- The food and nutrition crisis is said to be hitting women harder because they bear the brunt of households’ coping strategies.
- The lender also attributes the gap to female farmers’ limited access to physical inputs like seeds , fertiliser and labour.
Image: REUTERS
Women mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa are more food insecure than men, World Bank says in its outlook report.
The lender says the gender gap in food security has increased by almost eight folds since 2018 and predicts that the situation will continue deteriorating even further.
This is because women will still be offered the type of empowerment tools owing to barriers such as low decision-making power, which are a constraint to their productivity.
“Empowering women farmers can serve as a transformative tool to boost food production. Yet, this hasn’t been a straightforward solution owing to barriers that hinder women’s potential in production,” World Bank says.
The food and nutrition crisis is said to be hitting women harder because they bear the brunt of households’ coping strategies mostly in tough times.
Strategies include reducing the quality of their food and curtailing meal amounts.
The lender also attributes the gap to the female farmers’ limited access to physical inputs like seeds, fertiliser and labour.
Women are also reported to spend more time on care work and household management than men.
This leaves them with less time to devote to farming, supervising labour and participating in reciprocal labour groups.
“Nevertheless, limited access to markets is a binding constraint for women farmers due to their lower cash reserves, restrictions on mobility, and potential safety concerns,” the lender says.
An analysis by the humanitarian organization CARE also highlighted a global link between gender inequality and food insecurity.
Analyzing data from 2021, the report shows that across 109 countries, mostly Sub-Saharan, as gender inequality goes up, food security goes down.
“Between 2018 and 2021, the number of hungry women versus hungry men grew almost 8.4 times, with a staggering 150 million more women than men hungry in 2021,” CARE says.
The report further noted that the implications of the escalation of conflict in Ukraine will make the situation even worse for women, who play a crucial role across food systems and in feeding their families and communities.
A severe drought caused by four consecutive failed rainy seasons in the Horn of Africa has left over 18 million people facing severe hunger.
More than four million out of the number are Kenyan’s who live in the Arid and Semi-Arid lands (ASAL) of northern and eastern regions.
According to the UN’s World Food Programme, by June 2022, an estimated 942,000 children aged under five years and 135,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers were reported malnourished and in need of treatment.
This was up from 755,000 and 103,000 respectively since February.
With the continued drought periods and increased cost of living, it is predicted that more women will continue falling prey to harsh food insecurity.
The lender notes that food price inflation has exceeded overall inflation in most countries, and at least 123 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will be in a food crisis by the end of the year, with women feeling the greater pressure.
To tame the widening gender gap in food crisis susceptibility, World Bank advises making extension services more gender-responsive and engaging more female agents.
It further advocates for the provision of community-based childcare centers so as to ease women’s time constraints.
“Delivering socio-emotional skills like personal initiative, strengthening links to market, improving access to roads, transportation and information technology services is also pivotal,” the lender says.
It adds that equipping women with information on procedures, tariffs and rights can facilitate cross-border trade.
Alongside this, boosting investments in storage and technology can help mitigate the risks of post-harvest losses.
Providing financial, or any other incentives to directly buy from women in the supply chain could also be considered.
While these solutions can directly help boost production, the lender notes that it is equally important to build resilient food systems, especially in the face of climate change.
This mirrors the recent call by Friends of Earth International to nations, urging them to enhance sustainable food systems in addressing the unending hunger crisis.
The international networking organisation noted that the crisis is exacerbating due to unjust food systems that prioritises profits over people’s rights, lives and environment.
“Hunger, malnutrition and rising food prices are a result of an unsustainable economic system, and to approach it, there is a need for system change, based on agroecology and food sovereignty,” Friends of Earth International said.
The strong nexus between gender and food security demonstrates the importance of integrating women into policy responses.
Beyond the solutions outlined, World Bank insists on engaging women as leaders and agents of change in decision-making as it can engender a much-needed paradigm shift in the discourse on food security.