Focus on women
How the WFP is working to achieve Zero Hunger
The World Food Programme (WFP)promotes gender equality by using our food assistance to bridge the gender gap. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are key aspects of WFP’s operations.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we are showcasing some of our programmes in Africa focused on the five steps to achieving Zero Hunger. These five steps constitute the backbone of the Healthy Not Hungry campaign, promoted by the World Food Programme, Project Everyone and UNICEF to build momentum around Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 3 — Zero Hunger and Good Health for all.
STEP 1 — PUT THE FURTHEST BEHIND FIRST
WFP works each and every day to save the lives of those furthest behind. Raising the purchasing power of the poorest through social protection schemes will create new demand and new jobs and jump start local economies — thus changing those lives.
In Ethiopia, a WFP programme is empowering women living with HIV/AIDS. Having been laid off from her job 41-year-old mother of three Wubit* had few prospects for feeding her family. But her life turned around after she got the chance to be trained in financial education, business skills and food processing through WFP’s Urban HIV/AIDS Nutrition and Food Security project. She now runs a successful barley processing business and is able to buy enough food for her children and send them to school. She feels that the income allows her to more strongly lead her family.
“I feel very confident and properly socialize with the community. I don’t feel that I am living with HIV. In the past, at times, I used to pray to die, as my life was miserable, but now I pray to live a longer life,” said Wubit.
* Wubit has given written consent to tell her story and use her photograph but we have not used her real name
STEP 2- PAVE THE ROAD FROM FARM TO MARKET
WFP believes that by equipping women with knowledge, tools and technology they can take the road from farm to market. Lolem Boyo Emilat is a widow and a mother of four living in Northern Kenya. Lolem tried to support her family by selling vegetables on the side of the road, but she lost money because of a lack of customers, and her stock rotted. Things changed for Lolem when a new refugee settlement opened in nearby Kalobeyei. This settlement integrates refugees with the local population with the aim of increasing self-reliance. The communities share amenities, including farming land, schools, hospitals and trading areas.
In Kalobeyei, WFP gives food assistance almost entirely through a mechanism called Bamba Chakula (a local slang term meaning ‘get your food’) — which allowsthe refugees to buy food of their choice from the local market using cash sent through mobile telephones. When WFP called for traders to set up shops in the new settlement, Lolem enrolled. She was the first woman trader from the host community to start a shop in Kalobeyei. She convinced her mother to sell two of her small herd of goats for her to be able to restart her business, as she knew she would succeed by having a ready market available for her products.
“I used to cry the whole night, but never despaired. I knew I had to keep on trying,” explained Lolem. “Bamba Chakula is very good. At first, carrying out transactions for me was a very big challenge. I had to call my cousin to help me since I had no confidence and didn’t understand the processes very well. I was always on the phone with the WFP team asking for guidance.
“Now thanks to WFP, I’m now an enlightened business woman,” she added.
STEP 3 — REDUCE FOOD WASTE
In developed countries, much food is wasted on the plate, while in developing countries it can all too often be wasted before it even reaches the plate, when crops go unused or unprocessed because of poor storage or because farmers can’t get their produce to market. In sub-Saharan Africa, as much as 30 percent of total crop production never makes it to the market because of poor storage and management of food after it’s harvested. Each year this represents more than USD$4 billion in value.
In Uganda, WFP is training smallholder farmers like 49-year-old mother of six Achia Alice how to use modern harvest and handling methods, combined with simple but effective airtight storage equipment to improve grain management. Alice lives in Nakapiripiriti District in Karamoja, one of the most food-insecure regions in Africa due to its arid conditions, poor soil and opportunity for only one harvest a year. 2016 was a bad year — with poor rains having a considerable negative impact on grain production. Yet for Alice, she views 2016 in a more optimistic light, thanks mainly to what she learnt after participating in WFP’s Post-Harvest Loss Reduction Project.
“I understood why I was losing food and how to reduce the food losses. I came out of the training feeling smarter and filled with a new hope” Alice explained. “This sorghum has been stored for 3 months now but it is as good as freshly harvested sorghum. I no longer have fear of rats eating my grain and I haven’t seen a single weevil in the bags. I now have enough clean food to feed my children throughout the year. My children are healthier now” she beamed.
To date, more than 100,000 farmers in Uganda have benefited from WFP’s expertise and support. Similar programmes have started in other African countries, including Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Sudan, and Mali.
STEP 4 — ENCOURAGE A SUSTAINABLE VARIETY OF CROPS
Dependence on the four staple crops — wheat, maize, potatoes and rice — not only puts great pressure on the planet’s resources but also dominates local markets and the nutritious value of our diets. We must educate farmers in the cultivation of more diverse crops, and communities about the importance of eating a wide range of foods.
Hundreds of women in South Sudan are transforming their lives with valuable new vocational skills learned through a social and economic empowerment training program supported by the World Food Programme and Women for Women International. The participants say they have been able to achieve things they’d never thought possible after learning techniques for sustainable agriculture and how to build savings by setting up village savings and loans associations.
It was cabbages that gave Doruka Moriba Elinoma a new lease on life. The idea for the farm had come to her during a year-long training where she learned techniques to improve crop production and farming as a business. The 58-year-old mother of eight started growing and selling the vegetables on a small plot of land near Yei, about 160 kilometers southwest of South Sudan’s capital, Juba. She says the new income she earns has changed her family’s lives.
“The training opened my eyes to see and do what I had never thought of,” Moriba Elinoma said. “I have used part of the profits I have made to construct a house, and I have bought chickens and goats to rear for future use.”
STEP 5 — MAKE NUTRITION A PRIORITY
Nothing is more important to the development of a child than good health and nutrition. To prevent stunting and promote healthy development, children and nursing mothers must eat a balanced diet with the nutrients required to help children grow to their full potential.
In Mahama refugee camp in Rwanda, a team of women known as the ‘‘Maman Lumieres’’ support the Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition [MIYCN] programme, for which WFP provides fortified nutritious food, by being champions of change. After receiving training, the volunteers move around the camp educating parents on the importance of good nutrition for their children, particularly in the first 1,000 days of life. They recommend breastfeeding exclusively for the first 6 months and educate parents on how to prepare nutritious meals with ingredients readily available in the camp. Bamurange Glorieuse is a 45-year-old mother of four children, who — like so many of her fellow refugees in the camp — fled violence in Burundi.
‘‘I offered myself to support women, because as a mother, I know very well the challenges women face in raising their children. Seeing a healthy and clean baby brings satisfaction to me. This is my motivation to do what I am doing,’’ she remarked with a satisfied grin.
