Gender Equality 

Empowerment of Women

• A woman’s right to property, her power to make household financial decisions, and her access to credit, productive resources and extension services all directly affect her family’s health, nutrition and financial well-being….Understanding the role of gender in household feeding and caring practices is clearly an important step in improving nutrition assistance programs.  Practically speaking, since nutrition programs generally entail the allocation of food, women need to play a leadership role (Hunger Report 2006, Page 89)
  
  
• Development assistance must target women, too, because as we have seen in this report, women bear much of the burden in holding rural communities together (Hunger Report 2005, Page 114) Cross Reference:  Development Assistance
  
  
• Improving a country's overall economic growth, while necessary, will not, in and of itself, reduce poverty and hunger.  To succeed, poor and hungry people must participate in this economic growth as well.  Toward that end, funding must be targeted toward:  Small-scale farmers and people living in rural areas, who comprise three out of four poor people worldwide; Women and children, who are among the most socially, politically, economically and physically vulnerable to hunger; and People who are sick and infirm who often have greater nutrition needs.  Resources also should be directed toward very poor countries (Hunger Report 2004, Page 84) Cross Reference:  Economy, Development Assistance, and Health Care
  
  
• Most farmers in poor, rural areas are women.  Thus, women must be integral to any development discussion.  Generally, women must gain legally recognized access to resources and decision making both in their homes and communities.  Such gains would give them claim to social and legal rights that would increase their personal and households' productivity and contribute directly to food security (Hunger Report 2003, Page 109).  Cross Reference:  Food Security
  
  
• Short-term, communities and governments must increase public awareness about HIV/AIDS and encourage voluntary testing and counseling, supply cheaper and more effective antiretroviral drugs, empower and foster social support for women, and provide education on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.  Longer-term, a vaccine is needed (Hunger Report 2003, Side Bar: Page 80) Cross Reference:  Health Care
  
  
• Any effort to development agriculture and improve household food security must include a focus on women.  Most African farmers are women, and female-headed households are prone to hunger and poverty.  African women generate two-thirds of Africa's agricultural production, and participate in trade and processing (Hunger Report 2003, Page 77).   Cross Reference:  African Agriculture, Food Security and Trade
  
  
• Trade Liberalization and Women Farmers:  In sum, more needs to be done to help women farmers gain new opportunities in the global economy, both to increase their families' incomes and their families' food security.  Internationally, trade agreements should include provisions that protect people who may go hungry because of trade liberalization (Hunger Report 2003, Side Bar:  Page 23).  Cross Reference:  Economy, Trade and Food Security
  
  
• The United States should provide development aid to:  Support traditional and nontraditional agricultural exports in which women control the proceeds; work with women's groups in low-income countries to increase women's entitlement to land and access to credit; retrain women farmers who have been displaced; provide legal support and health care assistance to workers who are exposed to pesticides and other harmful chemicals; and ensure that American companies, contractors and subcontractors that produce agricultural products abroad abide by U.S. labor standards and observe U.S. health and safety protocols for their workers (Hunger Report 2003, Side Bar:  Page 23).  Cross Reference:  Agriculture, Development Assistance, and Health Care
  
  
• Food security throughout the developing world depends primarily on women (Hunger Report 2003, Page 21).  Cross Reference:  Food Security
  
  
• Transportation infrastructure would reduce the time women spend on their chores, freeing them to go to school, increase agricultural productivity, improve market opportunities, access social services, and engage in nonagricultural employment (Hunger Report 2001, Page 99).  Cross Reference:  Development Aid to Africa, Agriculture
  
  
• The empowerment of women has been highly effective in fighting the AIDS epidemic (Hunger Report 2001, Page 96).  Cross Reference:  HIV/AIDS
  
  
• Agricultural research and extension systems should be tailored to the needs of farmers, with emphasis on women (Hunger Report 2001, Page 92).  Cross Reference:  Agriculture
   
  
• Southern civil society organizations should lobby for, and Southern governments should implement, reforms of legal codes to improve the status of women and their ability to own land (Hunger Report 2000, Page 83)
  
  
• Governments should invest in primary and secondary education for girls, and training and adult education for women to have the greatest impact on reducing child malnutrition (Hunger Report 2000, Page 82).  Cross Reference:  Malnutrition 
  
  
• All over the development world, but particularly in Africa, where up to 80 percent of food production is in the hands of women, agricultural extension should train and employ women as extension agents so that they might better reach women farmers (Hunger Report 2000, Page 81).  Cross Reference:  Agriculture, African Agriculture and Food Security
  
  
• Southern governments and civil society organizations should invest in gender-sensitive and poverty-focused rural development (including off-farm employment) and agricultural research and extension (Hunger Report 2000, Page 80).  Cross Reference:  Rural Development, Agriculture

Education of Women and Girls

• Expanding education for girls is one of the most powerful ways to fight hunger (Hunger Report 2005, Page 73).
  
  
• Education must cover the spectrum from elementary education to graduate programs.  In Africa, primary and secondary education is vital, especially ensuring equal opportunity to girls (Hunger Report 2005, Side Bar:  Page 12).  Cross Reference: Education
  
  
• A vital step in reducing world hunger is to educate women and girls (Hunger Report 2004, Page 85).

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