equipped to design
nutrition-sensitive
agriculture projects
Agricultural experts working
with nutrition and health
experts to deliver positive
nutrition outcomes

18. Women’s empowerment is a key
driver of food systems change,
from food production to
consumption. When women are
empowered to make decisions,
children’s education, health and
nutrition improve

19. Take Home Message
When women are empowered to make decisions about
the food system from the dining table to the farm,
children’s education and health improve.