Connecting Public Policies for Family Farmers and Women’s Empowerment: The Case of the Brazilian Semi-Arid

Abstract

The role played by women in worldwide food production and food security has reinvigorated debates about the recognition of women’s rights in the rural sector regarding better working conditions and the reduction of gender inequalities. In the 1980s, the social movement in Brazil restructured the politics in the agrarian sector by integrating farmers’ rights and women’s demands. Against this background, the objective of this study is to analyze, through the actors’ perspectives, whether and how the combination of public policies for family farmers affected the socio-economic and political empowerment of women. Our case study covers family farmers from traditional communities located in the Brazilian semi-arid. The results show that women achieved economic stability by participating in public food procurement programmes. In addition, access to cisterns released women from the daily work of collecting water. Women became more involved with political issues, increasing participation in institutions such as NGOs, associations and cooperatives. Among the negative aspects, the study found that the sexual division of labor increased within the household context, and, despite being fundamental for ensuring household food security, women still struggle to have access to the means of production.

Contribuições do estado da arte sobre as políticas públicas para a agricultura familiar após a agenda 2030 das Nações Unidas

“…A análise sobre como a combinação de políticas públicas para a agricultura familiar, especificamente em comunidades tradicionais no semiárido brasileiro, afetou o empoderamento feminino nos aspectos social e político, concluiu pelo aumento da estabilidade econômica das mulheres nos programas governamentais de aquisição de alimentos e da participação em questões políticas em instituições (ONGs, associações e cooperativas), porém, indicou a divisão sexual do trabalho no contexto familiar como aspecto negativo e que permanece a luta das mulheres por acesso a meios de produção (Brandão et al, 2020b).…”

Empowerment of Farmer Institutions in Improving Farmer’s Bargaining Position

“…Empowerment can provide confidence in building local capacity, where the government is the provider and smallholders are the beneficiaries of external interventions [27]. Sustainable rural development in empowerment needs to strengthen the institutional role of farmers because public policies can influence social dynamics on social, political, and economic status to reduce food insecurity, poverty, and injustice [28]. Good institutional management of rubber marketing groups as a form of empowerment can increase the prosperity of members [21], [29].…”

Improving women's energy access, rights and equitable sustainable development: a Ghanaian perspective

“…Women play a major role in Africa's food production sector, comprising two-thirds of the agricultural labor force (Lambrecht, 2016). In their role as food producers, women face discrimination affecting not only their well-being but also imposing high costs on the economy through poverty and deprivation (Adubra et al, 2019;Brandão et al, 2020;McKay et al, 2020) Available statistics from many authors (Gartaula et al, 2017;Diiro et al, 2018;Mahajan, 2019) indicate that should women have access to same productive resources as men, their farms could increase yields from between 20 and 30%. This represents a potential agricultural output increase in developing countries of between 2.5 and 4%, in turn, reducing world hunger by 12-17%.…”