Why hunger won’t stop as long as women don’t have the same rights Research: After you stop using slimming ingredients, the pounds come back

The fight against hunger, long a success story, has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years. The main reasons for the renewed global increase in the number of hungry and malnourished people lie in the food price crisis of 2007 and 2008 and – more recently – in the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the breadbasket of Europe . . The consequences of climate change are increasingly having a negative impact on the nutritional situation.

Current hunger figures are shocking: the latest report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that between 691 and 783 million people will face hunger in 2022 – an increase of 122 million compared to 2019, i.e. before the Covid-19 pandemic. By 2023, 333 million people will be living in acute food insecurity in the 78 countries served by the UN World Food Program (WFP). Nearly 50 million people are on the brink of starvation. 45 million children suffer from acute malnutrition, and the number is rising.

Women are hungrier

Hunger and malnutrition affect the genders differently: women are often the first to go hungry. When there is no longer enough food for everyone, they usually limit their food consumption so that the rest of the family gets enough. Even before the pandemic, their share of people affected by malnutrition was estimated at 60 percent.

In 2021, as many as 126 million more women than men were affected by food insecurity – and this only applies to adults. If children are included, it is estimated that there are as many as 150 million more girls and women worldwide than men who are unable to eat enough. According to the WFP, a total of approximately 1.4 billion women and girls are not adequately supplied with nutrients. This is especially true in rural areas.

Patriarchal structures and traditions

Patriarchal structures and traditional role models, which shape coexistence, especially in many societies in the South, contribute to the discrimination against women in the food system. Women often only have access to land, water, seeds, technology, education and credit through men. About 90 percent of the world’s agricultural land is owned by men.

Only 15 percent of landowners are women, but they make up about 43 percent of the agricultural workforce. In Cameroon, for example, women do more than 75 percent of the agricultural work, but own only 10 percent of the agricultural land. This means that women mainly work on land that is not theirs or over which they have no decision-making power. These conditions are passed on to the next generation through patriarchal inheritance law, which complicates the emancipation of women in the longer term.

Discriminatory role models within village communities also disadvantage women; it is often traditional that women and girls are not allowed to eat until all male family members are full. The idea behind this is sometimes that men work harder and therefore need more nutrients. However, this is not true, because women, for example, have a higher iron requirement than men, especially during pregnancy and lactation. They are also taking on extensive roles – especially in the rural regions of the Global South. In addition to caring for children and the household, this also includes heavy physical work in agriculture and sometimes also paid work. This is especially true because crisis events lead to greater migration of male relatives.

Patriarchal ideas also often influence the distribution of aid money: men are traditionally favored because aid often goes to commercially operated farms, while women, who support their families through small-scale subsistence farming, are left empty-handed.

Gender inequality increases hunger

A data analysis of 109 countries by the non-governmental organization CARE has found a clear negative link between gender inequality and food security: the countries with the greatest gender inequality are also the countries with the worst hunger. The countries with the highest values ​​include Yemen, Sierra Leone and Chad.

Inequality plays a role in who produces food, how it is produced and how it is consumed. Above all, access to and control over resources such as land, water, livestock, seeds and fertilizers largely determine whether food security is secure. This is exactly what the majority of women in the poorest countries are denied; they have little access to land and financing and are excluded from decision-making processes.

Equality works against hunger

Correlation is not causation. However, the proven strong link between gender inequality and hunger nevertheless suggests that improving the status of women can have a positive impact on food security. Various studies show that this is indeed the case. For example, in the West African state of Ivory Coast, it was found that a 10 percent increase in production in female-controlled cultures led to a 2 percent increase in household food consumption. However, when humans controlled cultivation, the same 10 percent increase in production only led to a 0.6 percent increase in food consumption.

Other studies have concluded that women could increase their agricultural yields by as much as 30 percent if they had the same access to resources as men. It is estimated that total agricultural production in the countries of the South would increase by as much as 4 percent if women had the same access to productive resources as men. This would reduce the number of hungry people worldwide by 12 to 17 percent. Moreover, women use 90 percent of their income for their families, while men use only 30 to 40 percent.

The recognition that women’s equality is a central factor in the fight against hunger is gradually bearing fruit. Kenya has long reserved a third of its employment measures for women. And Senegal gives preference to women farmers when purchasing grain for the state nutrition program. In Bangladesh, microcredit programs for women have enabled them to lease enough land to grow food for their families.

However, gender inequality is still particularly pronounced in the countries of the Global South. There is enormous potential here for improving food security worldwide. Equality for women is the key.