Agricultural collectives are one of the most important platforms across the globe for small-scale farmers and their households and communities to democratically organize around common goals for prosperity and well-being. To support CARE’s commitment to fulfilling the rights to food, water and nutrition security for women and youth small-scale producers and their families, CARE and partners implement programmes that support competitiveness, gender transformative change, and social solidarity of farmers by establishing and strengthening business-oriented farmer collectives, often with the integration of approaches for gender justice. Drawing on programmatic learnings, in addition to the lived experiences of members throughout the world, CARE believes that collectives play a significant role in building social cohesion and strengthening individual and collective agency; advancing access to and control over resources; changing harmful and discriminatory gender norms; engaging governance structures to change laws; advocating for policy and practices that uphold women’s economic, social and political rights; and, driving socioeconomic development by providing structures for actors to collectively advance their common interests.
In 2022, more than 735 million people in the world were hungry. That’s 1 in 11 people worldwide. Relative improvements after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic are masking rapidly growing inequality. There are 84.2 million more women and girls than men and boys facing food insecurity. The gender food gap grew in many regions, including most of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East North America, and Europe. CARE’s analysis of data across 113 countries suggests that improving GDP is not enough. The most recent data shows that in situations with high inequality, economic growth can lead to higher food insecurity, especially since COVID-19. In 57 countries, GDP is growing AND food insecurity is rising. As gender and income inequality rise, so does hunger. Read More
This report examines local knowledge integration in the context of global development and humanitarian aid work. It builds upon a recently published report by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) called Integrating Local Knowledge in Development Programming. That report sought to “share knowledge of how development donors and implementing organizations leverage local knowledge to inform programming. This study aims to extend the original methods to better understand grassroots actors’ own interpretations of local knowledge and its integration into programming in their communities. It examines the perspectives of 29 grassroots leaders from women-led organizations around the world, looking deeply at the ways in which they conceptualize local knowledge and local knowledge stakeholders, their approaches to designing their own projects based on local knowledge, and their experiences sharing knowledge with international actors and donors. This builds the broader evidence base on integrating local knowledge to incorporate the perspectives of grassroots actors into the same conversation as the original study. Read More
Women and girls are agents of change in global climate mitigation and adaptation. This capacity statement outlines how CARE centers gender equality in our climate change programming. Read More