Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations

A network of field ethics focal points has been created to receive and escalate complaints related to sexual exploitation and abuse. Trainings have been conducted for focal points on ethics procedures and the handling of these complaints, as well as on Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) and FAO's PSEA procedures.

At the field level FAO is working on the prevention and mitigation of GBV through specific programmes and approaches such as the Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools in Uganda and Kenya, the Dimitra Clubs in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Burundi and Senegal, and the Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) approach in South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, and Kenya, among others. The JFFLS and Dimitra Clubs use empowerment approaches to bring men and women together to proactively work on issues they face in their daily lives, including GBV. Today there are approximately 1,500 FAO-Dimitra Clubs in sub-Saharan Africa (Burundi, DRC, Ghana, Niger and Senegal), with over 35,000 direct beneficiaries and 350,000 indirect beneficiaries, two thirds being women.  Programmes implemented as part of the SAFE initiative reduce the risk of exposure to violence that predominantly women and girls face whilst collecting firewood in some of the contexts FAO works.

FAO drafted a fact sheet on agriculture, food security and gender-based violence. This document analyzes the main causes of vulnerability of the rural population and proposes some actions to prevent and reduce gender-based violence, with special attention to the human rights of women and youth.

FAO is participating in the implementation of joint programmes in Guatemala and Morocco, under the One-UN initiative. The multisectorial joint Programme in Morocco aims at protecting women and girls against all forms of violence (economic, physical, verbal, psychological, sexual and trafficking) and addresses the linkages with poverty and vulnerability.

In collaboration with FAO, WFP prepared action sheets for the food security sector of the IASC Guidelines for the prevention of sexual violence.

FAO has prepared a module to be included in the Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) and Farmers Field Schools (FFS) Curriculum in order to include gender based violence prevention. This module is being tested in several FFS in Kenya and Uganda, and focuses on legal empowerment. This approach has been scaled up and is being used in the DRC, Burundi and Rwanda. Women farmers’ field schools have also been put in place with additional modules on GBV, reproductive health, rights and other issues. FAO supported the creation of community listeners clubs in Katanga (DRC), involving women and men of the community, including violence against women as a topic. The local community radios have aired several round tables and sketches on gender based violence. FAO’s Dimitra Project partner works on a programme entitled “Synergies of the women and men communicators against HIV-AIDS and sexual violence against women and girls in rural areas”, collaborating closely with rural community radios to raise awareness of women’s role and help women’s voices be heard in South Kivu. The first ever women’s radio, “Radio Bubusa”, has been created.

A guidance note (“Gender, food security and nutrition in protracted crises”) was developed as part of a series of materials for improving food security and nutrition in protracted crises. Drawing on FAO technical experience, the guidance notes series supports implementation of the Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA), endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in October 2015.

The document build on past experience to provide guidance on how to address gender equality as part of food and nutrition security interventions in situations of protracted crisis. It includes case studies from FAO's interventions in protracted crisis situations.

FAO has been instrumental in the finalization of the Committee on World Food Security’s (CFS) Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (FFA), a global policy guidance instrument endorsed in October 2015. The document explicitly recognizes the role of all stakeholders in “protecting against all forms of gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse, particularly towards refugees and IDPs, to allow safe access to resources to meet food and nutrition needs”, and in “designing and delivering food security and nutrition policies and actions in ways that minimize the risk to recipients and contribute to preventing and ending gender based violence.”

FAO facilitates the preparation of Country Gender Assessments for agriculture and food security, as part of the implementation of its Gender Equality Policy. During 2017 and 2018 several CGAs were finalized with GBV analysis forming a part of the assessment.

FAO encouraged the disaggregation of data by sex and age in the agricultural and rural sectors.