FEATURE: Women uniquely affected by food scarcity

Pervasive cultural and social norms often dictate that women and girls are responsible for providing food for their families but also that women and girls should eat last and least.

CAPE TOWN, November 18 (ANA) – Not everyone experiences food insecurity in the same ways, women and girls are uniquely affected by food scarcity especially in conflict affected countries, a recent report by an international humanitarian organisation has said.

Pervasive cultural and social norms often dictate that women and girls are responsible for providing food for their families but also that women and girls should eat last and least, according to CARE, an organisation fighting global poverty and hunger.

The report released on Wednesday, titled “Sometimes we don’t even eat”: How conflict and Covid-19 are pushing millions of people to the brink revealed a surge of life-threatening hunger in conflict zones during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Girls and women living with hunger and conflict are more likely to experience violence, transactional sex, and early and forced marriage,” CARE US president and CEO Michelle Nunn said.

She said girls and women are more likely to have their education interrupted and less likely to be able to resume their schooling.

“If we are going to prevent famine, national governments, non-profits, and the humanitarian sector must work together to address both the causes of conflict and food insecurity, as well as the ways in which women and girls are uniquely affected.”

The organisation said the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic could nearly double the number of people experiencing serious food insecurity before the end of 2020.

The situation is particularly horrible for those living in conflict affected settings. In these instances, violence has already disrupted people’s ability to produce, process, and access food or obtain food to eat.

“This report provides evidence on how profoundly the contraction of food and resources is impacting the 2 billion people living in fragile areas affected by armed conflict around the world,” Nunn said.

In countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), northeast Nigeria, South Sudan, and Yemen, the combined effects of conflict, Covid-19, and other factors have gravely exacerbated food insecurity and put millions of people at risk of extreme food insecurity.

Integrated Phase Classification (IPC), United Nations, and World Food Programme predictions assume the humanitarian sector will be able to maintain their food assistance programming at comparable capacity to past food crises.

However, according to CARE, that’s tragically just not the case in the age of Covid-19.

To date, donors have provided just 42% of the funding needed for 2020, compared with 63% in all of 2019. This pandemic compounded with a dearth of funding will undoubtedly be deadly, the organisation said.

It further called on the US government to provide at least $20 billion in further supplemental funding to respond to Covid-19 internationally to address food insecurity and other pandemic-related vulnerabilities.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday requested about US$59.5 million to respond to humanitarian needs that affected millions of schoolchildren and refugee children in Chad.

The agency said 30% of these funds will support the Covid-19 response in the Central African nation that is also facing conflict-induced displacements, destructive rains, floods, and loss of crops, among other issues.

Chad is among sub-Saharan countries where the hunger crisis is alarming despite 20 years of progress made through the global community.

This was heard last month during a virtual podium discussion held by KfW Development Bank in co-operation with German non-profit non-governmental aid agency Welthungerhilfe to mark the release of this year’s Global Hunger Index.

In 11 nations, including many sub-Saharan countries such as Chad, CAR, Somalia and Madagascar, the situation is alarming. In a further 40 countries, it is serious.

On Monday, the World Bank pledged to work to reduce food prices by exempting agriculture inputs and food products from taxes and fees in DRC.

The DRC was one of three central African nations listed among the 10 poorest countries in the world by American financial news and opinion company 24/7 Wall St., using World Bank data.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Naomi Mackay