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