Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition

FAO

 

FSN Forum

 

DISCUSSION No. 130   •   FSN Forum digest No. 1251

Transforming gender relations in agriculture through women’s empowerment: benefits, challenges and trade-offs for improving nutrition outcomes

 

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Dear Members,

This lively discussion has come to a close and we share the concluding remarks prepared by the facilitators, who have been actively engaging with the participants throughout the last three weeks.

Below you will also find the summaries of the latest comments.

As with all FSN Forum discussions, the knowledge shared contributes to the collective understanding and to follow-up actions on the topics addressed; the LANSA programme will build on the outcomes and the reflections shared from South Asia and other Regions during the discussion to contribute to the recognition of women’s role in agriculture and the impact on nutrition, advocating for policy changes that reflect better gender equality in South Asia.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to contribute, we are happy to accept late submissions which will be posted online and in the proceedings and will be part of the knowledge base of this debate.

For a full overview of the discussion please visit the webpage and download the proceedings, where you will find all contributions received in full. The FSN Forum summary will be prepared and made available over the next weeks.

We hope you have found this exchange as fruitful as we have

 

Your FSN Forum team

 

 

Nitya Rao, Barnali Chakraborthy, Haris Gazdar and Nigel Poole,
facilitators of the discussion

 

Dear Colleagues,

As our consultation period draws to a close, we take this opportunity to thank you for your fantastic contributions to this important debate.  We are delighted with the tremendous response and very grateful to you all for taking the time to share your thoughts and experiences.

There is clearly a lot of knowledge already in this field, and it is heartening to hear about the numerous interventions and successes in the region and around the world. Despite these examples of success across contexts, however, we seem to be confronted by a general non-recognition in the policy domain of women’s work in agriculture and contributions to household nutrition.

In spite of their hard work, it appears that women have little say in decision-making and benefits too are not shared equally. Inadequate attention has been paid to reducing the drudgery of women’s work, and where technological innovations have been possible, the work itself has often been reclassified and revalued as ‘male’. Gendered wage discrimination persists, and there are few attempts at redistributing or reducing the burdens of domestic and reproductive work. Issues of male responsibility and awareness have been raised as central to addressing the burden of malnutrition alongside achieving women’s empowerment, and gender equality more broadly.

We are grateful for your willingness to share your ideas, examples and research with us in such a collegiate manner. We will aim to draw together the general themes and specific ideas generated by this online consultation in a single document over the next few weeks, so please do keep an eye on the Forum page.

Moving forward, the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) programme plans to not only consolidate its ongoing research in this field, but also draw on your experiences in order to engender the policy debates around agriculture and nutrition in South Asia.

We hope that our collective research and advocacy efforts will contribute first of all to recognition of women’s roles and contributions to agriculture and nutrition in South Asia. This will help strengthen women’s claims for equal entitlements, and policy interventions to reduce, redistribute and support these contributions to attain the larger goals of household food and nutrition security as well as gender equality.

Finally, we thank you again for your support and contributions to this discussion. It has been an extremely rewarding and refreshing process.

With very best wishes,

LANSA facilitators: Nitya Rao, Barnali Chakraborthy, Haris Gazdar and Nigel Poole.

 

CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED

iconAtiqullah Khan, PECMS-DAIL, Afghanistan

Atiqullah points out that Afghanistan has suffered for a long time from the results of an internal war which has caused a poorly developed economy and education system which has fed into the maintenance of the current non-egalitarian system. He also points out that few women have the opportunity to study (in this case, study agriculture) and much of this problem points to the need to address erroneous views of who can/can’t/should/shouldn’t work with agriculture.

Read the contribution

 

iconShahzad Hussain, Bunyad Literacy Community Council, Pakistan

Shahzad believes that, at the root of the problems requiring women’s empowerment in Pakistan is the fact that their huge role in agriculture is simply not being acknowledged, let alone recorded, and remains unpaid. This leads to the fact that women’s contribution is not even accounted for in GDP figures and national statistics, and men always take the upper hand when it comes to education, health and budget allocation towards them.

