Women provide half the world’s food – yet receive under 5 percent of climate finance

We look at what this inequality means on the ground and what needs to be done to address it.

Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, women are the backbone of food systems.

They plant seeds, tend crops, process harvests and sell produce in local markets that sustain families and communities.

Globally, women produce up to half of the world’s food, and many do so as smallholder farmers working small plots of land with limited access to finance, tools and markets. This often leaves them more exposed to changing weather and rising costs.

Yet when climate finance (the funding meant to help people adapt to climate change and build resilience) is distributed, women farmers receive only a tiny fraction.

Research shows that only a small share of global climate finance reaches small-scale farmers, where many women work.

The scale of the missed opportunity is staggering. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that if women had the same access as men to land, finance and farming resources, farm yields could increase by up to 30 percent, reducing hunger for as many as 150 million people.

This is because women farmers are often denied equal access to credit, quality seeds, tools and training that help farms produce more food.

The opportunity is clear. The evidence is strong. But the investment does not match the need. Let’s look at why that is.

For more than a decade, wealthy nations have pledged to mobilise $100 billion per year in climate finance. That target was delayed for years and remains insufficient compared to the scale of climate impacts.

The UN Environment Programme estimates that developing countries will need more than $300 billion annually by 2035 for adaptation alone. Yet adaptation finance currently represents only a fraction of that amount, and within that limited funding even less reaches smallholder women farmers directly.

This is often because many women farmers do not own the land they work, have limited access to finance, and live in rural areas that large funding programmes struggle to reach.

This is not just a funding gap. It is a justice gap.

What inequality looks like on the ground

To understand what this inequality means to people, you simply have to stand in a field.

In Mtambo Village in Malawi, 65-year-old Malita Zefinati farms two acres of maize, groundnuts and cowpeas. Her harvest supports her children and grandchildren. She works the land by hand. She plans around the rains. She saves what she can.

But climate change has made rainfall unpredictable. Heavy rain and floods wash away seedlings. Dry spells arrive without warning.  With electricity access in Malawi at only about 15 per cent, most rural farmers cannot use electric pumps for irrigation, so watering crops becomes back-breaking work done by hand.

Malita’s household is part of the 85 per cent. At night, her family relies on a wooden battery torch. The light is dim and unreliable. Batteries must be replaced every few days. Her grandchildren struggle to study after sunset. Limited access to reliable energy also makes it harder for farming families like Malita’s to improve their livelihoods and adapt to changing weather.

“If I could get a solar light, it would help us a lot. It would make us feel safer at night and allow my grandchildren to study” Malita says.

She knows solar lights are sold by local women’s groups. She understands their value. She would invest if she could, but without affordable credit or flexible finance, the upfront cost is too high because when rainfall is uncertain, even small financial risks feel impossible.

Malita’s story is not about a lack of ambition. It is about a system that does not reach her.

Now let’s go to another field, this time in the village of Toécé in Burkina Faso.

Awa Convolbo leads the Lagumtaab La Panga women’s cooperative in Toécé, producing shea butter. Like many rural communities, they lack connection to the national grid. Water access has been unreliable. Drought has intensified pressure on livelihoods.

Through Practical Action’s work with local partners, Awa and her cooperative received training in renewable energy and financial management. They adopted improved cookstoves that reduce firewood use and protect health. A new water pumping system improved irrigation. A knowledge exchange visit to Rwanda strengthened savings and governance practices. These changes have helped women farmers improve production and strengthen their resilience to changing climate conditions.

For women farmers like Awa and her cooperative, the impact has been practical and powerful: lower energy costs, improved productivity, stronger savings and greater confidence.

Awa said, “With reliable water and better tools, we work with more confidence. We are not just surviving, we are growing.”

Utamuvuna Mariette, Gender Advisor, Practical Action in Rwanda, said: “The contrast between Malita and Awa reveals the truth: women often have the solutions but lack the capital to scale them and respond to the challenges they face.

“In many cases they are already adapting to climate change, but by failing to support them, we are underfunding women, food security, climate resilience and economic growth across the globe.”