This project empowers women in the Teso and Karamoja regions by supporting small business creation, fostering positive societal attitudes towards gender equality, promoting menstrual health, and addressing sexual and reproductive rights through educational outreach and practical support. Through partnerships with NGOs and governments, WHH promotes gender-equitable policies and improves food security.

Advancing Gender Equality and Transformative Change
The Challenge
Gender inequality presents significant barriers to achieving Welthungerhilfe’s (WHH) core objective of Zero Hunger. Women and individuals of marginalized gender identities within the agricultural workforce face systemic constraints in accessing land, technology, and credit compared to men due to discriminatory systems, norms and practices, which negatively affects the resilience of whole communities to crisis and climate change. These constraints limit their productivity and restrict their ability to benefit from agricultural innovation and economic opportunities. Studies show that equal access to resources could reduce global hunger by 100 to 150 million people.
Cultural norms and practices worsen these challenges, particularly affecting women and girls during food shortages and crises. Limited access to clean water and sanitary facilities further impacts their health and nutrition. By addressing these barriers and promoting inclusive systems, WHH is dedicated to creating environments where women and marginalized groups can make decisions and lead the development of sustainable agricultural practices, nutrition solutions, and health initiatives.
WHH’s work on gender in 2024
42
gender-transformative projects
15
countries where women’s agency was strengthened
911,633
women and men participated
Our Approach
WHH is dedicated to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment through gender-responsive projects across all interventions. We aim to ensure that everyone—regardless of their identity—benefits from tangible improvements in their living conditions. Our multi-sectoral approaches address specific gendered needs and strive for equitable outcomes.
Recognizing the many underlying factors that inhibit gender equality—discriminatory laws, exclusionary institutions, unequal gender norms, and limited access to resources—WHH integrates gender-transformative approaches where possible, which tackle the structural causes of inequality. We partner with local organizations and stakeholders, recognizing their leadership and expertise, to co-create and implement projects and programs that dismantle such systemic inequalities, foster local ownership and drive lasting change.
Three core principles guide our efforts:
- Gender-Responsive Engagement: We center equity in all actions and prioritize projects that meet the diverse needs of all individuals, ensuring interventions are relevant and effective.
- Structural Transformation: WHH works alongside communities and partners to address the root causes of gender inequality and foster inclusive and equitable systems that enable lasting change in both development and humanitarian contexts.
- Intersectional Inclusion: Our framework applies an intersectional lens to systematically incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion in our interventions, ensuring no one is left behind.
Systemic Outcomes
Since 2017, WHH’s has fostered gender-transformative outcomes through the engagement of over 1.5 million direct participants across 22 countries. In 2024, WHH supported 42 projects across 15 countries, working with over 911,633 participants to strengthen women’s agency and roles in decision-making at home and within their communities.
Programmatic approaches such as the Gender Action Learning Systems, Gender Model Family Approach, and SASA! (Start, Awareness, Support and Action), have reduced instances of gender-based violence, increased joint decision-making in households, and created new pathways for women to lead in governance and markets. In these interventions, WHH and its partners challenge discriminatory attitudes and behaviors by engaging both men and women in critical reflection on gender roles and power dynamics. In addition to strengthening women’s leadership, these participatory methods foster positive masculinities and build community allies who advocate for gender equality, promoting more equitable and cohesive communities.

WHH's gender-responsive interventions have also led to improvements in various sectors. WHH prioritizes women's and children's needs in nutrition-sensitive agriculture, enhancing dietary diversity and shifting household gender norms. Through economic empowerment initiatives, women transition from subsistence farming to active market engagement by leading cooperatives, accessing microloans, and receiving tailored business training. WHH's WASH programs reduce the burden of water collection and increase women's involvement in water governance. Additionally, WHH expands access to vocational training, including in renewable energy, with childcare support, ensuring women and girls can advance in underrepresented sectors.