SI’s UN Representative to the Food and Agricultural Organisation, Cinzia Palmi, attended the Committee on Food Security, 17 – 22 October 2011. This session coincided with World Food Week.

During
the World Food Week several meetings were held, mainly on food price volatility,
voluntary guidelines on land tenure and natural resources, gender, food security
and nutrition. A new study project was
started called “SOFI”, The State of Food Insecurity.

Of particular relevance to Soroptimist International was the roundtable discussion on Gender, Food Security and Nutrition.  The roundtable promoted the development of international strategies and voluntary
guidelines on food security and nutrition on the basis of best practice and
lessons learned. Below is a summary of SI’s response to the discussion paper circulated prior to the roundtable. To read this discussion paper, please click here. SI’s full response can be found in the member’s section of the SI website.

Food Security

The recognition of the role of women in agricultural production
remains limited in international and national policy making with financial and
technological investment still overwhelmingly focused on commercial farming.
There is an inherent male bias in such policies which further marginalise
female agriculturalists who tend to farm to feed their families, and restrict
commercial activity to local markets and simple, but time intensive, value
added processes such as grinding or drying of produce.

Soroptimist International welcomes the recognition that more
investment is needed to develop gender appropriate tools and technologies. SI
agrees with the call for more secure land rights for women but argue that legal
recognition of land rights is only part of the solution. This must be
accompanied by action in the courts to uphold these rights, with due financial
support given to women who could otherwise not afford to take their case to
court.

Nutrition

Soroptimist
International welcomes the recognition of ‘hidden hunger’ and the consequences
for physical and mental development. Food security programmes must prioritise
nutrition education as a key objective and ensure responsive programming which
is able to meet the needs of women and girls throughout their life cycle.
Quality of food is as important as quantity.

Programmes
to address food security and nutrition must take into account the multiple
pressures on women and girls and challenges they may face in accessing
programmes – including travel to the programme, the time required to take part
in the programme and any cultural or social challenges they face in
participating. Effective interventions must be designed with these factors in
mind, ensuring programmes are delivered as locally as possible, taking into
account the specific nutritional and food security challenges of that
community.

Women currently
carry the burden of ensuring the food security and nutrition of their families.
However, ensuring good nutrition should not be seen as an exclusively female
responsibility. Soroptimist International urges policy on this subject to
recognise the importance of education and awareness projects for whole
communities, including men and boys, so that providing healthy and nutritious
food becomes the joint responsibility of all family members.

Soroptimist International urges governments to:

• Increase
  investment in agriculture and incentives to farmers, particularly women farmers
  in developing countries;
• Ensure the
  right of women and girls to obtain all forms of education and training,
  including vocational skills which teach women and girls to farm, fish, and
  produce food;
• Ensure
  women’s rights to own land with appropriate legal support to enable them to
  protect their rights;

For more information, vist the Committee on Food Security website.