Food Security, Gender Equality and Peace-Building
The Institute of Development Studies and the FAO are launching this online discussion focusing on food security, gender equality and peace-building. We would like to better understand the links between food security, gender equality, and violent conflicts, and subsequent peace-building processes. We want to understand how addressing the specific priorities of men and women (across different socio-economic, cultural and age groups) in food and nutrition interventions could shape conflict mitigation and prevention, and peace-building. There are currently fairly large bodies of literature on key issues that underlie these topics. However, very little is known about what links them together.
We want to bring together these different strands of literature and knowledge in order to think about potential interactions between food security, gender equality and peace-building, and identify entry points for policy interventions that support food security and build resilience among men and women in conflict-affected contexts in ways that promote greater gender equality and sustainable peace.
One of the most important outcomes emphasized in the literature is the negative impact of violent conflict on food security and subsequent nutrition – as a result of the breakdown of the economy, provision of basic services, and infrastructure, as well as increases in food prices and shortages. Some of these effects may be irreversible throughout the lifetime of those affected, especially if the effects happened during childhood. Increases in food prices and food insecurity can feed perceptions of deprivation, marginalization and exclusion that may aggravate existing grievances. When grievances are formed along ethnic, religious or other forms of social cleavages, the potential for civil unrest and protests may increase to sufficient high levels as to cause violent conflict. Food insecurity may also favour individuals participating in, joining or supporting armed factions, thereby increasing the feasibility of armed conflict. Global uncertainties affecting food security outcomes, such as climate change and commodity price fluctuations, may also affect conflicts across borders and between groups that depend on agriculture or trade in specific commodities for their survival.
We also know that violent conflicts have specific gender-differentiated effects. Notably, conflicts result in a change in the customary gender divisions of labor. The lives of women in contexts of violent conflict adjust dramatically in response to changes in their households and their communities, as well as a direct response to fighting and violence. Most conflict-affected countries (or areas within countries) experience significant increases in female participation in labor markets. This is a result of two factors. One is the increase in the number of women-headed households due to the death and disappearance of male workers. The second is the fact that income generating opportunities men relied on before the conflict (such as land, animals and other assets) may be no longer available. Despite increases in female labor market participation in conflict-affected areas, women are particularly active in low skilled jobs and in the informal sector, and tend to lose their jobs once the conflict is over, especially in the organized formal sector. Women- and widow-headed households also face many social and economic constraints, such as the lack of property rights over the land of parents or dead husbands. As a consequence, rises in female labor market participation may not necessarily result in improved levels of household welfare or food security. However, interventions that build on positive social transformations during conflict could potentially improve the economic security of conflict-affected women and their families in the aftermath of conflicts. These issues remain however under-researched.
Finally, a number of studies have noted the role of women in peace-building. This body of work has driven renewed policy efforts to further involve women in peace and economic processes in post-conflict contexts. The role of the United Nations has been instrumental in this process, particularly through Security Council Resolution 1325 issued in 2000. UNSCR 1325 includes among its main goals the need to address women and girls’ specific needs, and to reinforce women’s capacities to act as agents in relief and recovery processes, in conflict and post-conflict situations. Subsequent Resolutions, and the Secretary-General report on Women and Peacebuilding in 2010, highlighted the role of women as key actors in economic recovery, social cohesion and political legitimacy. There is a considerable lack of systematic and rigorous evidence on the benefits of including women in economic recovery and peace-building processes, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that women play important roles as peace-makers during and in the aftermath of violent conflicts. New evidence discussed above has also shown that women participate more actively in labor markets during conflict, and that in some circumstances and against all odds, women contribute significantly to the economic recovery of their households and communities as well as to maintaining and promoting peace in their communities.
The results of this online discussion will help inform a study aimed at generating evidence-based, meaningful, and actionable recommendations to governments and other stakeholders, particularly international organizations and FAO staff, on the nexus between support to food and nutrition security and building resilient livelihoods, peace processes and stability, and how to integrate gender issues into appropriate policies and actions related to food and nutrition security in situations where conflict exists, has recently ceased, or is likely to reoccur.
