Koforidua, Eastern Region//-The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has built the capacity of Ghanaian Members of Parliament (MPs) in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment through legislation, policies and investments in agriculture and food systems to address the Zero Hunger Challenge.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day forum for members of Ghana’s Parliamentary Select Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, FAO Ghana Representative, Yurdi Yasmi said MPs play a critical role in ensuring an enabling environment in which women and men benefit equally from economic opportunities in agric and food systems.
The role of the parliament is crucial to support through policy the ambitions and vision of the government to transform the agri-food systems in the country, he added.
Mr Yasmi therefore called on the MPs, government, CSOs, private sector, development partners and other stakeholders to play their part in supporting their common effort to promote gender equality and women empowerment.
“There will be no zero hunger without gender equality”, he stated.
Staggering statistics
He drew the attention of the MPs to the fact that the world is not on track to meet its goal of eliminating hunger, food security and malnutrition by 2030.
While 828 million people go hungry to bed each night-this is one out of 10 people worldwide. In 2021, about 32% of women worldwide were moderately or severely food insecure, compared to 28% of men, according to him.
The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity for Ghanaian women remains high at 43.3%, which is higher than the rate for men at 39.4%.
Similarly, the rate of obesity for women in Ghana is 40%, almost twice as high as that for men, which is 22%. Furthermore, over one-third of women of reproductive age continue to suffer from anaemia, Mr Yasmi added.
“Agriculture is a critical source of employment in rural areas of Ghana. 69.2% of men and 62.6% of women are employed in agriculture.
However, only 8% of Ghanaian women own land compared to 15% of men. The gender gap in financial access in Ghana is 8%”.
He continued: “Women in Ghana spend 3.68 times more time on unpaid domestic and care work and they work 9.7 hours per day compared to 8.4 hours by their male counterparts. We need to address this gap”.
Main drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition
The main drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition are conflict, climatic extremes, and economic shocks.
A well-functioning agri-food system must ensure a stable and continuous flow of sufficient, safe, accessible, and nutritious food in a sustainable manner, improve food security and nutrition for all, especially for vulnerable men and women; and ensure the success of sustainable businesses and livelihoods in terms of profits, investments, innovation, and growth, Mr Yasmi said.
“Ghana will need to reduce its reliance on import, produce food domestically and to do so the role of women will be crucial”.
FAO, according to him, recognizes that supporting rural women requires integrated interventions at multiple levels and a wide range of partnerships.
Thus, in Ghana, parliamentarians play a crucial role in creating an enabling environment for the transformation of food systems and in promoting inclusive and gender-sensitive governance of food systems and value chain operations.
This includes protecting the right to food for all, regulating the different stakeholders, institutions and processes involved in the food supply chain, and facilitating equitable access to healthy and sustainable diets for all.
As stated in the recent FAO flagship report on the States of Women in Agri-food Systems launched on 13 April 2023, it is time to Grow Gender Equality in agri-food systems.
“This forum is very timely as we are preparing the Global Parliamentary Summit against Hunger and Malnutrition that will be held on 15-16 June in Valparaiso in Chile.
The Summit will prominently feature gender equality and women’s empowerment and showcase the experience of the Network of ECOWAS Parliamentarians for Gender Equality and Investment in Agric and Food Security”.
FAO supporting Ghana
“At the same time, FAO is supporting Government of Ghana to implement its national pathways for food system transformation following the UNFSS, national agriculture COMPACT following Dakar II Feed Africa Summit, and currently we also work with government to conduct a Country Gender Assessment to analyse the gender dimensions and inequalities that may still exist in agriculture food and nutrition security, natural resource management and rural development”.
Crucial timing
In a keynote address read for the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Madam Lariba Zuwera Abudu, noted: “We believe the timing of this event is crucial considering the global collective goal of bridging the gender gaps that still pertains and for the wellbeing of women, with a positive impact on agricultural production, food security and nutrition”.
In Ghana, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection had developed a five-year National Gender Policy (2015) to advance gender mainstreaming.
The Policy she said had guided other governmental agencies to develop gender policies and strategies for their sectors. Currently, the Policy has been revised to include emerging issues on gender.
Though the National Gender Policy was largely implemented, gender inequalities continue to exist which is affecting particularly rural women, who constitute a greater percentage of the agricultural labour force in the country.
The gender inequalities include the disadvantaged status of rural women and prevalent gender stereotypes affecting their opportunities to gain equal access to power, decision-making, resources, and opportunities to fulfil their equal rights to food, decent employment and land, Madam Abudu said.
“Women face many barriers to access information and benefit from extension services and training. The male-dominated communication channels for accessing such services result in failure to reach and mobilise women farmers.
Despite the efforts being made, more is still needed to raise gender awareness and invest in sensitisation to dismantle existing stereotypes that negatively affect gender mainstreaming efforts”.
She urged Parliamentarians to Grow Gender Equality when discharging their legislative, budgetary, oversight and local governance functions.
It is important that Parliamentarians strengthen their commitment and actions towards the elimination of gender inequalities in agrifood systems to alleviate hunger, malnutrition and rural poverty, Madam Abudu added.
Importance of the agri-food sector
On his part, the UN Resident Coordinator in Ghana, Charles Abani underscored the importance of the agri-food sector to the socio-economic development of Ghana.
“If we are to see the transformation of Ghana’s economy into a self-reliant one, the value chain in the agric sector must be transformed and made more inclusive”.
Mr Abani also noted that employment in the agric sector as a share of total employment in Ghana saw no significant changes in 2021 remaining at around 39.49%. The workforce consists of both men and women even though most of the contributions of the women are unpaid labour.
He was quick to add: “Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2 and 5 on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls requires transformative approaches by all sectors”.
Despite progress in some sectors with regards to food systems and investments in agriculture, gender inequalities underpin persistent food and nutrition insecurity and require greater policy attention, Mr Abani pointed out.
The Chairperson of Parliamentary Select Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, John Osei Frimpong, said the forum which aims at building the capability of the MPs would enable them to advocate better on issues relating to agriculture and gender.
He lauded the initiative taken by FAO and its partners to streamline gender issues in the agric and food industry and called on other development partners for more support.
