WUNRN
Smallholder
Agriculture's Contribution to Better Nutrition - Women
Direct Link to Full 114-Page 2013
Report:
"Smallholder agricultural
development can be steered to have a greater impact on food security and
nutrition as to:
*Empower Women Farmers, both to
allow them more control over income and household spending - which usually
leads to more being spent on the feeding and care of young children, as well as
to correct for unequal access to labour and inputs that means that women's
plots often achieve lower yields than men's...
Commissioned
by the UK Hunger Alliance for the June 2013 'Hunger Summit' this report asks
"How can smallholder agriculture contribute to improving food security and
reducing under-nutrition?"
Potentially, smallholder agriculture can improve food security by making food available through production; reducing the real cost of food by increasing supply; generating incomes for farmers and those working the land as labourers, as well as to others in the rural economy from linkages in production and consumption that create additional activity and jobs.
Other considerations include the way that increased rural incomes are spent; impacts on women’s incomes, status within the household, and through the demands of farm work, the ability of mothers to allocate income to food and care of young children; the effect of farm work on energy of field workers; and, impacts on health of field workers and those living close to farms.
The record shows:
Smallholder agricultural development can be steered to have a greater impact on food security and nutrition through three measures:
Four points stand out for policy-makers:
These policies either have low costs or are not additional to the funding what would be needed for any serious programme of development. FAO in 2011 estimated the extra annual spending required to eliminate hunger by 2025 as US$50.2 billion, including US$7.5 billion for food and cash-based safety nets in keeping with the twin-track approach of dealing with long-term chronic hunger while also addressing short-term needs. Most of the extra investment is for physical infrastructure, and mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
An extra US$50 billion a year may sound a lot, but consider the figure for sub-Saharan Africa of US$13.3 billion more. This is about US$15.50 for each of the 854M living in the region. The costs are small compared to the numbers who will potentially benefit from better food security and nutrition.
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PROVEN APPROACHES FOR EMPOWERING WOMEN SMALLHOLDERS & ACHIEVING FOOD SECURITY
Direct Link to Full 28-Page Report: http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/what_works_for_women_-_final.pdf
"Despite their wealth of knowledge and capacity, women farmers are neglected by policy makers, often not being recognised as 'productive' farmers. Their farm work is frequently unpaid or undervalued; they tend to be excluded from decision-making; and they do not have equal access to land and other resources, credit, markets, education, extension services and inputs."
"What changes
do we need to empower women smallholders and achieve food security?" In an
effort to address this question, 9 international development agencies produced
this briefing to share the lessons learned based on their experience of
promoting gender equality and working with women smallholders and rural women
over many decades. The involved agencies are: ActionAid International, CARE,
Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Find Your Feet, Oxfam, Practical Action, Save
the Children, and Self Help Africa.
Lessons from working with women
smallholders:
The paper concludes with a number of
recommendations to help close the gender gap in agriculture. They are divided
into: (i) recommendations for national governments - example: "Engage women
in policy-making and planning processes at all levels, for example by
establishing quotas and targets for women in decision-making roles, legislating
to remove barriers, and encouraging the establishment of effective collective
structures that are gender-sensitive", and (ii) recommendations for
multilateral and bilateral donors - example: "Support and engage actively
with women's civil society organisations and networks (such as farmers' groups
and women's cooperatives) and facilitate their systematic inclusion and
participation in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of
agricultural research, policies and programmes."