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iconMustafa Nangraj, Agriculture Department of Sindh, Pakistan

Mustafa goes straight to the point and suggests the implementation of a kitchen gardening subject in schools and the use of so-called health workers to raise awareness and build capacities.

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iconTehmina Mangan, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Pakistan

Tehmina explains that, because of increased population, fragmented resources and higher poverty levels, the Sindh province in Pakistan went from boom to bust in terms of vegetable cultivation and milk and butter production. The focus has switched from diversified agricultural systems to commercial crops which has also had negative effects on local diets. The province is in need of long term policy initiatives and Tehmina shares the results of some of her research focused on just that.

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iconRegina Laub, FAO, Italy

Regina shares a FAO publication called “Empowering Women in Afghanistan. Reducing Gender Gaps through Integrated Dairy Schemes”. The original IDS were not designed specifically for women but over 5700 smallholder farm families, including 1540 women, benefit on a daily basis from regular milk money, and the publication identifies the lessons learned for future programming as well.

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iconBibhu Prasad Mohanty, Climate Smart Technologies Associates, India

Bibhu reminds us that we should not neglect that, even if we address problems of unhealthy diets, we still have to make sure that living conditions and problems surrounding the intake of these healthy diets should also be addressed. Every year around 600,000 women in India die from the harmful effects of biomass fired cooking stoves and unless this, and similar problems are addressed, women empowerment can be expected to be quite difficult.

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iconRengalakshmi Raj, M.S. Swaminathank Research Foundation, India

Rengalakshmi recounts an example of the woes caused by monocropping instead of planting local crops. Not only was the intake of wild greens reduced as a result of a changing agricultural focus and allowing invasive species to overtake common areas, but knowledge about these greens was also reduced. As a result, new crops ended up having ill effects on people’s eating habits and the diversity of their diets.

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iconFrozan Darwish, International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Afghanistan

Frozan gives a very in depth account of an initiative for the establishment of women-led Village Based Seed Entreprises in Afghanistan. Seed production was widely regarded as a man’s task but by giving women the facilities and know-how, women have slowly been accepted into the business. In spite of many challenges, the newly established seed companies will be sustainable, a great feat in a closed and conflicted society.

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iconMd. Ataur Rahman, Global Affairs Canada, Bangladesh

Ataur says that, in Bangladesh, consultations, workshops, and seminars have been taking place for the past two years. He argues that more grounded nutrition-focused programmes have to be immediately implemented because, despite women participating in home gardening and poultry raising programmes, they still do not have proper nutrition and cooking knowledge.

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iconMehwish Iaghari, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Pakistan

Mehwish speaks out about the food insecure Sindh province of Pakistan that counts over 70% of food insecure households and still lacks any sort of protective legislation. Fisher folk in Pakistan are also very exposed to malnutrition which causes very high rates of people with disabilities and this epidemic is not only heavily stigmatized, it is also poorly studied.

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iconHira Iftikhar, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan

Hira discusses the problem of micronutrient deficiencies that affect developed and developing countries alike. This problem can have serious health impacts and can increase child mortality rates. However, food manufacturers have increasingly been developing healthy, convenient and functional foods which, if introduced at cheap prices, could contribute to overcome deficiencies and hidden hunger.

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iconIkhtiar Khandaker, Plan International, Bangladesh

Ikhtiar explains the basic premise of Plan International’s Women Economic Empowerment through Nutritive Initiatives which saw landless women’s respect, as well as income, rise through homestead gardening and poultry or goat rearing.

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iconGustavo Aguilar Casas, Mexico

Gustavo blames international malnutrition problems on the lack of education due to governments’ disinterest. Women are the administrators of the household and taking education into the core of the household is key for them to take full advantage of resources at their disposal and develop sustainable agroecological practices.

Read the contribution

 

 

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