Food security: the impact of food prices on women

Marc WegerifOxfam International

Karigirwa

• Widowed• Insecure land• Weather changes• Failing crops

Despite this• Produces• Supports her

children and orphans

• works with other widows some of whom are HIV+

• Planting trees

The perfect storm

• Women caught between:– Increasing food prices– Climate Change driven

environmental stresses– Impact of HIV and Aids

(more care giving by women, more new infections among women)

– Existing and continuing marginalization

The food price problem

• Prices of basic food stuffs rose in some cases by over 100% from early 2007 to mid 2008

• Poor families spend up to 80% of incomes on food so feel the pressure more

• Increased import costs hurt many economies• At least 119million more people going hungry• Small farmers not benefiting from higher prices as many

(70% in Tanzania) are net consumers and the terms of trade have worsened for the farmers

• Despite recent fuel price decreases food prices, especially in many rural areas, have remained high

Food insecurity is not new for millions around the world, it is

structural (as is the oppression of women) and must be dealt with as such

• Gendered power operates at all levels from household to community to national

• Our analysis of the food crisis must be at all levels and not stop at the household door

• To go beyond generalizations we must understand the impact on women in poverty:

– In the home– The farm; and– The market.

Are we looking in the right places?

52% of married women in India

suffer from anaemia

• Main providers of food• Access/control of fewer

resources and less food• Less decision making

power• Responsible for most

domestic work • Pressure on time

fetching, making, cooking and working.

Women in the home

• Women and girls first to eat less and eat worse

• Girls first to be pulled out of schools

• Increase in forced marriages of girls

• Women first to miss proper health care

• More of women’s time to make rather than buy

• Increased psychological stress (e.g. child care)

Food C

risis Impact

In Africa women receive only 7%

of extension services and 10% of credit to small-

scale farmers despite being the majority of small

farmers

Women on the farm

• Majority of workforce in agriculture

• Insecure tenure• Less and worse quality

land than men• Limited access to credit

and extension services• Less access to storage

and transport infrastructure

• More vulnerable to corruption

• More time needed to produce sufficient crops

• Marginal land gives less options

• Vulnerable to increased exploitation as workers

• Worsening terms of trade for women as small producers

• Women not benefiting from interventions

In the Philippines, “women make up the majority of those in the informal sector, some 27 million. They have no social security, no protection … workers in this sector are eating less and less” (Women Thrive Worldwide, 2008)

• Earn lower wages• Often in informal

economy or temporary informal jobs

• Don’t get benefits of those formally employed

• Less power to negotiate in markets when buying and selling

• More vulnerable to corruption

Women in the market

• Larger proportion of women’s smaller incomes going to food

• Unable to benefit from increased prices

• Vulnerable to increased exploitation as workers, traders and consumers

While women lost outBig business profited 2007-08

- Nestle’s sales grew 9%- Tesco’s profits up by 10%

- Monsanto 26% increase in revenue- Some grain traders and speculators

making massive profits

Drivers of food prices increases

• Bio-fuel industry, especially maize for ethanol as in the USA (contributing 30-70% of increases)

• Climate changes putting pressure on production in some areas

• Growing middle classes increasing demand for food (meat) and fuels

• Unfair trade regimes, in particular ‘northern’ subsidies, undermined investment in agriculture in Africa and other developing countries.

All MMM

Climate Change in the mix

• Marginal land that women often have access to becoming more unviable

• Increasing conflicts that often have a gendered impact• Displacement that always has a disproportionate impact

on women and children• Water and other natural resources that women collect

are becoming more scarce; taking a longer time, distance, and risk to find

• Women not in decision making on CC responses• Higher vulnerability and mortality of women in disasters

(The 1991 floods in Bangladesh killed 140,000 people of which 90% were women)

Women the obvious solution

• We all know that investing in women is good for development, good for children, good for communities

• But we still sadly and amazingly have programmes that are gender blind or at least partially sighted

• Example fertilizer subsidies

“If our goal is to improve economic development, we must invest in women as

economic and social agents in the agricultural economy” Amrtya Sen

Resolve the Food Crisis By Focusing on Women• Our analysis of the food crisis in every country and

region must be gender differentiated, focus on the impact on women, and not stop outside the household

• Interventions must be explicitly focused on women ensuring that women benefit and that the worst impacts on women are addressed

• Involve, listen and respond to women in poverty during the analysis and design, delivery and monitoring of interventions

• Be responsive to the specificities of each context as gender relations manifest and impact in different ways

Specific recommendations• Cash/food vouchers for women• Support to women small farmers, food vendors,

informal workers, pregnant or nursing mothers• Early childhood nutrition and school feeding with

specific measures to ensure girls benefit • Provide incentives for keeping girls in school• Improve HIV and Aids care and support• Increase women’s land tenure security• Improve women’s access to and control of credit,

agricultural inputs, storage facilities, and technologies• Listen to women in poverty and strengthen women’s

organisations and women’s leadership in organisations

Feminization of responses

• The causes of and responses to this food crisis – and climate change - have been beyond the control of women

• Success will require not just the delivery of better services for women, it is about women being able to assert their rights and gain greater control of their lives

• Especially for women to have more control over fundamentals like securing food and the environment for survival today and in the future