Feed the Future Deputy Coordinator for Development Dina Esposito at the FAO Commit to Grow Equality Event at UNGA 79

September 24, 2024

[Remarks as prepared]

Feed the Future Deputy Coordinator for Development Dina Esposito: Greetings. It is an honor and a pleasure to be here representing the U.S government at this important gathering.

I want to start by congratulating the FAO for leading this very important initiative. We are excited to be one of the early supporters and a core partner of Commit to Grow Equality.

While the U.S. government has long been committed to supporting women to reach their fullest potential across the sector, the 2023 FAO report was a wake up call for us and others that we must do more and we must do better. So last year, coinciding with the report launch, we at USAID announced Generating Resilience and Opportunities for Women (GROW), our commitment to more than double our investments in Fiscal Year 2023 funds to advance gender priorities in our agrifood and water systems and climate adaptation programs — to reach $335 million.

Today, some 17 months later, we are pleased to announce that we have actually exceeded our GROW commitment by $114 million to reach a total of $449 million.

Through this commitment, Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger initiative, is now directing approximately one out of every four Feed the Future dollars in FY 2023 to women in agrifood systems.

These resources are directed to more intentional programming that supports women as leaders and change agents by increasing access to land, finance, information and improved outputs.

Our goal is to enhance women’s productivity, empowerment and resilience across the sector — both on and off the farm.

One of our new commitments under Feed the Future is to achieve gender parity in the value of financing by FY 2030. Our recent program data show women receive only .47 in agricultural financing for every $1 received by men. We are committed to fixing this so that by 2030, for every one dollar of financing accessed by a man through our programs, a woman likewise accesses one dollar. Though there are many constraints to achieving this goal,we are invested in bridging this gap and measuring our progress.

We know that partnerships based on shared priorities and synergetic work can increase our collective reach and impact.

And we are extremely pleased that in the past year we have forged a close partnership with the Republic of Ireland. As we heard today from Ireland, our governments are investing $75 million in Malawi, and together with private sector companies and research partners – such as the International Center for Potatoes (CIP) and Sustainable Food Systems Ireland – we will support 500,000 smallholder farmers, many of them women, to diversify production and improve climate resilience. As part of our work in the peanut value chain, we aim to ensure women maintain control over the production of peanuts even after the crop is commercialized and its value goes up. This requires tackling discriminatory gender norms in agricultural production and household decision-making.

I am pleased to note that the United States and Ireland are extending our collaboration now to Zambia.

And yesterday, USAID joined five consumer goods multinational companies in a new public-private partnership called Advancing Women for Resilient Supply Chains. This partnership, aligned with the Women in Sustainable Economy initiative launched by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2023, will help catalyze industry-level changes through learning, scaling interventions, and providing evidence on how supporting women in agricultural supply chains can help to deliver on environmental sustainability goals.

I am thrilled to share that USAID’s planned, initial investment of $11 million towards this effort is also part of our commitment to Commit to Grow Equality.

Looking ahead, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution introduced by the United States and co-signed by more than 120 Members declaring 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer.

2026 also happens to be the year that the United States will host the G20. The International Year of the Woman Farmer will be a cornerstone of our presidency and the centerpiece of any agriculture ministerial.

As we count down toward the year 2026, we thank FAO for its call to action and urge others to join us in increasing investments and in setting ambitious and measurable goals that ensure agrifood systems work better for women.

Only in this way do we unleash the power of people responsible for half of the world’s food production; only in this way do we reach our goal of ending global hunger and ensuring safe, healthy and affordable diets for all.

Thank you.