Briefing Papers Number 16, March 2012 | Page 3

Figure 1  High Burden Stunting Countries and Gender Inequality Index — Prevalance Stunting Under 5 (%) — Gender Inequality Index 160.0 140.0 120.0 100.0 80.0 60.0 40.0 20.0 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Afghanistan Angola Bangladesh Benin Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Congo (DRC) Cote d’Ivoire Egypt Ethiopia Gambia Ghana Guatemala Haiti Honduras India Indonesia Iraq Kenya Lao People’s Dem. Rep Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Pakistan Peru Philippines Rwanda Senegal South Africa Sudan Tajikistan Tanzania (United Rep.) Turkey Uganda Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe 0.0 Source: Human Development Report 2011. relations and social norms that perpetuate discrimination against females often mean that in countries with high malnutrition rates, feeding practices for girls are poorer than those for boys.16 Women and girls17 in complex emergency and post-conflict settings face constraints in accessing food as a result of insecurity, cultural discrimination, limited mobility, forced displacement, and, in some cases, misuse of food supplies by members of military or paramilitary forces.18 Pregnant or lactating women in conflict settings may also be disproportionately affected by undernutrition due to increased physiological needs and emotional stress. Strengthening Women’s Ability to Improve Nutrition Strengthening women’s power, influence, and decisionmaking roles within the family and community can be an effective strategy to improve their consumption of nutritious foods and their health. In many parts of the world, women19 are more likely than men to spend the income they control on food, health care, and education for their children. Thus, increasing women’s access to land, ability to make decisions about land use, and control of physical and financial assets will not only increase agricultural production, but also improve child health and nutrition. Empowering women to promote healthy, diverse diets through the production and consumption of nutrient-rich crops using local food systems is critical for ensuring food and nutrition security.20 The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization21 estimates that if www.bread.org women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 percent and reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17 percent. Figure 2 (on page 5) describes some of the challenges women face because of their lower status and constrained roles within households and communities. For each, there are examples of potential gender-sensitive nutrition programs—meaning programs that consider the sociocultural factors underlying sex discrimination and use specific methods and tools to improve the opportunities available to women and girls. Gender-Sensitive Nutrition Programs Incorporating gender-sensitive nutrition components into policies and programs can avoid unintended gender impacts that undercut the effectiveness of these initiatives. In addition to providing women and girls with more opportunities to participate, gender-sensitive nutrition programs measure the impact of planned activities on women and men. Efforts to improve women’s nutritional status will be most effective if conducted in conjunction with programs that aim to improve the status of women and reduce gender inequalities. Table 1 on page 4 offers further details on developing gender-sensitive nutrition programs. When planning or evaluating nutrition interventions, it is important to understand the social and gender dynamics that could help or hinder their effectiveness. A gender analysis will help answer questions such as: What are the demographics of the affected group, disaggregated by sex and age? What decisions do women and men make that affect family nutrition? Who makes the decisions about breastfeeding—whether or not to breastfeed, when to start, how long to continue? This could be a mother herself, but might be her mother-in-law or husband. For programs already under way, what is the “baseline,” or who is benefiting from the program as currently designed? For example, many nutrition interventions seek to improve maternal nutrition by simply providing fortified food and supplements to local communities. But this is not enough: if women cannot access these nutritional supplements because Bread for the World Institute  3