Indigenous Peoples’ food systems are inextricably connected to land, which in turn is interwoven with issues of self‐determination, livelihoods, health, cultural and spiritual heritage, and gender. While mounting evidence shows that food security and nutrition are negatively affected by water insecurity, experiential water security measures have not yet been used to explore relationships with other outcomes of public health interest.

This paper identifies the challenges, aspirations, and entry points for greater participation and empowerment of youth and women in the fast-growing aquaculture value chain in Ghana. Data was collected from three survey rounds of 400 fish farmers; 32 key informants’ interviews; and 5 FGDs with female-only, femaleyouth-only, and male-youth-only groups. Four study highlights are as follows. First, the study shows that respondents all indicated they wanted to continue or start aquaculture and expand to other stages of the value chain (hatchery, feed formulation, processing).

IFPRI is participating in the 2023 annual CGIAR Gender Research Conference. This conference is co-hosted by the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and will take place in New Delhi, India, on October 9-12, 2023.

The present study attempts to understand the farmers’ gender-differentiated perception of climate risk and its impact, access to climate information, and adaptation strategies in Senegal’s dry regions. Study uses data collected from 514 households through primary survey between May and June 2022 covering Kaffrine, Louga and Thies subregions and multiple communes, including 5% women-headed households and 12% women respondents.

The Global Initiative for Gender-transformative Approaches promotes and strengthens women’s land rights through the integration of gender-transformative approaches in International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) rural development interventions by sharing learning to improve policies, tools and practices across projects across six countries.

The Integrated Watershed Development Programme (IWDP) is key for rejuvenation and improvement of waterscarce landscapes in India. Despite policy guidelines, there has been limited success in ensuring community participation and inclusion in IWDPs, especially for women and people from vulnerable social groups. This study attempted to explore the politics of inclusion and exclusion because local hierarchies of caste and gender inhibit decision-making, access to services, participation and benefits from IWDPs.

The gender gap in agriculture is a global pattern in which women in agriculture have limited access to land, productive resources, financial capital, information, technology and advisory services when compared to male farmers. Given that women comprise a significant portion of the agricultural workforce, it is crucial to ensure climate-smart agriculture (CSA) policies and interventions are gender responsive. Embracing a gender-responsive approach in CSA entails addressing the distinct gender needs, roles and lived realities of farmers.

The benefits derived from the expansion of trees outside forests (TOF) can vary greatly for women, men and other socially diverse groups due to their distinct roles, responsibilities, and access to resources like land and trees. Therefore, it is essential to ensure the meaningful participation of both women and men from diverse social and economic backgrounds in these initiatives. Additionally, interventions should be tailored to address their specific needs and interests to achieve an equitable distribution of benefits.

Aquatic food systems make significant contributions to sustainable development through generating employment; providing community and household food and nutrition security; and strengthening family well-being, socioeconomic growth, poverty alleviation, climate resilience and environmental sustainability. SDG 5 makes an explicit commitment to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” in their own right. Yet gender inequalities and barriers remain prevalent in rural areas of lowincome countries, including where there is a high reliance on aquatic food systems.

Sustainable mechanization can help reduce women smallholder farmers’ time and labor burden while increasing farm productivity and building resilience. However, the reality is that most agricultural innovations and technologies do not cater to women’s needs or preferences and are primarily designed for middle-income male farmers. While the adoption of mechanization in Bangladesh is rapidly increasing, women smallholder farmers face sociocultural constraints that can make operating machines difficult.

Persistent gender and social inequities undermine agri-food systems’ potential to contribute to inclusive and sustainable development. Systems thinking recognizes the interconnectedness and complexity of agri-food systems, emphasizing the need to consider various interrelated components and their dynamic interactions and highlights the need for integrated and transformative strategies that target multiple levels of the agri-food systems, from local to global.