Gender in Food, Land and Water Systems Conference 2025

The year 2025 marked the beginning of the final five years of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs. Achieving SDG 5—gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls—seems out of reach by 2030. Yet, greater gender equality and inclusion are essential for attaining all other SDGs. 

The poly-crises of COVID-19, climate change, conflict, and food crises have not only halted but, in many cases, reversed progress toward gender equality. In agri-food systems, unequal gender and social relations undermine responses to these crises and hinder the resilience of rural communities and landscapes. A 2023 estimate suggests that an extra $360 billion per year is needed to achieve gender equality and empower women by 2030. 

The international conference  "Accelerating Equality in Food, Land, and Water Systems: Driving solutions through Evidence and Learning" followed the tradition of the biennial CGIAR GENDER conferences. It brought together researchers from various organizations (academia, NARES, NGOs, and CSOs) and knowledge users (policymakers, practitioners, private sector actors, local and indigenous communities and others) who work toward creating innovations and generating evidence to transform food systems.

Discussions focused on refreshing, innovating, and accelerating progress in gender equality and social inclusion within food, land, and water systems, crucial for a sustainable, climate-resilient world free from hunger and malnutrition. Furthermore, we aimed to ‘raise awareness of and direct policy attention to the barriers and challenges that women farmers face across agrifood systems, as well as the initiatives, policies and actions that can and are being taken to address these issues and achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women in agriculture (UNGA A/RES/78/279)’ in anticipation of the International Year of the Woman Farmer, 2026. 

The conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa and was co-organized by the CGIAR Gender Equality and Inclusion and partners.

CGIAR has a strong in-country presence through centers like the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) regional office in Pretoria, South Africa. Since its establishment, IWMI has brought together international and local specialists to address regional and national challenges in integrated water, land, and food management within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).  IWMI was therefore well poised as the CGIAR local hosting institution for the conference.