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←Created page with '{{User sandbox}} <!-- EDIT BELOW THIS LINE --> ==Achieving food security== ===Regional Challenges=== "The number of people without enough food to eat on a reg...' |
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==Achieving food security== |
==Achieving food security== |
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===Gender and Food Security=== |
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Food insecurity tends to disproportionately affect people who are incapable of or denied access to participating in labor, either agricultural, formal, or informal. Gender inequality is a major cause and effect of hunger and poverty. The U.N. estimates that 60 percent of the world’s chronically hungry people are women and girls. |
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===Regional Challenges=== |
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<ref name="World Food Programme Gender Policy Report">[http://one.wfp.org/eb/docs/2009/wfp194044~1.pdf], Rome, 2009.</ref> 98% of those experiencing food insecurity live in developing nations. <ref name="The Hunger Project">[http://www.thp.org/learn_more/issues/know_your_world_facts_about_hunger_and_poverty], Facts about Hunger and Poverty.</ref> |
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Women farmers represent more than a quarter of the world’s population. Women comprise, on an average, 43 per cent of the agricultural work force in developing countries, ranging from 20 per cent in Latin America to 50 per cent in Eastern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet women have less access than men to agriculture related assets, inputs and services. Had they enjoyed the same access to productive resources as men, women could boost yield by 20-30 per cent; raising the overall agricultural output in developing countries by two and a half to four per cent. This gain in production could lessen the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17 per cent, besides increasing women’s income. |
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"The number of people without enough food to eat on a regular basis remains stubbornly high, at over 800 million, and is not falling significantly. Over 60% of the world's undernourished people live in Asia, and a quarter in Africa. The proportion of people who are hungry, however, is greater in Africa (33%) than Asia (16%). The latest FAO figures indicate that there are 22 countries, 16 of which are in Africa, in which the undernourishment prevalence rate is over 35%."[56] |
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Women’s roles in land use, production, processing, distribution, market access, trade, investment, price volatility, and food availability. Women are involved in all aspects of |
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Food insecurity tends to disproportionately affect people who are incapable of or denied access to participating in labor, either agricultural, formal, or informal. Therefore, women and children in developing nations are disproportionately affected. 98% of those experiencing food insecurity live in developing nations. 60% of those classified as food insecure are women. 50 percent of pregnant women in developing countries lack proper maternal care, resulting in over 300,000 maternal deaths annually from childbirth and one out of 6 infants are born with a low birth weight in developing countries. The repercussions of poor nutrient intake during pregnancy cause higher rates of maternal and infant deaths, as well as health complications for both mothers and their surviving children. People living in rural areas tend to have higher rates of malnourishment and food insecurity than those living in urban areas. Of the 1.4 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day, three out of four live in rural areas. Attempts to quantify food security have led to the creation of the stages of food security, ranging from food-secure to full-scale famine, minimum dietary energy recommendations specific to age and gender, and numerous IGOs and NGOs with specific aims to diminish or end food insecurity and hunger. |
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production, processing and distribution. They work as unpaid, contributing family workers, self-employed producers, on and off-farm employees, entrepreneurs, traders, and providers |
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of services, technology researchers and developers, and caretakers of children and the elderly. |
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| ⚫ | As producers, women are often the ones who produce secondary crops for subsistence, such as legumes and vegetables, on more marginal lands. "Control over food crops and poultry or goats (and benefits derived from surpluses of food crops and small farm animals) tended to rest with women in the countries surveyed. However, control over the type of cash crop and livestock (and benefits derived therefrom) tended to rest with men, even where women had made an exceptional and direct contribution to the labour involved." Women and Land in Africa, page 26. |
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===Barriers to Gendered Food Security=== |
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Rights to land ownership, equal pay/wages, access to credit, technology, knowledge, ICT, markets, services. Efforts to realize the right to food are being undermined by converging problems, including increased demand, price volatility, climate change characterized by land degradation and water scarcity, competition for land, urbanization, and increased poverty and vulnerability. [2] Food prices are expected to increase by as much as 70 to 90 per cent by 2030 before the effects of climate change. (Growing a Better Future Report. 2011. Oxfam International.) The rise in urbanization also affects food availability for the urban poor. It is estimated that close to three billion people live in areas where demand outstrips supply. (Global Food Losses and Food Waste. 2011. FAO ) |
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====Land Ownership==== |
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Women own less than 20% of agricultural land globally. (“Women Farmers: Change and Development Agents”. 2011. Prepared by World Rural Forum with Alexandra Spieldoch for World Conference on Family Farming.) |
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====Unpaid Labor==== |
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Rural women also have limited access to rural extension services and technology. (Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook: “Investing in Women as Drivers of Agricultural Growth.” 2009. World Bank, FAO, IFAD. http://www.ifad.org/gender/pub/sourcebook/flyer.pdf.) |
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===Gender and Global Food Security Policy=== |
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====Policy Recommendations==== |
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Trade policy should allow governments the policy space to design and implement appropriate measures at the national level supporting the right to food. These include, but are not limited to, tariffs, special products, special safeguard mechanisms, food stocks, commodity exchange |
