1. Introduction 3 Understanding women’s economic and social rights 10
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3.6 Food and nutritionT Summary of Global Trends While global per capita food production has risen to unprecedented levels, hunger remains a pervasive reality, with an estimated 842 million people in the world today who do not have enough to eat. The World Food Programme has highlighted that in many parts of the world, women are more likely to go hungry than men. In some countries, tradition dictates that women eat last (after all the male family members and children have been fed) and in times of crisis women are generally the first to sacrifice their food consumption. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) highlights that overall “progress in reducing the proportion of hungry people in the world has been tragically slow,” and projections indicate that by 2050, a 70 per cent increase in current food production will be necessary to meet the expanding demand for food. The combined effected of climate change, desertification, rising energy prices and the practice of large scale land acquisition (or land-grabbing) also place increased stress on global food security. ___
Sources: World Food Programme (WFP), ‘Focus on Women’ available online at: http://www.wfp.org/focus-on-women [last accessed 12 December 2013]. World Food Programme (WFP), ‘10 Facts About Women And Hunger’ available online at: http://www.wfp.org/stories/10-facts-about-women-and-hunger [last accessed 12 December 2013]. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), ‘2012 Global Hunger Index,’ 2012. he Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has stated that, globally, people’s overall access to food is very dependent on the work of rural women.309 While the next Sub-Section (please see Sub-Section 3.7 below on land and property) addresses in more detail women’s role in agriculture, here is can be said that even though rural women are critical to global food security, the irony is that they themselves are amongst the most likely to be undernourished and to be pushed into hunger when food prices escalate. This has obvious health ramifications for women, especially pregnant women and lactating mother who have additional nutritional needs. In this regard, researchers have highlighted that “Women are doubly vulnerable to malnutrition, because of their high nutritional requirements for pregnancy and lactation and also because of gender inequalities in poverty.”310 This reality, coupled with gender discriminatory practices in the allocation of food within the household place women and girls at increased risk of a series of health complications. For example, studies from India show that women, as caretakers of the family, are expected to eat only the remaining or leftover food, which can result in malnutrition.311 Similar patterns, where women are simply not prioritized within the household to receive the food they need to safeguard their health and well-being, have also been observed in countries as diverse as Vietnam and Guatemala; resulting in stunted growth, micronutrient deficiencies, chronic energy deficiency, low-birth weight babies, and maternal mortality.312 While food scarcity exacerbates these problems, evidence also shows that men reap “proportionally more nutritional benefit from economic development than women.”313 The 2012 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food (Olivier De Schutter) addresses women’s rights and the right to food.314 In his report, the Special Rapporteur highlights that access to food can be secured by obtaining incomes from employment or self-employment; by social transfers; or by own production, for individuals who have access to land and other productive inputs, and that in each of these areas women face persistent gender discrimination.315 The Special Rapporteur has also recommended making women direct beneficiaries of the cash transfer systems (rather than the men as heads of households) to improve household food security.316 Women’s rights to food and nutrition with a focus on economic crisis The global food crisis, spurred on by contracting economies, rising oil prices and climate change has caused food prices to escalate in many parts of the world. The World Bank reports that food prices remain volatile, and that local food prices in many countries have not come down, despite the fact that international food prices have fallen.317 In South Africa, food prices increased by 7.1 per cent between 2010 and 2011, and some of the highest increases in food prices over the past 3 to 4 years have occurred in the Russian Federation, with increases between 7 per cent and 11 per cent every year since 2008.318 The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific has also reported: While food prices have come down from the historical peaks observed in early-2008, the prices of many staples remain higher than the pre-food-price-crisis levels. This means that the poor face a “twin” crisis—high cost of food on which they spend around 60-80 per cent of their incomes; and the threat to their livelihoods from the still unfolding global financial crisis. Women, who have the responsibility to put food on the table, bear the brunt of the burden.319 Indeed, the World Food Programme (WFP) has highlighted that high food prices associated with the food crisis have forced many poor families to reduce their food intake.320 At the same time, women’s workload – both paid and unpaid – has been increased in order to either produce more food or earn more income to purchase food.321 The WFP reports that “[a]nd as usual, a woman will always be the last to eat …”322 UNAIDS has similarly noted a qualitative study from six countries (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Yemen, Zambia) which showed that women’s nutritional needs, even when pregnant, are not prioritized during times of crisis.”323 To help ensure food security for women, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food has recommended that States make the investments to relieve women of the burden of the care; accommodate the specific time and mobility constraints on women as a result of their role in the care work, while at the same time transforming gender roles; mainstream gender across all laws, policies and programs; and adopt multisector and multi-year strategies that move towards full equality for women, under the supervision of an independent body to monitor progress, relying on gender-disaggregated data in all areas relating to the achievement of food security.324 |