Global forum on food security and nutrition

Muqeem Shah Miakheel, Ministry of Public Health, Pakistan

This is very important topic because, in Afghanistan, most of organizations are working for the development of agriculture business in local communities and most of Afghan families are working with agriculture. Afghan women are working together with their family members and can bring changes to their economy.

For the development of Afghan women in agriculture, Afghan women need to join the economic mainstream, they need education, skills and self-confidence. Their families must support their going to school and work. Their community must give them places to work and the country must provide the legal framework, institutions and ministries that support women's economic inclusion.

Nitya Rao, facilitator of the discussion, School of International Development and LANSA, India

There are several very interesting dimensions emerging from this discussion. Haris has picked up the issue of women's work, gender divisions of labour, and its links to both technology and wage markets. This is probably an area that needs more systematic research to understand its impacts on nutrition, as much research in south Asia points to the differential impacts of wages in terms of empowerment, linked partly to the motivation for work - whether it is out of necessity or choice - and the type of work. When new technologies are introduced, why do particular tasks/activities often shift to men, and consequently their value too rises? Can the better designed cotton bag described by Mahesh lead to significant improvements in women's health, but will it also lead to sharing of the cotton picking task by men?

Thanks Mahtab for raising the issue of nutrition awareness and education. This is crucial, however, rather than using a standardised approach, there is need to contextualise it in line with local food cultures and availability. The differential food preferences emerge also from some of the other contributions, especially from Africa. While several NGOs in India have been successful in working with groups of women to develop nutrition-sensitive agriculture as well as awareness strategies, could these potentially be up scaled? The issue of sensitisation for men, raised by Barnali and Bhavani, is important, as despite women's work and incomes, sometimes it is the men who go to the markets and make the household purchases. Final decisions on what is consumed then often lies with the men.

It is very good to hear about the food safety act of Bangladesh. I think this is an important dimension, as despite all efforts, lack of adequate safety measures in both production and food processing/handling, can have adverse consequences for health and nutrition.  

I would like to hear a little more about the seasonality dimension. Recent Lansa research in India seems to indicate that there are seasonal changes in food availability and consumption, leading to temporary energy stresses. Whether these have any longer term outcomes is however not clear.

Muhammad Haseeb, PLAN International, Pakistan

As per the given topic, In South region of Asia women play a dominant role in child care, nourishment of their children and better production, and also have role in livestock production and management activities. In dairy production, women account for about 93% of total employment, almost always unwaged, because she need dairy by-products for their children growth and better health. Rural women engage in cutting fodder, cleaning livestock, managing sheds and watering and milking animals. Despite their significant involvement, women’s contributions to livestock production and management are undervalued. As women’s livestock management work is unpaid it is not considered worthy of investment. Despite the government’s 2007 Livestock Development policy, which focuses on the training and capacity building of women in livestock management. Within the household, women lack access to information that could help lead to balanced diets for their kids, because for rural women livestock is main source of complete diet (milk) for their children. So, improved dairy management techniques could help women address poverty, as well as improve their own health, their families, their children diet and position in communities.

According to ground realities regarding our south Asia Region, the empowerment of women at village level is not imaginary thoughts, it is achievable task. To empower the women through provision of productive assets to vulnerable and deserving women at village level and better production from productive assets will support to their families nutrition and children health to utilise products and generate income. The beneficiary vulnerable women would be self-sustained by milk production for self-consumption and sale to generate income. Income from the sale of male calves will be utilised to run livelihood expanses, better family nutrition, and improved children health. 

Challenge: The main focused challenge is to involve men at village level and conduct capacity building training of men and women both through gender prospective view to achieve task of women empowerment in agriculture sector.   

Dr.Muhammad Haseeb                   

PLAN international Pakistan.

Rural Women Economic Empowerment through enhanced participation in dairy sector Project, 

Vehari Office, Pakistan. 

