According to an old Chinese proverb, “women hold up half the sky”. In the battle against hunger and poverty, women, and especially rural women, most certainly hold up the heavier half.

In order to ensure food security at the household level it is important to realise the critical role women play, and to include them in all development processes towards the achievement of food security. Throughout the world, women are the principal guarantors of nutrition, food safety and quality at household and community levels. They are the ones who often produce, purchase, handle, prepare and serve food to families and community institutions. Therefore the different rights, responsibilities and decision-making abilities of women and men need to be understood to improve food security and nutrition.

Development interventions aiming to improve access to food often bypass women. They give little attention to designing programmes that suit woman’s needs, education, and cultural backgrounds, or their aspirations for improving their economic and social conditions. Whereas many governments, international donor agencies and NGOs have embraced the MDGs as one of the ways to eradicate extreme poverty in the world, not much has been done to support the majority of the population affected by poverty and hunger in Africa. We are just 4 years away from 2015, and in order to achieve goal one; eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, special efforts must be devoted to promoting rural development and fostering better living conditions for rural marginalised poor women. There is a need for strong specific focus on rural women through addressing key gender disparities at various levels in the distribution and access to productive resources, information and technology.

Understanding poverty, the hunger cycle, and survival strategies is important for finding the best ways of supporting rural women’s productive activities. As several studies have shown, farming households adopt ‘safety first’ behaviour, including coping strategies to deal with external climatic shocks. A common early strategy that has been observed is the reduction in food intake, or change in diet. Women may switch to cheaper, less desirable and perhaps less nutritious foods or they may reduce the number of meals they take.

Women are increasing their contribution to household food security either by growing food or by earning income to purchase food. Women usually try to do both because of urgent needs. Since the agricultural crops produced by households rarely provide all the requirements of the family, cash income is necessary to meet the other basic needs. Hence women engage in off farm activities to earn extra income for food to feed their families.

The rights of women to land need to be given attention because of the continued importance of land to incomes, employment and food security. The important roles women play in agricultural production, the weakness of women’s formal claims over land, and their apparent vulnerability to loss as land becomes scarce are some areas that require urgent attention. Therefore, gender systems that only guarantee rights of access to resources, rather than offer opportunities of control and ownership of those resources to recipients perpetuate gender inequality.

Lack of women’s access to credit is a serious obstacle to improving women’s agricultural productivity, as without credit women farmers are unable to buy inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and improved technologies, or are unable to hire labour. Women’s limited autonomy implies that they control far fewer marketable assets and thus may lack the opportunity to build independent reputations for creditworthiness.

From food production to control over income, indications are that the position of women within subsistence economies is growing increasingly insecure despite their undisputedly critical roles in child bearing, rearing and feeding of families. Income in the hands of women tends to be associated with an enhancement in the family, particularly children’s, welfare. Income in the hands of men appears to increase the share of household expenditure on items consumed mainly by men.

Women’s inability to participate and influence critical decisions around household livelihoods is having a dire consequence on their ability to be effective in providing food for the household. Given the traditionally limited role of women in decision-making processes at the household, village and national levels in most cultures, their needs, interests and constraints are often not reflected in policymaking processes and laws which are important for poverty reduction, food security and environmental sustainability

Neglecting women as agricultural producers and resource managers inhibits the attainment of food security especially amongst poor households. Thus, if goal one of the MDG’s has to be achieved, marginalised rural women need greater access to education, information, credit, appropriate technology, and other resources that will ease their existing labour burden, and ensure the welfare of their families and themselves. If women are to be fully effective in contributing to food and nutrition security, discrimination against women must be eliminated and the value of their role promoted. This further requires policy reform in support of an equal playing field for both men and women. Gender inequality is deeply rooted in entrenched attitudes, societal institutions, and market forces, political commitment at the highest international and national levels is essential to institute the policies that can trigger social change and to allocate the resources necessary to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment for food security.

Nafi Chinery

Capacity Building Officer

AWDF