Food security, right to food, and gender. Action Aid programmes for women’s access to agricultural land

Food security, Right to Food, and Gender:

Action Aid programmes for women’s access to agricultural land


The Campaign



ActionAid's HungerFREE campaign is demanding "food sovereignty" for all. HungerFREE believes that people need to be able to provide for themselves in a self relient and self sufficient manner. This is the "security" that would enable Dalit women like Aswthamma, Sayamma and Subbamma to know that they can support themselves and their families, and do not have to rely on the caprice of casual labour and unjust landlords.

HungerFREE India has mobilized thousands of Dalit women to fight for land rights, and it is now a bona-fide movement. Since the campaign launched in December 2007, 7,000 acres of land has been secured for 5,000 women.

But there is still so much more to do.

According to rough estimates, only 2 to 3% Dalit women have ownership of land. Nor do they have any rights over resources. Also, they face untouchable status and sexual violence in the community at large. Centuries of discrimination by dominant castes have placed Dalit women resolutely amongst the poorest of the poor.

Working with an ActionAid partner, the Dalit Federation, HungerFREE Women is demanding that the Indian government:

* Provide 5 acres of agricultural land to every Dalit landless woman.
* Provide 5 cents of homestead land to every Dalit family.
* Stops violence and discrimination against Dalit girls and women.

At ActionFre, we want to give all women the right to education. We also wish to provide insight into gender and conflict resolution.

Films about India’s Dalit women.

Action Aid Hunger Free: The campaign launched in 2007, around the issue of the right to food. The campaign is linked to the issue of gender rights and of the right of those with HIV/AIDS to live healthful and safe lives.

Hunger Free Women : First, we will view a short video on a Dalit woman, who is speaking out about the main problems regarding gender in her country. This video highlights the issues revolving around accessing natural resources for women’s food security. What is the problem of food security and access to resources? These are highlights of the campaign. Another short video focuses on those who have been doing the Hunger Free woman campaign around the world, with a particular focus on Gambia.

Hunger Free in India has mobilized thousands of Dalit women to fight for land rights and is now a vibrant movement. Since the campaign launched in 2007, 7,000 acres of land have been secured for 5,000 women. In India, only 2 to 3% of Dalit women have access to land, and they do not have any rights over resources.

In this short film, Bhogaram Sayamma describes the importance of land ownership in Dalit efforts to secure security and dignity. For Sayamma, owning land would mean being self sufficient, as she could grow her own food. This would free her from the constant worry that, if one day she could not find work, she and her family would be unable to eat. You can watch the videos here.

60% of the world’s hungry people are women. If we take into consideration that since this year, the number of hungry has been reaching over one billion (since the beginning of 2009) we see that that 60% number is very high. There is a contradiction here. Women farmers produce between 60 to 80% of the food in poor countries. At the same time, only 1% of women farmers actually own the land they work on, and they are often excluded from farmer’s associations, services, and the acquisition of technical know-how. Although women are the main actors of food production, they have no power in decision making regarding food and land.

The biggest problem these women face is access to land.

There is also the problem of vulnerability and health linked to gender. Every year, 115,000 maternal deaths worldwide are associated with iron deficiency, which is caused by malnutrition. Rural women alone produce half of the world’s food, but receive less then 10 percent of the credit provided to farmers.

Rural women are often far from the centers of power, and thus are excluded from decision making.


The Problem:


Violations of women’s rights are largely regarded as “our culture” or “the way we have always done things in this community.” It’s not easy to advocate in the Northern/donor countries or at the international level. Women's rights are a very national issue that needs to be addressed at a local level, viaimprovements in national legislation/customary laws.

- Rural women’s economic activities are considered as just “women’s work,” and are thus not counted in national statistics. Women’s work is often undervalued, and is rarely measured.



Land represents economic, political, and social power and in many cases the ability to exercise power over those who have none. Colonialism exacerbated the problem, and post colonial governments have largely failed to redress the situation. Poor rural women with no land are citizens of nowhere.

October 15th is Rural Women’s Day (March 8th to December 1st). The holiday is yet to find its way onto the calendars of the developing world.



The Problem III: Focus on the Food Price Crisis

Since women are usually the ones who take care of the preparation of meals and the provision of basic food for the kitchen table, women suffer most from an increase in agricultural food prices. Women elaborate strategies to cop with high prices. They try to increase their income, by selling their products at the best prices in different markets, looking for cheaper food, and so on.

When food is scarce, when basic needs are not satisfied, men and male children often come first. Women's rights are seen to be optional, and are often given less priority or pushed into the background.

There is evidence of an increase in violence (especially domestic violence) during economic crisis and emergencies. This may happen because the male breadwinner model is challenged within the home and sociey at large.

Solutions identified by institutions have often worsened the conditions and livelihood of rural women. Promoting innovation and technology challenges traditional knowledge, which is commonly owned by women. Simply increasing large scale and export-led agricultural models doesn’t help.


Intersectionalities between Climate Change and Women’s Rights:

Climate Change Affects Food Security

10% crop yield reduction for each 1 C temperature increase.

Crop yields across Africa reduced by up to 50% by 2020, with more frequent and severe droughts, fires, floods, and storms.

Loss of coral reefs and fisheries.

Loss of glaciers, reduced water run-off.

Women are more affected by climate change. In case of natural disaster, women and children are fourteen times more likely to die then men. Women are not taught to swim or climb trees, and are thus at more risk when floods occur.

Women are under represented in forums and decision making processes, for adaptation and mitigation of enviromental problems(see low female presence in delegations at COPs). This is true, despite the fact that women are more environmentally friendly, and are more likely to use bikes and public transport then men.


