Women are more food insecure than men globally and in every region. This paper investigates the global gender gap in food insecurity and its evolution following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the food insecurity experience scale (FIES) data collected from over 700,000 individuals across 121 countries, our empirical analysis showed that individuals aged 25– 34, regardless of gender, and women in rural areas had been disproportionally affected by the pandemic.

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.

This paper provides new evidence on the relationship between intrahousehold dynamics, agricultural productivity, and dietary diversity using a nationally representative panel household dataset in Malawi (two waves: 2019 and 2021, with 5,067 female and male respondents per wave). We used the Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI) indicators, complemented by intrahousehold dynamics in access to extension services and technology awareness and adoption. Panel data were analyzed using household fixed effect models.

This report provides a comprehensive statistical overview of agricultural household data collected by IFPRI from a smallholder commercialization survey in late 2022. Sampled to be representative to the provincial level, ten households were surveyed in 202 villages for a total of 2,020 households interviewed. The survey covers a wide range of topics including household demographics, agricultural farm holdings, input use, crop choice, levels of commercialization and other non-farm sources of income.

Through participatory vegetable and seed system development, ethnic minority farmers in target sites were organized in value chain groups to jointly produce and market various vegetable seeds/seedlings and vegetables. With the support of project partner and local partners, the groups’ capacity to identify market opportunities and engage with value
chain actors improved, whereby production increased by 5-7 times, from 70 to 400 tons after two years. Group and individual incomes also increased, and one group proceeded to register as a cooperative.

Citizen's juries (CJs) are a form of deliberative democracy that can help promote public participation in decision-making processes. CJs are typically described as a randomly selected group of people, which are gathered to represent a microcosm of their respective communities. Typically, over the course of one to six full days (depending on the scope and complexity of the issue at hand), the jurors meet to learn and discuss public policy issues. Led by a neutral moderator, these proceedings are informed by invited experts on the policy issue at hand.

The Orinoquia region in Colombia is home to diverse ecosystems, including forests and various agroecological zones, but extensive cattle ranching poses a significant challenge as it contributes to deforestation and threatens the region's valuable forest resources. To address this issue, there is a growing interest in promoting low-carbon land use and practices that increase adaptation and resilience to climate change. Climate-smart cattle farming (CSCF) integrates adaptation, resilience, and mitigation strategies to ensure sustainable and profitable productivity.

Rural Nigeria, with its diverse cultural and socio economic landscapes, presents unique challenges when it comes to digital inclusion. Traditional gender roles, limited educational opportunities, inadequate infrastructure, and sociocultural norms often combine to create barriers that disproportionately affect women’s access to digital technologies.

To ensure an equitable digital transformation, deliberate efforts are needed to promote the inclusivity of emerging digital innovations. This short communication outlines challenges and opportunities for considering inclusivity in the design and deployment of digital food system innovations. Drawing on literature and the authors’ experiences within CGIAR, we highlight shortcomings in the digital inclusion discourse. We propose an agenda for enabling researchers and other innovation stakeholders, including donors, to contribute to more inclusive digital innovation.

Many questions and debates are being undertaken in the literature about the “context-specific transition pathways of agroecological transformations and their related conceptual, political, institutional, social, and other challenges and opportunities. Pilot projects for Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) are key areas where these questions and related assumptions can be tested, piloted, and reported for better lessons and future conceptualization.