Food Security

Discussing Gender, Food Security and Rural Development

Agenda: Download "Agenda Fachaustausch Wissenschaft und Praxis Ernaehrungssicherheit Und Gender" (pdf)

Female workers and farmers play an important role in agriculture and thus in food production. But while the number of women in agriculture is on the rise, they still face many disadvantages. Women often have limited or no access to land and more specifically land rights, financial services, livestock, inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, technology, market information, knowledge, skills and advisory services. Female illiteracy further aggravates the situation. It is estimated that yields on their farms could increase by 20–30%, and thus reduce the number of people facing hunger worldwide up to 17%, if women had the equitable access to productive resources.

Alongside food production and processing, women play a decisive role in household food security, dietary diversity and children’s health. Women are also responsible for gathering essential household resources, such as firewood and water. The importance of the role that women play determining and guaranteeing food security and well-being for the entire household is being increasingly recognized.

The lack of access to markets, credit and power means women face a twin challenge also with regard to the impacts of climate change. They are more dependent on the natural resources most threatened by climate change, and often victims of natural disasters but they face gender specific limits to their capacity to cope. But not only are women most vulnerable – as principal food producers and stewards of natural and household resources – they are also often the first and best line of defense in their communities.

The event questions the obstacles and possibilities of Women’s Empowerment as means of both reaching SDG2 on ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and SDG5 on achieving Gender Equality.

Academics and practitioners came together to share insights into their work and discuss the following topics:

Gender roles and relations with regard to food sovereignty and food security, the role and significance of small-scale agriculture in global value chains and world trade, rural development and also the interface between women’s empowerment and sustainable agriculture and developed were discussed. Research findings proof that increasing agency and economic participation of women and the breakup of traditional gendered biased power structures correlate directly with improved food security in rural areas.

Ernährungssicherheit und Geschlecht in Nordafrika – Agrarpolitische Perspektiven

Dr. Tanja Scheiterbauer (Universität Frankfurt)

Modern agri-food systems, horticultural employment and women’s empowerment

Katharina Krumbiegel (Universität Göttingen)

Paying for gender? The gender price gap in Central Kenyan vegetable markets

Lutz Depenbusch (Universität Göttingen)

Female Empowerment and Intra-Household Nutritional Status in Rural Bangladesh

Liza von Grafenstein (Universität Göttingen)

Gender in transition landscapes: a comparative study in developing countries

Grace Villamor (ZEF, Bonn)


Kontakt: Dr. Hoger Kirscht