Contact No.  [phone]

Tiphaine Bueke, FAO, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Original contribution in French

La promotion des bonnes pratiques alimentaires constitue un pilier important dans les programmes de jardins scolaires mis en place par la FAO en République Démocratique du Congo.

Bien que l’objectif principal soit d’améliorer la nutrition des enfants, le second est celui de contribuer à l’autonomisation financière des comités de parents dans les écoles. Les jardins scolaires sont à la fois un outil pédagogique, une source d’aliments riches en vitamines et sels minéraux mais aussi de revenus financiers par la vente des produits des champs. Les légumes récoltés dans les jardins scolaires permettent d’améliorer la qualité nutritionnelle des repas servis dans les écoles, mais aussi dans les ménages car dans certains cas, il est remis aux familles et enseignants des légumes et plantules à repiquer à domicile. Et ainsi avoir des légumes à portée de main à la maison.

Dans la majeure partie des cas, au début de nos interventions, le travail n’étant pas rémunéré, il est compté beaucoup plus de femmes que d’hommes. Un grand travail de sensibilisation est mené auprès des autorités coutumières et politico-administratives pour arriver à une participation des hommes à cette étape. Mais, dès que les premières retombées financières se font voir, il est également observé une augmentation des hommes dans les groupes.

Les us et coutumes locales ont encore une grande influence dans le comportement des femmes et hommes dans les communautés bénéficiaires des projets. L’approche Champ Ecole Paysan, CEP, qui est la méthodologie participative utilisée dans la mise en place des activités permet d’aborder non seulement les aspects liés à l’agriculture, mais aussi à des aspects sociaux notamment le genre. Ajouter à cela, la production d’émissions à la radio qui est le média le plus répandu en milieu rural en RDC pour toucher le plus grand nombre de personnes. Les CEP ont permis à des femmes d’être capables de s’exprimer en public, de diriger des groupes, de devenir des entrepreneurs agricoles. L’implication des femmes dans la mise en place des jardins scolaires a contribué à l’amélioration des conditions de fonctionnement des écoles et des repas qui y sont servi. Il serait important d’y ajouter l’élevage des cobayes  pour avoir des protéines animales dans la ration alimentaire. La synergie avec les programmes de l’UNICEF (Villages et Ecoles Assainis) et ceux du PAM permet d’améliorer le paquet d’activités dans les écoles en vue de l’amélioration de la nutrition

English translation

Promoting good nutritional practices constitutes an important pillar in the school gardens programmes put in place by the FAO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Despite the main objective being to improve children’s nutrition, the second objective is to contribute to the financial empowerment of the parent committees in the schools. School gardens are both a pedagogical tool and a source of vitamin and mineral-rich food and also of revenue through the sale of the produce. The produce from the school gardens improves the nutritional quality of the meals served at school and at home because, in some cases, vegetables and seedlings are given to the teachers and parents to transplant which makes vegetables accessible at home as well.

In most cases, at the start of our programs, the work was not paid and relied on many more women than men. A large amount of work involves the increase of awareness with the traditional and politico-administrative authorities to encourage men to participate at this stage. But, as soon as income starts being seen, more men are also observed joining the groups.

The local habits and customs still have a strong influence in men and women’s behaviour in the communities benefitting from the projects. The Farmer Field Schools approach (FFS) which is the participative methodology used in the establishment of the activities, not only allows for the approach of agricultural aspects but also social aspects, notably gender. Add to this the production of radio programmes, which are the most well established media in the rural DRC, can reach the most amount of people. The FFS allowed women the capacity to publicly express themselves, coordinate groups, and become agricultural entrepreneurs. The inclusion of women in the development of school gardens contributed to the improvement of the operating conditions in schools and of their meals. It would be important to include guinea pig raising as a source of animal protein. The partnerships with UNICEF programmes (Health Schools and Healthy Villages) and those with the WFP improve the activity packages available at schools which, in turn, improve nutrition.