We have long made intentional investments in women in our work around the world. Just searching the tag "women," or "women farmers" on our blog brings up hundreds of posts over the past few years.
That's why we like this 2011 infographic from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that clearly enumerates the benefits of investing in women.
Among the statistics and benefits?
- Women make up nearly 52% of the global total of people living with HIV, but current approaches to preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission are 98% effective.
- Women make up 43% of the agriculture labor force. However, women are less likely to own land, and own fewer amounts of land when they do. When women have the same amount of land as men, there is over a 10% increase in crop yields.
It's also been demonstrated that giving women the same access to resources and services as men could:
- increase yields on women's lands up to 30%,
- raise total agricultural output in developing countries by up to 4%, and
- reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 100-150 million.[source]