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| ⚫ | The USAID program, Feed the Future, quotes on their website that “Women’s contributions to agricultural production often go unrecognized. Despite their significant role as agricultural producers, women’s access to land and other key productive resources can be limited, and they rarely have legal control over the land they farm. Reducing gender inequality and recognizing the contribution of women to agriculture is critical to achieving global food security—there is consistent and compelling evidence that when the status of women is improved, agricultural productivity increases, poverty is reduced, and nutrition improves.” Indeed, women constitute a significant portion of the agricultural labor force, constituting an average of 43 percent in developing countries, with ranges from about 20 percent in Latin America to 50 percent in Eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Women are the majority of the agricultural labor force in over 30 countries. (FAO 2011) |
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regulations, extraterritorial obligations to regulate transnational corporations, and restrictions |
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on monopolies on various technologies and natural resources that are central to the right to food. |
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Various governments are implementing programs, such cash transfers, employment |
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guarantees and land titling, that target women. |
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top-down and bottom-up approaches, from personal choices regarding livelihoods, family planning, migration, agricultural production and political participation, to large international policy implications by government and non-government entities regarding subsidization, market regulation, social welfare, outreach, research, and innovation in food production and food security strategies. A comprehension of the gendered dimensions of food insecurity, which includes family size, household obligations, access to wage-labor, and the social constrictions on productivity and intake, render individuals more capable of making educated decisions regarding their own health and that of their household. Improvement in food security strategies by individuals and households allows more time and resources to be directed towards improving economic situations by investing in improved means of production, attaining further education, and improving other quality of life measures, which collectively improves the status of entire communities. |
top-down and bottom-up approaches, from personal choices regarding livelihoods, family planning, migration, agricultural production and political participation, to large international policy implications by government and non-government entities regarding subsidization, market regulation, social welfare, outreach, research, and innovation in food production and food security strategies. A comprehension of the gendered dimensions of food insecurity, which includes family size, household obligations, access to wage-labor, and the social constrictions on productivity and intake, render individuals more capable of making educated decisions regarding their own health and that of their household. Improvement in food security strategies by individuals and households allows more time and resources to be directed towards improving economic situations by investing in improved means of production, attaining further education, and improving other quality of life measures, which collectively improves the status of entire communities. |
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| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | "Control over food crops and poultry or goats (and benefits derived from surpluses of food crops and small farm animals) tended to rest with women in the countries surveyed. However, control over the type of cash crop and livestock (and benefits derived therefrom) tended to rest with men, even where women had made an exceptional and direct contribution to the labour involved." Women and Land in Africa, page 26. |
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| ⚫ | The USAID program, Feed the Future, quotes on their website that “Women’s contributions to agricultural production often go unrecognized. Despite their significant role as agricultural producers, women’s access to land and other key productive resources can be limited, and they rarely have legal control over the land they farm. Reducing gender inequality and recognizing the contribution of women to agriculture is critical to achieving global food security—there is consistent and compelling evidence that when the status of women is improved, agricultural productivity increases, poverty is reduced, and nutrition improves.” Indeed, women constitute a significant portion of the agricultural labor force, constituting an average of 43 percent in developing countries, with ranges from about 20 percent in Latin America to 50 percent in Eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Women are the majority of the agricultural labor force in over 30 countries. (FAO 2011) |
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The "Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index" (WEAI) is the first measure to directly capture women's empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector. The WEAI focuses on five areas: decisions over agricultural production, power over productive resources such as land and livestock, decisions over income, leadership in the community, and time use. Women are considered to be empowered if they have adequate achievements in four of the five areas. It is an aggregate index reported at the country or regional level that is |
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their households. It is an aggregate index reported at the country or regional level that is |
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based on individual-level data on men and women within the same households. With such tools, scholars, organizations, and government entities can make more informed decisions regarding gendered food insecurity. |
based on individual-level data on men and women within the same households. With such tools, scholars, organizations, and government entities can make more informed decisions regarding gendered food insecurity. |
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Revision as of 00:13, 2 April 2012
Achieving food security
Gender and Food Security
Food insecurity tends to disproportionately affect people who are incapable of or denied access to participating in labor, either agricultural, formal, or informal. Gender inequality is a major cause and effect of hunger and poverty. The U.N. estimates that 60 percent of the world’s chronically hungry people are women and girls. [1] 98% of those experiencing food insecurity live in developing nations. [2]
Women farmers represent more than a quarter of the world’s population. Women comprise, on an average, 43 per cent of the agricultural work force in developing countries, ranging from 20 per cent in Latin America to 50 per cent in Eastern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet women have less access than men to agriculture related assets, inputs and services. Had they enjoyed the same access to productive resources as men, women could boost yield by 20-30 per cent; raising the overall agricultural output in developing countries by two and a half to four per cent. This gain in production could lessen the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17 per cent, besides increasing women’s income.
