She Feeds the World

The PepsiCo Foundation is partnering with CARE to tackle gender inequality in agriculture with an $18.2 million investment in She Feeds the World (SFtW). The grant will provide resources and training to 5 million women farmers and members of their communities worldwide to help them increase crop yields and income over six years (2018–2024). With this investment, The PepsiCo Foundation became CARE’s largest private-sector partner for SFtW.

The PepsiCo Foundation’s investment is advancing SFtW in communities where the company operates by working with small-scale farming communities. SFtW Uganda concluded in 2022 having reached more than 541,000 producers with skills, resources, and knowledge. Programs are ongoing in Egypt, Peru, Vietnam, and Thailand. In line with PepsiCo Foundation’s commitment to scale the initiative, the partnership is expanding to India, Pakistan, and Colombia in 2023.

Background

Women account for nearly half of all agricultural labor in developing countries and work as much as 13 hours more per week than men, often without training, proper tools, like seeds and fertilizers, and rights to their land. Research shows that if female farmers had the same access to resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30 percent, potentially reducing the number of hungry people in the world by up to 150 million.

One of the key pillars of She Feeds the World is its focus on women’s empowerment, building on CARE’s existing women’s empowerment framework. CARE defines women’s empowerment as the sum total of changes needed for a woman to realize her full human rights – the interplay of changes in, Agency: her own aspirations and capabilities, Structure: the environment that surrounds and conditions her choices, and Relations: the power relations through which she negotiates her path.

Intervention

She Feeds the World builds on our 75+ years of experience to include a stronger focus on nutrition, women’s empowerment, market systems, and access to critical inputs like water and land. It works directly with women to build their skills and confidence in sustainable agriculture practices, market engagement, gender equality, and food and nutrition security. These approaches link women to markets, improve family nutrition, and break down barriers that trap small-scale women producers and their families in poverty.

She Feeds the World is structured in six outcome areas:

Improving women’s empowerment
Improving women’s access to resources
Ensuring food security
Improving women’s access to markets via inclusive value chains
Improving nutrition in communities
Multiplying the impact of agriculture through women small-scale producers

The impact of She Feeds the World

She Feeds the World: Uganda

Through the program, Molly Birungi has learned new agricultural and marketing practices to enhance her life.

She Feeds the World: Egypt

A program participant who works with CARE Egypt talks about how joining She Feeds the World has allowed her to save.

She Feeds the World: Egypt – Helping Farmers with Water

She Feeds the World has substantial impacts on smallholder farmers' lives, agriculture practices, and income.

Resources

She Feeds the World Program Profile

She Feeds the World Program Profile April 2024 featuring impact outcomes in Uganda, Peru, and Egypt.

She Feeds the World Impact and Scale Brief – December 2023

PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation have partnered with CARE, a global poverty-fighting organization, since 2018 to meet the nutritional needs of a growing global population and tackle gender inequality in the agriculture sector through our She Feeds the World program. An $18.2 million initiative, She Feeds the World aims to improve the food security and nutrition of poor rural households, with a strong emphasis on women small-scale producers. The program works directly with women to build their skills and confidence in sustainable agriculture practices, market engagement, gender equality, and food and nutrition security. This impact and scale brief summarizes examples of the impacts achieved by the program so far in Uganda, Peru, Egypt, and Colombia.

She Feeds the World Peru Impact Brief

A brief illustration of She Feeds the World's impacts in Peru following its wrap-up in 2023.

She Feeds the World in Peru

In 2023, the SFtW Peru program concluded having reached more than 480,000 women small-scale producers and their families and communities.

Watch this video to hear from the participants.

She Feeds the World Impact Brief (Uganda)

A brief illustration of She Feeds the World's impacts in Uganda following its wrap-up in 2022.

Nutrition

She Feeds the World’s goal is to improve the food security and nutrition of poor rural households, with a strong emphasis on women small-scale producers.