Empowering women farmers for food security and nutrition: working together to advance inclusive and sustainable food systems
The Micronutrient Forum’s 7th Global Conference (MNF 2026) convenes the global nutrition community at a pivotal moment for action. In response to today’s interconnected challenges, the program will examine evidence, policy, and innovation across nutrition, food systems, climate, and development.
This commentary observes that achieving the EAT-Lancet report's recommended transition to the Planetary Health Diet (PHD) requires social, economic and production transformations which risk exacerbating gender inequalities throughout food systems unless strategies to create a just transition for women and girls are similarly bold and transformative. It sets out how women are disadvantaged across food systems and notes that recent shocks and anti-rights backlash have reversed progress, leaving a persistent gender gap in food insecurity.
Reading time: 7 minutes.
This paper synthesizes country-level decomposition evidence on the gender gap in agricultural productivity across Sub-Saharan Africa, identifying its major drivers and reviewing what works to close it. Gender productivity gaps range between 7 percent and 77 percent across twelve African countries, with male-managed plots yielding higher outputs than those managed by women.
Agroforestry is one of Africa’s most promising pathways towards sustainable agri-food systems. This systematic review gathers and synthesizes knowledge from 66 sources (including 17 review studies) on the socio-economic effects of agroforestry in Africa across a range of dimensions: livelihoods, income, food security, nutrition, gender equality and social cohesion.
IFPRI’s Outlook for Agricultural systems outlines global long-term projections to 2050, evaluating how yield advances, demand shifts, and environmental pressures impact global food security. The report models "middle-of-the-road" projections to 2050 across seven regions and seven commodity groups, stressing these are not fixed forecasts but pathways shaped by today's policy and investment choices. The core message conveyed is that substantial progress is likely, but outcomes diverge widely by region and by crop/commodity, with major hunger, nutrition, and sustainability challenges persisting.
El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a natural climate cycle that shifts weather patterns globally, increasing the risks of floods, droughts, storms, heat waves, and wildfires. The effects of each El Niño event vary depending on the intensity, temporal development and duration, and also how it interacts with other climate variability modes (such as the Indian Ocean Dipole). Historically El Niño events have affected temperature and rainfall patterns in different regions and typically have a warming effect on the global climate – the most pronounced impacts are in the year following development (WMO).
The present note gathers a range of issues identified by the HLPE-FSN Steering Committee, considering the three previous notes as well as the activities already conducted by CFS. Several rounds of discussions were conducted by two successive Steering Committees and submitted for public consultation in April 2026 for inputs and feedback.
Published annually by five United Nations agencies, the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) is the reference report for monitoring progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2, tracking chronic food insecurity and malnutrition in all countries on a globally comparable basis.
Now in its 20th year, the Forum has catalysed billions in agricultural investment, shaped continental food policy through the Malabo Declaration, and built an unrivalled network of stakeholders committed to advancing Africa's food systems.
Opinion: We need to move beyond asking whether food systems produce enough food and start asking whether they produce enough nutritious food, according to six experts.
Soils are a unique resource providing a wide range of services for ecosystem functioning and human well-being. Despite more than a hundred years of soil science history, we still do not fully understand the dynamics and status of the world's soils, and efforts to protect, conserve and sustainably manage this valuable resource have always been limited by knowledge.
The Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2026 shows an unprecedented contraction in humanitarian funding, resulting in millions of people in crisis without assistance and backsliding on promised reforms.
Published annually by five United Nations agencies, the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) is the reference report for monitoring progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2, tracking chronic food insecurity and malnutrition in all countries on a globally comparable basis.
This library synthesizes a large amount of scientific evidence to assess the effects of farming practices on sustainability outcomes, mainly regarding the environment, the climate, and agricultural productivity.
Reading time: 7 minutes.
This meta-analysis evaluates the multi-dimensional impacts of agroecological transitions on farm economic performance across the Global South, covering Sub-Saharan Africa, South/Southeast Asia, Latin America and Australia.
The Suite of Gender Indicators presents a set of indicators relevant to agrifood systemswith the aim of highlighting gender differences across agrifood systems. It was launched in 2026 at the occasion of the International Year of the Woman Farmer.
This study assesses the integration of gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in food systems transformation commitments in five Eastern African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
