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CGIAR Gender Conference 2025 highlights need for women’s leadership in food systems

The CGIAR Gender Conference 2025 took place in Cape Town from 7 to 9 October at the Century City Conference Centre, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and development practitioners to discuss equality and inclusion across food, land, and water systems.
Source: Supplied | Dr Nicoline de Haan, Director of CGIAR Gender Equality and Inclusion, opens the Gender Conference 2025
Source: Supplied | Dr Nicoline de Haan, Director of CGIAR Gender Equality and Inclusion, opens the Gender Conference 2025

Over three days, delegates explored structural barriers limiting women’s and youth participation in agriculture and natural resource management, emphasising the need for policies that empower leadership from the ground up.

Dr Nicoline de Haan, director of CGIAR Gender Equality and Inclusion, opened the conference with a call to move from insight to implementation. "Gender is never a one-size-fits-all issue, but deeply shaped by local, cultural, and contextual realities," she said. "The challenge lies in translating evidence into meaningful action that transforms lives on the ground."

Barriers and opportunities

Speakers highlighted persistent challenges, including limited access to finance and resources. Advocate Mikateko Joyce Maluleke, director-general of South Africa’s Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, noted: "Many communities still lack access to land and water – critical building blocks for inclusive growth.

"Bridging the education gap and challenging restrictive cultural norms must go hand in hand with improving access to resources and finance."

The conference reinforced that achieving food security, nutrition, and climate resilience is impossible without the empowerment of women. Participants stressed that women and youth must be included in decision-making from the inception of policies and programmes, rather than added retrospectively.

Source: Supplied | Delegates at the Gender Conference 2025
Source: Supplied | Delegates at the Gender Conference 2025

Leading by example

Inga Jacobs-Mata, strategic programme director at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), shared how IWMI is rethinking internal structures to model inclusion. “We have made it mandatory for youth-led organisations to co-lead programmes," she said. "This shift has transformed decision-making and deepened community engagement."

Private-sector representatives echoed the sentiment, noting that inclusion requires both knowledge and opportunity. Empowerment, they said, is about capacity and agency, not just presence.

Looking ahead

Delegates also discussed the upcoming International Year of the Woman Farmer in 2026 as both a celebration and a call to action. "It is an opportunity to break barriers, shift power, and embed women’s leadership at the heart of agricultural transformation," organisers noted.

Government representatives stressed that global commitments, such as those made at COP30, must translate into local action. Strengthening governance mechanisms to ensure national plans reach women and communities on the ground is critical to the success of gender equality efforts.

Voices from the ground

A roundtable with media showcased young African farmers’ experiences navigating agritech, market inclusion, and sustainable farming. Devroll Lekgodi, an award-winning farmer based in South Africa, emphasised the sector’s potential: "By showcasing the agricultural value chain and opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship, agriculture can become a far more attractive and viable career path for young people."

As the world approaches the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the conference reinforced that transforming food systems requires both innovation and inclusion.

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