WUNRN
Women & Girls - Food Crisis
- Hunger - Malnutrition - Food Production - Poverty +
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Women
are the world's primary food producers, yet cultural traditions and social
structures often mean women are much more affected by hunger and poverty than
men.
Women produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries and are responsible for half of the world's food production, yet their key role as food producers and providers and their critical contribution to household food security is only now becoming recognized.
FAO studies confirm that while women are the mainstay of small-scale agriculture, farm labour force and day-to-day family subsistence, they have more difficulties than men in gaining access to resources such as land and credit and productivity enhancing inputs and services.
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4."Expresses its concern that
women and girls are disproportionately affected by hunger, food insecurity and
poverty, in part as a result of gender inequality and discrimination, that in
many countries, girls are twice as likely as boys to die from malnutrition and
preventable childhood diseases, and that it is estimated that almost twice as
many women as men suffer from malnutrition;"
5."Encourages all States to
take action to address gender inequality and discrimination against women, in
particular where it contributes to the malnutrition of women and girls,
including measures to ensure the full and equal realization of the right to
food and ensuring that women have equal access to resources, including income,
land and water, to enable them to feed themselves and their families;"
6."Encourages the Special
Rapporteur on the Human Rights Council on the Right to Food, to continue mainstreaming
a gender perspective in the fulfilment of his mandate, and encourages the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and all other United Nations
bodies and mechanisms addressing the Right to Food and food insecurity to
integrate a gender perspective into their relevant policies, programmes and
activities;"
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Women & Girls - Food Crisis
- Hunger - Malnutrition - Food Production - Poverty +
UN News Centre
BOOSTING FOOD PRODUCTION ALONE WILL
NOT SOLVE HUNGER CRISIS - UN EXPERT
7
May 2009 – An independent United Nations expert warned today that ramping up
food production on its own would not alleviate the suffering of the hundreds of
millions going hungry around the world.
Increased investment in agriculture, particularly in Africa, is necessary, but it must benefit those who are food insecure, stressed the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter.
Mr. De
Schutter, who took up his post in 2008 when the world was experiencing dramatic
food price increases, noted that increased harvests resulting in a return to
low food prices would further discourage and marginalize small-scale farmers.
“In
responding to the global food crisis, it is easy to move from the symptom –
prices which have suddenly peaked – to a possible cure – produce more, and
remove as soon as possible all supply-side constraints,” Mr. De Schutter said
in a submission to the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), which is
currently meeting in New York.
“Increasing
agricultural production must go hand in hand with increasing the incomes of the
poorest, particularly small-scale farmers, and switching to modes of production
which do not contribute to climate change,” he stated.
The Special
Rapporteur noted that “efforts by agronomists will be pointless if the right
institutions, regulations and accountability mechanisms are not established and
implemented.” He called for a form of sustainable development that was “more
about how to help the world feed itself” than “how to feed the world.”
In October,
Mr. De Schutter – who reports to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in an
independent, unpaid capacity – declared that nearly one billion people
worldwide are now hungry. The “real problem of hunger” is not linked to
inadequate food supplies, but rather that many people lack the purchasing power
to buy available food, he said.
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