Gender and Markets Initiative for West and Central Africa

Women have a crucial role in ending hunger: they feed their families and produce and market food. Supporting and empowering them in this role is therefore critical for the achievement of Sustainable Development 2 on Zero Hunger and improved nutrition.

This requires an understanding of the complex social dynamics that govern food systems and the way they interlink with households, communities and markets, through a gender analysis lens.

The Gender and Markets Initiative, launched by the World Food Programme (WFP)’s Regional Bureau for West Africa Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping (VAM) team with support from USAID, aims to strengthen the collection and analysis of gender-informed data on the different roles of women and men in markets in West and Central Africa, their challenges and their empowerment.

It further seeks to strengthen WFP’s – and partners’ – commitment to, accountability for and capacities in integrating gender into market analysis and the design of market-based interventions so that they can have an empowering impact on food insecure individuals and communities in the region.

The initiative’s key results, tools and resources are available, in French and English, to support the design and implementation of gender-equitable market-based approaches to humanitarian interventions, including cash transfers, resilience-building, local procurement and others. These resources also serve as the basis for researchers to further expand the knowledge on gender dynamics in agricultural markets and value chains, to achieve greater food security and human development.

Contact: rbd.vam@vam.org