WUNRN
GENDER, INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL
INSTITUTIONS & FOOD INSECURITY
Download our Food
Security Primer (pdf, 1013kb)
In
March 2011, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food
Price Index, which tracks the price of 55 food commodities for export, rose for
the ninth consecutive month. The index has now reached its highest level in
both nominal and real terms since the inception of the index in 1990 (FAO,
2011).
While
higher food prices have benefited food corporations, they have contributed to a
stark increase in poverty in developing countries. A recent World Bank (WB)
report revealed that an additional 44 million people have been forced into
poverty due to the drastic rise in food prices since June 2010 (WB, 2011).
Having already surpassed the levels witnessed during the 2008 food crisis, the
recent upsurge in food prices suggests that yet another food crisis has struck
poor women, men, girls and boys.
Women, who account for the majority of both the world's poor and
the world's smallscale farmers, bear the brunt of rising food prices and
growing food insecurity in developing countries. When men migrate to find
employment, women are usually left to work family farmland. Women are also
responsible for gathering essential household resources, such as firewood and
water, preparing meals and tending livestock (Gender Action, 2011). Despite
women's critical role in food production, facts inside this primer demonstrate
that International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have failed to translate gender-mainstreaming
rhetoric into action. To ensure that women and men equally participate in and
benefit from IFI investments in developing countries, Gender Action works to
raise awareness of some of the IFIrelated causes and gender-specific impacts of
food insecurity.