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http://www.ids.ac.uk/opinion/we-cannot-tackle-hunger-without-transforming-gender-inequalities
We Cannot Tackle Hunger without Transforming Gender Inequalities
29 June 2015 - Today, at least 795 million people are
experiencing extreme, chronic malnourishment and that number jumps to two
billion if micronutrient deficiency or ‘hidden hunger’ is factored in. Nearly
60 percent of the nearly one billion people who go hungry every day are women
and girls. They are the poorest of the poor, and they are most vulnerable in
the global food system. A new BRIDGE Cutting Edge Report on Gender and Food
Security provides a critical lens on the shocking global gender
disparities that characterize food and nutrition insecurity.
A look at the evidence makes it clear that
gender inequalities are a key cause of this reality. For example, against a
backdrop of rapid economic growth, women and girls in India remain among the
most food insecure in the world mainly because of entrenched gender
biases that de-prioritize their needs and erode their rights. These deep gender
inequalities in food security exist even though women constitute the majority
of food producers in the world and are often managing their families’
nutritional needs. Poor women are often doing this despite gendered norms and
constraints that restrict their access to productive resources, and global and
national forces that push down the market value of their own produce while raising
prices of food they need to purchase.
We know that women have little to no access
to land and property rights. They often lack access to basic information and
basic decision-making power. They can’t get credit, financing and technologies
that would drastically improve their productivity, reduce their time and
effort, and improve their access to markets. They receive less training
and education than men in agriculture. In fact, two thirds of the
illiterate rural poor are women, affecting their chances to improve their
lives.
Women also receive less pay for what they
do, compared to men, and work in more precarious conditions. And, though women
are known custodians of local knowledge, including seeds and medicines, their
knowledge is vastly ignored. These factors not only reduce women’s
productivity; they also reduce their capacity, their self-esteem, and undermine
their basic rights. Compounding this is the fact that so much of the unpaid
work that they do such as collecting water, fuel and caring for their families,
is totally ignored in formal data collection and in policies and programmes.
In addition, women’s own nutritional needs
– and often those of their daughters – are often being neglected because they
are considered of lower status and less of a priority than men and boys in many
cultures. Women regularly eat after men and they receive less food than men and
boys, particularly in time of crisis when food is scarce. As a result women and
girls are more malnourished than men and boys.
When it comes to food stability, enough
food to feed everyone, as reported by the UN Food Agencies, has not yet
translated into everyone getting enough food to eat. Policies focused on food
security need to recognize that food production, processing, distribution, consumption
and utilization are part of often inequitable value chains.
The global food economy, riddled with price
volatility and scarcity of resources, has negatively affected the stability of
food supply, and women have been left as the shock absorbers of food
insecurity. Climate change patterns and scarce resources continue this
pattern with women and children struggling disproportionately than men to
provide nutritious food for their families. Every day, women are putting
themselves at risk of violence and sexual assault to find food in areas where
food is scarce.
The report argues that a commitment to
transforming gender inequalities is a non-negotiable condition for reducing
hunger and malnutrition. As part of this process there is a vital need for
comprehensive, gender-aware strategies that are grounded in an evidence-based
understanding of the complex gendered causes and impacts of hunger and
malnutrition, and are coherent across a range of policies and actions. This
means both women and men need to work together to realize positive change.
The report notably highlights good work is
already being done to strengthen rights-based approaches. For example, some
governments, such as India and Brazil, have passed right to food legislation to
support smallholder farmers and families living below the poverty line. In many
African countries, civil society groups are working with their governments to
promote awareness and action on women’s land rights. New practices on
agro-ecology to promote women’s knowledge and training in sustainable
agriculture are being piloted in Central America. New research on making
women’s unpaid work is emerging. But far more investment is needed into further
developing, adapting and scaling up these types of innovations, and gathering evidence
that can ensure funds are targeted effectively in ways that promote the
interlinked goals of gender equality and food and nutrition security.
In these way we can begin to make small
steps towards realizing a vision of gender-just food and nutrition security
where the gender inequalities that perpetuate and exacerbate experiences of
food insecurity are confronted and transformed; and that is grounded in the
recognition that everyone has the right to decent, nutritious food produced in
environmentally sustainable ways.
Alexandra Spieldoch is Executive Director,
Compatible Technology International (CTI). Alyson Brody is Senior Gender
Convenor at the Institute of Development Studies.