For regions in Africa beset by drought and food insecurity, the war in Ukraine is a force-multiplier.
The conflict is sharply driving up the cost of living in countries like Kenya that rely heavily on Russia and Ukraine for wheat and fertilizer.
It is exacerbating food insecurity in drought regions, such as the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, and those coping with conflicts and COVID-19.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 26 million people now are suffering from acute food insecurity. Bread, a family food staple, is often absent from the dinner table.
Gender pandemic
The data are disturbing, the pain points are many, and the victims are myriad. Yet, it is all too clear, and not surprising, that women and girls are bearing a disproportional toll from the war, conflicts, COVID-19, and climate change.
Women-headed households, elderly women, gender-diverse persons, people with disabilities, and minorities absorb the most fallout.
How can we feed our families, ensure economic prosperity, and protect the environment for all Africans without involving all Africans—women and men alike? We cannot.
A rapid gender analysis of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine demonstrates that women are reducing their food intake to provide for their children, the elderly, and the sick, and are depleting their savings to buy food whenever and wherever it is available.
According to a newly-released report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world, the gender food insecurity gap has widened—from less than 2 per cent in 2019 to more than 4 per cent in 2021, with 32 per cent of women versus 28 per cent of men moderately or severely food insecure.
Sadly, we know exactly why women and girls are struggling the most. Multiple crises are intensifying pre-existing structural inequalities, including gender inequalities, resulting in negative outcomes for women and girls.
We need to harness the potential, optimism, and ingenuity of our young people. A 2019 study by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) found that the average age of farmers in developing countries is about 34. This flatly refutes stories that the farming population is aging, or that rural youth are leaving agriculture because they find farming “uncool” and “arduous.” We must make agriculture work for them.
Gender equality considerations remain largely absent from discussions on food systems and on response and recovery despite the vital roles that women provide, worldwide, in ensuring food and nutritional security.
Prioritising women’s rights benefits everyone
In essence, we need a new paradigm, namely: an intersectional gender perspective in our humanitarian responses and social protection measures.
We know sustainable and climate-resilient food and agricultural systems approaches work and how to implement them. These would centralize gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment, so that response and recovery measures for food security and nutrition benefit everyone equally.
- Gender-responsive climate-resilient agriculture, an integrated method to managing cropland, livestock, forests, and fisheries. It addresses the interlinked challenges of climate change and achieving food security.
- Agro-ecology - an innovative sustainable agricultural approach, supports climate-resilient livelihoods and is rooted in ancestral knowledge, practices, and techniques for sustaining food and nutrition provisioning through diversified and balanced diets.
We need to prioritize the rights of women and girls to obtain food, tailoring food assistance, with an emphasis on adequate and appropriate nutritional food, and improving access to meet specific needs of women and girls.
In addition, we can alleviate pressures on women and girls from the current spike in food and fertilizer prices by immediately expanding gender-responsive social protection systems for in-kind assistance and food packages.
Long term, we have to eliminate harmful fossil-fuel and agricultural subsidies. This will accelerate our transformation to equitable and sustainable food systems that are human-rights based and gender-responsive, resulting in food security and better nutrition for all.
The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit described priorities for achieving equitable and sustainable food systems.
Key recommendations include implementing country-level, gender-responsive policies for putting an end to harmful gender and social norms and enhancing access to finance for women in local, national, and global food supply chains.
The time for achieving gender equality is now! With women and girls fully engaged, we will accomplish much. Without them, we will be like bakers making bread with no flour, yeast, or water, bound to fail.
We know what works.
UN-Women programmes on gender-responsive procurement underscore that sourcing from women-owned, women-led farmer’s cooperatives, and organizations for humanitarian responses and public provisioning can yield a win-win harvest: sufficient supplies and economic empowerment for women.
Furthermore, a 2022 report by UN-Women shows that countries with more women’s leadership and active participation by feminist organizations in democratic decision-making are more effective in responding to crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
As such, we must advance women’s participation, leadership, and decision-making—especially for young women. Evidence shows that more young people, including young women, are engaging in agriculture and food provisioning.
We need to harness the potential, optimism, and ingenuity of our young people. A 2019 study by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) found that the average age of farmers in developing countries is about 34.
A 2022 report by UN-Women shows that countries with more women’s leadership and active participation by feminist organizations in democratic decision-making are more effective in responding to crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
This flatly refutes stories that the farming population is aging, or that rural youth are leaving agriculture because they find farming “uncool” and “arduous.” We must make agriculture work for them.
Without doubt, youth leadership is critical for finding sustainable solutions to modernize food and agricultural systems and integrate time- and labour-saving technology for achieving enhanced productivity during climate and conflict challenges.
No time to wait
Women’s absence or meager representation in discussions and decision-making have rendered response mechanisms inadequate for meeting the needs and priorities of women and girls, especially during upheaval.
Women’s absence or meager representation in discussions and decision-making have rendered response mechanisms inadequate.
The COVID-19 Response report by UN-Women and UNDP highlights that only 196 of the 226 countries surveyed adopted a gender-sensitive measure.
The time for achieving gender equality is now! With women and girls fully engaged, we will accomplish much. Without them, we will be like bakers making bread with no flour, yeast, or water, bound to fail.
Dr. Njuki is the Chief of the Economic Empowerment section at UN-Women
