Women are disproportionately affected by hunger, say aid groups

As parts of Africa deal with hunger and food insecurity, Gabrielle Cole says women are being disproportionately affected — and she says more funding is needed to help these women and families, who are going to extreme measures to eat such as dropping out of school and marrying off young daughters.

"There's a huge amount of need and we're nowhere near matching the funding to that need," Cole told The Current guest host Susan Bonner.

Cole is the regional head of gender equality and inclusion for the humanitarian organization Plan International in West and Central Africa.

According to Plan International, about 193 million people worldwide need food assistance, and more than 70 per cent of those people are women and girls.

The United Nations has estimated that 22 million people in the Horn of Africa — the continent's eastern peninsula that includes Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia — are at risk of starvation as the result of the worst drought in four decades.

The UN forecasts the region will see a fifth failed rainy season from October to December. 

Cole says a combination of drought, inflation and the war in Ukraine are driving food insecurity — and it puts families in a tough position.

"It's really important that we put ourselves in their shoes. These are impossible decisions to make," said Cole. 

Cole says women and girls in Africa are often last to eat at the table. Compounding this problem, girls as young as 12 are being married off, children are dropping out of school and female genital mutilation is on the rise in the Horn of Africa, according to a report by UNICEF.

Gender focused approach

Elizabeth Bryan says this isn't just a problem in Africa; it's also a major issue in countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. 

In part, she says this isn't helped by how foreign aid gets distributed. For issues like food insecurity and hunger, that aid can take the shape of subsidies for fertilizer or cash donations to farmers. 

"The challenge is that on the ground, only those who are already connected to such systems can actually access to aid. And women and other vulnerable people often have greater difficulty getting the help they need," said Bryan. 

Bryan is one of the authors of a new article published in the journal Nature, which argues that a more gender-focused approach to aid is desperately needed to counter that.

"There are good solutions out there, and we know what needs to be done. And now we just need the will to do it and the funding to do it," she said.

Some potential solutions include connecting women with financial systems, and setting them up with mobile phones. She also said groups that help women need to be involved when new aid programs are created.

"The kinds of changes that we need to make when we respond to a crisis to really make sure that we're reaching women has to go beyond to really address some of these systemic issues," she said.

Bryan said that these solutions take time and money, but are necessary — and warned that if they aren't pursued, there will be long-term negative impacts.

"We're probably going to see a further widening of the gender gap in food insecurity. And we might continue to see harmful coping strategies," she said.

"It's a really troubling thing that really worries me."