Question 1: Are you aware of any work, projects, programmes or policies that address the issues of food security, gender equality and peace-building, and the links between them? Would you be willing to share it with us, to help better inform this research?
Question 2: Could addressing the different food security and nutrition priorities of women and men, girls and boys help prevent the onset of violent conflict, or shorten its duration? How could this be best achieved? Please provide details of any existing work that addresses these issues.
Question 3: Does your organization have experience of post-conflict contexts where women and men, through their roles in agriculture and food and nutrition security, would have contributed to preventing conflict or shortening its duration? What were these roles and how did they contribute?
Patricia Justino and Becky Mitchell, Institute of Development Studies, UK
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SAFWCO (www.safwco.org, www.safwcofoundation.org) and Roots Pakistan- a grass root development action(www.rootspakistan.org) have long been associated with agricultural/ livelihood development, food security and climatic justice.
Our programs at SAFWCO and Roots Pakistan are gender, conflict and climate change sensitive.We have worked with many organizations including Alert International- having strong conflict sensetivity context and Oxfam Gb- having strong CC sensitivity.
We have exclusive programs on effective citizenship-ECGs at SAFWCO and Food First Pakistan at Roots Pakistan.In the former focus is on women-led citizenship programming including food security while at latter focus is on right to food-based planning & development.
At Roots Pakistan we are also working on open Governments concept to improve governance including food & nutrition governance, with more trasparency & accountability that helps contain conflicts.
Our experience has been that by promoting food & nutrition security societies and countries can help underpin human security through coherent societies and through them peace building.
This discussion topic makes me think about our early experience from P4P in Liberia where more than a decade of civil war had left the agricultural sector in pieces. The limited infrastructure that was in place prior to the conflict had been destroyed, and displaced communities returned to overgrown land. The few remaining farmers’ groups were loosely organized and struggled to produce high-quality rice in large quantities. When the P4P pilot was initiated in 2009, mistrust was pervasive among farmers – of one another, of the Ministry of Agriculture and of WFP. Identifying cooperatives to join P4P proved difficult, and members were wary of working together and therefore hesitant to hand over their rice to be sold collectively to WFP.
Working on building trust among smallholders, and enabling them to work collectively and take ownership of their businesses turned out to be a big challenge but also a big achievement. Here is the link to an article with more information about these efforts: https://www.wfp.org/purchase-progress/news/blog/p4p-liberia-building-relationships-and-growing-businesses
In addition, a colleague wrote a blogpost about how women’s groups in Liberia are not only seizing the P4P opportunity to produce and commercialize rice, but also to create their own personal peace and protection networks. You can read his blog post here: https://www.wfp.org/purchase-progress/news/blog/blog-women%E2%80%99s-ingenuity-determines-p4p%E2%80%99s-success-liberia
>> English translation below <<
La sécurité alimentaire est au cœur du développement. C’est elle qui permet de forger les ressources humaines dont la capacité conditionne la croissance économique et le développement. Toute nation a besoin d’hommes et de femmes en bonne santé physique et mentale pour conduire le développement. La sécurité alimentaire est dès lors primordiale du fait que l’alimentation constitue le premier besoin humain. Si la pauvreté est à la fois alimentaire et non alimentaire, liée aussi aux conditions de base (dispositif de soins de santé primaires, d’éducation, …), la misère est quant à elle essentiellement alimentaire. Or, la misère ne fait pas bon ménage avec la capacité à réfléchir et à produire, la liberté et l’assiduité au travail. Elle ne peut donc pas permettre le développement. Lorsque les gens ont faim, la révolte, les émeutes et les conflits ouverts apparaissent comme les moyens de réaction pour éviter que l’émigration ou la mort ne s’imposent à elles. Il existe donc une relation évidente entre la sécurité alimentaire et la paix. La paix est tributaire de la sécurité alimentaire.