Intersectionalities with HIV and AIDS:

Marginalized women and girls are more vulnerable to HIV, and bear the greatest burden when HIV/AIDS affects families, through illness or death. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women are 61% of people living with HIV, up from 57% in 2003. Women aged 15 to 24 are three times more likely to be infected then young men. Globally, up to 90% of care in illness is provided in homes by women and girls.

HIV prevalence is more common in the most food insecure countries, with HIV and AIDS being both a cause and a result of hunger.

Solutions Identified:

Women farmers must be given land rights, to secure their sources of food and livelihoods.



Women small-scale farmers must be supported with agricultural aid, and enabled to access resources they need to be productive, such as cheap fertilizer and agricultural credit.

Women’s rights must be respected. For example, enabling women to get an education has been identified as the single most powerful contribution to reducing malnutrition over a 35-year period.

The responses to the food price crisis and to climate change challenges must be gender sensitive, both in terms of the analysis provided and for the solutions identified. In HIV/AIDS high prevalence countries, the female face of the pandemic must be considered.

The Campaign:

The facts are well known and the problem is deeply researched, and solutions have been well ID’d and articulated. Yet from CSO’s to governments and donors, there is very little activism or concerted attempts at changing laws, policies, administrative systems or belief systems. All of these factors continue to deny and violate women’s rights. This is in spite of all commitments that most governments have made (CEDAW, the Beijing platform for Action). Someone had to do something!



Women’s right to access and control land is one of AAI’s strategic priorities in the women’s rights and food right’s themes. We produced analysis before 2007 (see Report Women’s Access to Land), and work at the community level with women’s agricultural associations, as well as women in peasant movements.

When the HungerFree campaign was conceived, we decided to have women’s access to land and the right to natural resources as one of the three main pillars in our advocacy, mobilization, and research work.

The Campaign:

When: Hungerfree began in 2007, HungerFree women was the main focus of the campaign in 2008. The hottest period of activity was between October 15th 2008 and March 8th 2009.

Where? Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Uganda, Bangladesh, Gambia, Haiti, Nepal, Mozambique, Brazil, Zimbabewe, Vientma, Senegal, India, Malawi.

Who: 80,000 women marched with Hungerfree Women, many of them traveling for weeks or months.

Through our e-action on the website, our supporters took action alongside women’s farmers.

Outputs: Charters and petitions have been produced and released to relevant institutions.

Outcomes: They aredifferent depending on countries: in some of them, they are big commitments taken by leaders.

Short Video 2: HungerFree around the world.

The film of the HungerFREE women rolled out across the globe last November and December. The film shows some of the women and activists that we have met in Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Uganda, Bangladesh, Gambia, Haiti, Nepal, and Mozambique.




Examples of How HungerFree Worked So Far

The Gambia:

The HungerFREE cross-country caravan toured the Gambia in October 2008, starting on Rural Women’s Day. Almost 30 delegates traveled to meetings held in each region of the Gambia. At these 8 meetings, attended by between 150 and 200 women, women farmers sharedthe difficulties they faced in producing crops, as well as the lack of permanent access to land. Strong and concrete commitments to change were made by local chiefs, governors, and religious leaders.

The caravan was made of a wide range of delegates: Gambian ational Assembly Members and a Government Representative, friends from the media, activists, the president of national women farmers association, AA staff, AA Gambia partners, and other participated. On most days, women waited by the road to welcome the caravan and to march alongside it towards the town centre, bringing with them their tools and crops.

Women expressed themselves through dances, songs, and displays of the food produced and tools used at the caravan stops. Activist school chapters entertained the crowd with dramas and songs.

The women present during the meetings, and those whom the caravan met en route to town, signed the HFW petitions, which were printed in a large banner. This banner was displayed during the FAO candlelight vigil on 21st October and hangs ouside the Gambian National Assembly builiding.

FURTHER STEPS

AA/FAO event at the UN in New York on women farmers (22/9/08).

- A lunch meeting brought together women farmers from Kenya and Cameroon, with staff UN agencies, IFI’s, NGO’s and government missions to highlight the challenges facing women farmers in the context of the food crisis.

-Nalangu Taki, a farmer, organizer, and women’s right’s activist from the Narok region of Kenya was present, as well as Magdalene Setia, manager of Action Aid’s development initative in Narok. Elizabeth Atangana from Cameroon, the President of the Peasant Organization of Central Africa (PROPAC) was there as well.

FURTHER STEPS III

Italian G8

- Agriculture Ministers Meeting (Treviso, April 2009)
- Enviromental Ministers Meeting (Siracusa, April 2009)
- Development Ministers Meeting (Rome, next week).
- G8 Summit in L’Aquila (July)

HungerFree Women Exhibition in Rome, 24th June 2008 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of AA Italy.

International Rural Women Day and World Food Day (15th to the 16th of October).

COP Copenhagen (DK) next December.

Towards 2015, we hope to achieve MDG 1.

Useful References Regarding Our Work:

Websites:
Hungerfreeplanet.org
Action Aid
Land Tenure
IFSN-Action Aid.net

Papers by ActionAid:

- Securing Women’s Right’s to Land and Livelihoods: A Key to Ending Hunger and Fighting AIDS.
- - Cultivating Women’s Rights for Access to Land.

- - 10 Point Action Plan to End Hunger.

- - Failing the Rural Poor: Aid, Agriculture, and MDG’s.

- Biting the Feeding Hand: Voices of Women on Land. Collection of stories from poor women in Uganda about their struggles.