What are the greatest obstacles to achieving household food security in Africa?
The obstacles are multiple – from environmental degradation, climate change, population pressure, governance, international food prices and so on. But I would say one of the key elements is precisely the lack of recognition of the role that women have in producing food, but also in generating the income with which they buy food. There is so much evidence that women use their income differently than men. They tend to use it for the family and they are the ones who buy the food. Not recognizing this means that women have not received targeted support, because women have specific roles and constraints so the types of services they get have to be differentiated. This is a major stumbling block, especially in Africa. Just how important women are to food production in Africa? Women’s labor is behind 80 percent of the food production in Africa, which is extremely high. It’s higher than in any other region in the world and yet women are doing all of this with a hand tied behind their back. The