Aussi, est-il donné de constater que l’insécurité alimentaire est une menace pour la paix. D’abord dans le pays d’origine où elle existe, puis dans les pays destinataires de ceux qui réussissent à migrer. L’insécurité alimentaire comporte donc des corollaires négatifs qui demandent que la sécurité alimentaire généralisée soit la préoccupation de tous. Ces corollaires sont les conflits et les émeutes. Or, les conflits sont préjudiciables pour la sécurité alimentaire du fait des destructions de biens (champs, écoles, bétails, ..) qui s’ensuivent. Les émeutes et les conflits étant souvent une porte ouverte au non-droit, ils sont porteurs de l’incivisme et donc de la dégradation des ressources existantes, y compris en premier les champs et les cultures qu’ils portent. Les conflits et émeutes sont une source de démotivation et d’abandon des actes à poser pour faire prospérer l’économie et le bien-être général des peuples. En définitive, on pourrait dire que « la sécurité alimentaire conditionne la paix et la sécurité générale dans les sociétés » et que « les conflits et l’insécurité en général génèrent l’insécurité alimentaire ».
Venons-en à une analyse genre sensible de la situation, des concepts de la sécurité alimentaire, de conflit, d’émeute et d’insécurité alimentaire. En effet, si l’on comprend que les conflits, notamment les conflits armés, agissent plus sur les femmes qui subissent les viols et dégradent l’état de santé des enfants qu’elles sont obligées de porter et d’allaiter au cours de leurs déplacements, on voit bien la nécessité de procéder à une analyse discriminante genre. Les femmes sont plus vulnérables aux conflits que les hommes, du fait de leurs responsabilités dans la prospérité du ménage. Dans le même temps, les femmes ont un rôle suffisamment important dans la réalisation de la sécurité alimentaire, non seulement par leurs contributions aux activités champêtres d’appui aux hommes, mais aussi au regard de leur prépondérance dans les petites exploitations familiales. En Afrique notamment, les productions des femmes sont généralement plus orientées vers les cultures vivrières que celles des hommes. Les proportions de terres affectées aux cultures vivrières par les femmes sont souvent plus élevées que celles des hommes. Les conflits, et donc l’insécurité alimentaire, ont donc des impacts plus forts sur les femmes que sur les hommes.
En définitive, dès que la sécurité alimentaire de la femme est menacée, celle des enfants et de tout le ménage l’est aussi. Car, les enfants ne peuvent plus bénéficier d’une bonne santé physique et d’un bon apport nutritionnel, tout comme les activités champêtres et de ménage (cuisine, entretien et éducation des enfants, …) ne peuvent plus être efficacement accomplies. La sécurité alimentaire de la femme détermine donc la cohésion et la prospérité du ménage. La reconstruction de la paix post-conflit doit donc passer par le rétablissement de la sécurité alimentaire au niveau des femmes.
Food security is at the heart of development. This is what enables human resources to be created whose abilities determine economic growth and development. Every nation needs men and women in good physical and mental health to drive development. Food security is therefore essential as food is the first of human needs. If poverty is both related and not related to food, being linked also to basic living conditions (primary health care, education ...), absolute destitution on the other hand is essentially food related. But destitution is a poor partner for an ability to plan and to produce, for free choice and hard work. It therefore stands in the way of development. When people are hungry, revolts, riots and open conflicts occur as reactions to avoid that emigration or death are forced upon them. Thus, there is a clear connection between food security and peace. Peace is subject to food security.
In the same way, it is recognized that food insecurity is a threat to peace. Firstly in the countries where there is food insecurity and then in the countries which are the destinations of those who make a successful migration. Food insecurity involves therefore adverse side-effects which require that generalized food security should be everyone´s concern. These side-effects are conflict and riots. Furthermore, conflict is damaging for food security due to the destruction of property (fields, schools, livestock ...) that follows. Uprising and conflict, often being an open door to unlawfulness, bringing anti-civic behavior and therefore degradation of existing resources, including first of all fields and their crops. Conflict and riots are sources of demotivation and the giving up of those actions needed to make the economy and the general well-being of people prosper. Without any doubt, it could be said that: food security is a condition for peace and general security in society, and that: conflicts and insecurity, in general, cause food insecurity.
Let us come to a gender based analysis sensitive to the situation, to concepts of food security, conflict, uprising and food insecurity. Indeed, if we understand that conflicts, particularly armed conflicts, impact more on women, who suffer rape, and harm the health of those children whom they are forced to carry and suckle during these upheavals, we can see clearly the need to procede to a gender differentiating analysis. Women are more vulnerable to conflict than men, because of their responsibility for the wellbeing of the household. At the same time, women have a sufficiently important role in the fulfilment of food security, not only by their contribution to farming activities in support of men, but also in view of their preponderance in the small family farms. In particular in Africa, production by women is generally more oriented to food crops than that of men. The proportion of land dedicated to food crops by women is often greater than that of men. Conflict, and therefore food insecurity, has hence more impact on women than on men.
Ultimately, once food security for women is threatened, it is also threatened for children and the whole household. Thus, the children can no longer benefit from good physical health and good nutrition, just as farming and household activities (cooking, upkeep and bringing up children ...) cannot be carried out efficiently. Food security for women therefore determines the cohesion and wellbeing of the household. The rebuilding of peace post conflict must start with the re-establishment of food security for women.
>> English translation below <<
Si nous parlons de l'égalité entre les sexes sur le plan sécurité alimentaire, il s'agit d'autonomiser la femme pour la production alimentaire. Dans certains pays africains les femmes n'ont pas droit à la terre. Seuls les hommes ont droit à l'héritage, donc aux fonciers. La femmes est appelée à quitter sa famille paternelle pour se marier donc, intégrée dans une autre famille pour donner sa progéniture là-bas. Parfois ces belles familles aussi pensent que la femme est faite pour pondre des enfants et non pour cultiver la terre. Et comme conséquence, elle peut avoir parfois des disaines d'enfants malnutris si l'homme n'arrive pas à couvrir correctement les besoins alimentaires du foyer. Cette situation engendre, chez la femme, des inquitutes aux besoins quotidiens des enfants, des soucis, des querrelles et parfois elle est victime de violences de toute sorte.
L'égalité entre les sexes (exigent un partage équitable des terres entre l'homme et la femme), ce qui fera que la production agricole féminine serait encore plus grande pour couvrir les besoins alimentaires des enfants et de la mère. La sécurité alimentaire augment, entretient, alors, l'amour et la paix au foyer. En faisant du monde féminin des héritières foncières pour la production agricole, la sécurité alimentaire est assurées puisque de la production jusqu'au transformation des produits agricoles, la femme a des capacités extraordinaires. Et quand il y a de quoi manger au foyer, la paix devient une évidence.
If we talk about gender equality in the context of food security, it is about giving women autonomy of food production. In certain African countries women do not have the right to own land. Only men have the right to inheritance, therefore to property. Women are expected to leave their paternal family when they get married; therefore they become part of another family where they will have children. Sometimes these in-law families also think that the woman´s duty is to have children and not to work the land. As a result, she can sometimes have dozens of malnourished children if the man does not manage to provide properly for the food needed by the household. This situation gives rise to anxiety in the woman regarding the daily needs of the children, to worries, quarrels and sometimes to every kind of violence against her.
Gender equality (requiring an equitable sharing of land between men and women) will mean that feminine agricultural production would increase in order to cover the food requirements of the children and the mother. Food security therefore increases and maintains love and peace in the household. By giving the world of women the right to property inheritance for agricultural production, food security is ensured because from production to transformation of agricultural products, women have extraordinary capabilities. And when there is enough to eat in the household, peace is self-evident.
This activity is now closed. Please contact [email protected] for any further information.