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LANDac Discussion Starter UN FSS: “Centering Women’s Land Rights for Equitable Food Systems Transformation”

Centering Women’s Land Rights for Equitable Food Systems Transformation: A discussion starter on UN FSS Action Track 1: Safe and nutritious food for all

As part of the Decade of Action, the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 (UN FSS) focuses on ‘bold new actions, solutions and strategies’ to transform food production and consumption and progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is because the success of each SDG relies, to varying degrees, on healthy diets and sustainable and equitable food systems. The COVID-19 crisis shows that transformative change and nutritional resilience are more urgent than ever, especially for the most marginalized. With slow and unequal progress on malnutrition, and with hunger and obesity on the rise, food systems must become nutritious and efficient, but also equitable and inclusive so that no one is left behind.

This discussion starter, written by Michelle McLinden Nuijen, poses that the governance of tenure—or the ways society manages access to, control over, and use of land and natural resources —is a fundamental pillar of any food system. Women’s land rights especially are fundamental to the long-term sustainability of the food system as a whole as well as to reaching progress on all SDGs.

Download the full discussion starter for the UN FSS here.