Leveraging Voluntary Sustainability Standards for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture: A guide for development organizations contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals

The document analyzes the intersection of five major agricultural voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) and gender equality themes. It finds that while VSSs can improve working conditions for waged women and promote children's education, they risk exacerbating gender inequalities if they prioritize cash crops over women's subsistence farming or increase women's unpaid labor burdens without providing childcare or gender-transformative training.

• Voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) can indirectly support household food security by promoting sustainable production for diverse diets and increasing incomes, provided women control the income stream. However, they may undermine food security if land is shifted from women's subsistence crops to male-dominated cash cropping.
• VSSs do not directly promote women's land rights, and they can reinforce existing gender gaps in access to production training and information unless outreach specifically targets women. They can, however, facilitate women's participation in climate-smart agriculture if training opportunities are equitable.
• While VSSs promote equal education for boys and girls by prohibiting child labour, the prohibition of child labour can inadvertently hinder women's ability to work their own fields or earn wages if adequate childcare is not provided.
• Certification can increase women's influence in household and group decision-making, but this often requires complementary gender equality training. Without such support, VSSs may reinforce patriarchal norms or channel investments into non-commercial activities, impeding economic empowerment.
• VSSs generally improve conditions for women waged labourers by requiring compliance with criteria that exceed national laws, including occupational health and safety. Conversely, on smallholder farms, certification often increases the burden of unpaid family labour for women to meet quality and environmental criteria.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2019). Leveraging Voluntary Sustainability Standards for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture: A guide for development organizations contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/vss-gender-equality-agriculture-brief-en.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Leveraging Voluntary Sustainability Standards for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture: A guide for development organizations contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. 2019. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/vss-gender-equality-agriculture-brief-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Leveraging Voluntary Sustainability Standards for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture: A guide for development organizations contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals |date=2019 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/vss-gender-equality-agriculture-brief-en.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2019leveraging, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Leveraging Voluntary Sustainability Standards for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture: A guide for development organizations contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2019}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/vss-gender-equality-agriculture-brief-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }