This practice brief explores women and gender issues in SNV Netherlands Development Organisation’s support to agricultural
value chains in Africa and Asia. Across the two regions there are wide disparities in women’s access to and control over productive resources, service delivery and market opportunities. Drawing on a wide variety of case studies, the Brief describes various ways in which the underlying gender constraints are identified and addressed, through an explicit focus on women’s economic and social empowerment. Taken together the experiences show that substantial improvements can be realised when women’s interests and capacities are taken into account and when the diverse, yet complementary, roles of female and male farmers and entrepreneurs are acknowledged. Overall, the Brief offers rich insights into the range of gender-specific strategies that can be used to encourage women’s full participation in development interventions and ensure that they derive an equal share of the benefits through improved household incomes, employment opportunities and food security.