A woman milking her goat

Gender equality is an essential component for sustainable economic development. This year, the International Women’s Day (IWD) sparked a variety of discussions about climate change, livestock and gender in ensuring food security, improved nutrition and generating income at the household, national and international levels.

Empowering rural women, especially in Africa, is vital to enabling poor and vulnerable people to improve their livelihoods, increase their household incomes, overcome poverty and build resilience to impacts of climate change. However, social and economic inequalities between men and women continue to undermine food and nutrition security and thus negatively affect economic and agricultural growth.

In 2015, the world witnessed two critical global agreements – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Climate Agreement. Both agreements emphasize the need to enhance gender equality while developing response measures to address climate change, reduce food insecurity and improve nutrition. Now, most countries…