Tirer parti des normes de durabilité volontaires pour promouvoir l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes dans le secteur de l’agriculture

The document analyzes the intersection of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and gender equality in agriculture. It evaluates five major standards—Fairtrade International, IFOAM (Organic), Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certified, and 4Cs—across six key themes: household food security, access to productive resources, education, unpaid domestic work, decision-making/empowerment, and decent work. The guide finds that while VSS can indirectly improve women's status through increased income and sustainable practices, they can also inadvertently exacerbate inequalities if local gender dynamics are ignored, such as by prioritizing commercial crops over women's subsistence farming or increasing women's unpaid labor to meet certification quality requirements. It provides specific recommendations for development organizations to implement 'gender-transformative' approaches, including providing childcare during training and supporting women's land rights.

• Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) can indirectly improve household food security by promoting sustainable production practices that diversify diets and increase incomes, provided women control those income sources.
• There is a risk that VSS may undermine household food security by prioritizing commercial crops—typically managed by men—over the subsistence crops managed by women, potentially leading to a loss of women's access to land.
• VSS do not directly promote women's land rights, but they can indirectly facilitate temporary land tenure in regions with high male emigration, as certification audits often require the presence of a landowner.
• Certification can inadvertently widen the gender gap in access to agricultural information and training unless specific outreach activities for women are implemented.
• VSS promote equal education for girls and boys primarily through the prohibition of child labor, which encourages school attendance.
• While VSS can alleviate some domestic burdens through financial support for labor-saving investments, the prohibition of child labor can create new obstacles for women who rely on children for childcare to perform agricultural work.
• Certification can increase women's decision-making power within the household and producer groups, but this often requires additional gender equality training to be effective and to avoid backlash in deeply patriarchal societies.
• For salaried workers, VSS improve decent work conditions by requiring compliance with standards that often exceed national laws, including maternity leave and protections against sexual harassment.
• In smallholder farms, VSS often increase the total workload for women—who frequently provide this additional labor for free—to meet higher quality and environmental sustainability requirements.
• The evidence regarding the relationship between VSS and gender equality remains thin, as gender is often treated as a secondary research theme in VSS studies.

APA

Sexsmith, K. (2019). Tirer parti des normes de durabilité volontaires pour promouvoir l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes dans le secteur de l’agriculture. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/vss-gender-equality-agriculture-fr.pdf

Chicago

Sexsmith, Kathleen. Tirer parti des normes de durabilité volontaires pour promouvoir l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes dans le secteur de l’agriculture. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2019. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/vss-gender-equality-agriculture-fr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Sexsmith |first1=Kathleen |title=Tirer parti des normes de durabilité volontaires pour promouvoir l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes dans le secteur de l’agriculture |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=March 2019 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/vss-gender-equality-agriculture-fr.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sexsmith2019tirer, author = {Sexsmith, Kathleen}, title = {{Tirer parti des normes de durabilité volontaires pour promouvoir l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes dans le secteur de l’agriculture}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2019}, month = mar, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/vss-gender-equality-agriculture-fr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }