supporting women to prevent malnutrition in their communities africa day for food security and...
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Supporting women to prevent
malnutrition in their communities
Africa Day for Food Security and NutritionKampala, Uganda29th October 2015
Allison OmanWFP Senior Regional Adviser for Nutrition and HIV
All forms of malnutrition can cause death, disability and have long term consequences on children and communities
• 805 million people are chronically
undernourished
• 161 million children are stunted
globally
• 52 million children are wasted
globally
• 53% of all child deaths are
attributable to under nutrition
Twins- Porriot and Musto
Prevention of malnutrition is essential to the human and capital gains for households, communities and nations
• Intergenerational cycle of malnutrition- from early pregnancy to low birth weight to poor growth and development to early pregnancy must be addressed
• Effects of micronutrient deficiencies and stunting on brain development and long term health outcomes are well documented
• Stunting in Malawi costs 10% of the annual GDP
• There is a 16:1 return on investment in stunting. For every $1 spent, a nation can save $16
• There is global consensus that we need to prevent malnutrition in our communities for the sake of the individual child, the family, the community and the development of the nation
• We agree on the why…the question is how?
Nutrition programs look towards women…• Because they are a vulnerable group requiring additional nutrient support,
especially during pregnancy and breastfeeding as well as adolescent girls
• Because women and girls often eat last, consume less food and do not have equal access to nutrients
• Because they are the primary caregivers of the children and child feeding is essential for growth and development
• Because women are responsible for 100% of a child’s nutrition in-utero and through the first six months of life
Essential Interventions for Improving Women and Girls Nutrition
•Prevent and manage micronutrient deficiencies of women and girls through programs including school feeding• Specific targeting of nutritionally vulnerable groups (often
girls and women)• Increase access to basic health services and WASH• Increase women’s income and reduce time/labor
constraints in agriculture• Incorporate nutritional concerns into gender policies and
projects• Include women in poverty-reduction strategies and social
safety nets explicitly to benefit nutrition
WFP Women and Hunger• Protracted crises undermine food security and nutrition. • Yields for women farmers are 20-30 percent lower than for men. • Giving women farmers resources could bring the number of hungry people
in the world down by 100 - 150 million people.• 85 - 90 percent of the time spent on household food preparation is
women’s time.• In some countries, tradition dictates that women eat last• Women are generally the first to sacrifice their food consumption.• Malnourished mothers are more likely to give birth to underweight babies. • Around half of all pregnant women in developing countries are anaemic. • In the hands of women, an increase in family income improves children’s
health and nutrition.• Women's education contributed 43 percent of the reduction in child
malnutrition over time, while food availability accounted for 26 percent.
• 80% of Africa’s food is grown by women
• 90% of the workload to process Africa’s food is done by
women
• Women do 60% of the work to market the food
• Women do 80% of the work to provide proper transport &
storage of the food
• Women often don’t have income control which affects food
purchase & healthcare access
• Women bear the brunt of poverty, illiteracy and gender
based violence
Source: FAO
BUT THEY DON’T OWN THE LAND!
The 16-Hour Workday
• Women in Africa frequently work 16 hour days and on top of that are responsible for child care• Women in many developing countries spending from 1 to 4 hours a
day collecting biomass for fuel• A study of time and water poverty in 25 sub-Saharan African countries
estimated that women spend at least 16 million hours a day collecting drinking water (men spend 6 million hours)
Composite Index -Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index or WEIA.
Top three contributors were
1. Access to and decisions on credit2. Workload3. Control over use of income
Measuring progress toward empowerment: Women’s empowerment in agriculture index: Baseline report; Feed the Future; H.J. Malapitet al; 2014 Thanks to UNICEF for slide
Paradox
• Women are an essential factor in overcoming malnutrition
• Programming must focus on engagement of women to be effective
• Programming must not further burden women, but rather work within the parameters of their time and availability
• We need women to be the household nutritionists- but to do this they need the time, power and ability to prevent malnutrition
Nutrition and Gender for decision making• Programming for girls, boys, women and men (GBWM) with
different inputs and outcomes• Data disaggregation is essential for programming• Ensuring equity and equality in access to programs for
GBWM• Different pathways for involving men and women in child
care, child health and child feeding
• However, despite the need to look at all groups, women and girls are disproportionately impacted by malnutrition globally
Effective WFP programming will have a nutrition and a gender focus for maximum impact
• Use of Cash Based Transfers• Food for Assets/Food for Work• General Distribution • School Feeding• P4P• Safety Net Programming• Resilience• Preventive nutrition programs
WFP specifically focuses interventions towards women
WFP ACTIVITY TYPE
NO. OF FEMALE BENEFICIARIES 2014
CASH AND VOUCHERS 554, 339
FFT (food for training) 21, 569
FFA (food for assets) 332, 295
GFD (general food distribution) 3, 730,112
HIV (women living with HIV) 116, 744
Volunteers 120, 716
IDPs/Refugees/Returnees 695, 358/893,845/26,035
MCH (Maternal child health) 1, 635, 847
School meals (child and adolescent girls) 1, 764, 072
WFP Drivers of Success for Preventing Malnutrition-> Access to Nutrients
Nutrient availability (purchase, production or through product)
Understanding nutrients and food
Child care, food preparation, safe water, sufficient fuel and time
WFP Lessons Learned• Design of program to promote nutrition from the outset (access to
information, to informed decision making and to means to access nutrient required)
• Not all programs that are directed towards women and girls have the intended outcome of supporting the household nutrition- because of the time issue and child care
• Essential to allow women and girls to participate in the design and implementation of programs that make sense to them and their context
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