Women’s roles in land use, production, processing, distribution, market access, trade, investment, price volatility, and food availability. Women are involved in all aspects of production, processing and distribution. They work as unpaid, contributing family workers, self-employed producers, on and off-farm employees, entrepreneurs, traders, and providers of services, technology researchers and developers, and caretakers of children and the elderly.
As producers, women are often the ones who produce secondary crops for subsistence, such as legumes and vegetables, on more marginal lands. "Control over food crops and poultry or goats (and benefits derived from surpluses of food crops and small farm animals) tended to rest with women in the countries surveyed. However, control over the type of cash crop and livestock (and benefits derived therefrom) tended to rest with men, even where women had made an exceptional and direct contribution to the labour involved." Women and Land in Africa, page 26.
Barriers to Gendered Food Security
Rights to land ownership, equal pay/wages, access to credit, technology, knowledge, ICT, markets, services. Efforts to realize the right to food are being undermined by converging problems, including increased demand, price volatility, climate change characterized by land degradation and water scarcity, competition for land, urbanization, and increased poverty and vulnerability. [2] Food prices are expected to increase by as much as 70 to 90 per cent by 2030 before the effects of climate change. (Growing a Better Future Report. 2011. Oxfam International.) The rise in urbanization also affects food availability for the urban poor. It is estimated that close to three billion people live in areas where demand outstrips supply. (Global Food Losses and Food Waste. 2011. FAO )
Women own less than 20% of agricultural land globally. (“Women Farmers: Change and Development Agents”. 2011. Prepared by World Rural Forum with Alexandra Spieldoch for World Conference on Family Farming.)
Rural women also have limited access to rural extension services and technology. (Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook: “Investing in Women as Drivers of Agricultural Growth.” 2009. World Bank, FAO, IFAD. http://www.ifad.org/gender/pub/sourcebook/flyer.pdf.)
Gender and Global Food Security Policy
Policy Recommendations
Trade policy should allow governments the policy space to design and implement appropriate measures at the national level supporting the right to food. These include, but are not limited to, tariffs, special products, special safeguard mechanisms, food stocks, commodity exchange regulations, extraterritorial obligations to regulate transnational corporations, and restrictions on monopolies on various technologies and natural resources that are central to the right to food. Various governments are implementing programs, such cash transfers, employment guarantees and land titling, that target women.
top-down and bottom-up approaches, from personal choices regarding livelihoods, family planning, migration, agricultural production and political participation, to large international policy implications by government and non-government entities regarding subsidization, market regulation, social welfare, outreach, research, and innovation in food production and food security strategies. A comprehension of the gendered dimensions of food insecurity, which includes family size, household obligations, access to wage-labor, and the social constrictions on productivity and intake, render individuals more capable of making educated decisions regarding their own health and that of their household. Improvement in food security strategies by individuals and households allows more time and resources to be directed towards improving economic situations by investing in improved means of production, attaining further education, and improving other quality of life measures, which collectively improves the status of entire communities.
Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
The USAID program, Feed the Future, quotes on their website that “Women’s contributions to agricultural production often go unrecognized. Despite their significant role as agricultural producers, women’s access to land and other key productive resources can be limited, and they rarely have legal control over the land they farm. Reducing gender inequality and recognizing the contribution of women to agriculture is critical to achieving global food security—there is consistent and compelling evidence that when the status of women is improved, agricultural productivity increases, poverty is reduced, and nutrition improves.” Indeed, women constitute a significant portion of the agricultural labor force, constituting an average of 43 percent in developing countries, with ranges from about 20 percent in Latin America to 50 percent in Eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Women are the majority of the agricultural labor force in over 30 countries. (FAO 2011)
The "Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index" (WEAI) is the first measure to directly capture women's empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector. The WEAI focuses on five areas: decisions over agricultural production, power over productive resources such as land and livestock, decisions over income, leadership in the community, and time use. Women are considered to be empowered if they have adequate achievements in four of the five areas. It is an aggregate index reported at the country or regional level that is based on individual-level data on men and women within the same households. With such tools, scholars, organizations, and government entities can make more informed decisions regarding gendered food insecurity.