Events / Activities Details

A local-level workshop on Food Security in Nepal: Gender Participation in Policy and Practice

The Community Women Forum (CWF) successfully organized a national workshop titled “Food Security in Nepal: Gender Participation in Policy and Practice” on 11th August 2025 in Lalitpur. The event brought together policymakers, local government representatives, agricultural experts, and community leaders to examine Nepal’s food security challenges through a gender lens.

Although Article 36 of Nepal’s Constitution guarantees the right to food sovereignty, participants highlighted persistent gaps between progressive policies and their implementation. Climate change, declining agricultural productivity, weak institutional coordination, and structural barriers continue to threaten sustainable food systems. Women, Dalits, indigenous communities, and marginalized farmers, who form the backbone of agriculture, remain excluded from land ownership, financial services, markets, and decision-making spaces.

In her keynote address, consultant Ms. Goma Sigdel emphasized that without gender-responsive monitoring, accountability, and budgeting, food security policies will fail to deliver equitable outcomes. Panelists, including representatives from Chandragiri Municipality and Lalitpur Metropolitan City, acknowledged budget limitations, procedural hurdles, and patriarchal norms as key obstacles to effective implementation.

CWF also highlighted its grassroots initiatives in women’s health, livelihood development, and sustainable agriculture, including HPV testing, entrepreneurship training, and promotion of eco-friendly Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices.

The workshop concluded with strong commitments to strengthen inclusive participation, improve women’s access to resources and subsidies, promote climate-resilient technologies, and institutionalize gender-responsive planning and budgeting. Participants agreed that empowering women is not only a matter of social justice but essential for achieving resilient and sustainable food security in Nepal.