Source: International Food Policy Research Institute, based on gender and development research conducted by the Institute
Available Facts
Women and Nutrition
- Improvements in women’s education and status within the household contributed 55 percent to the overall reduction of child malnutrition between 1970 and 1995.
- South Asia has a much higher rate of child malnutrition than Sub-Saharan Africa, despite having a better record on economic growth, poverty reduction, and education. A key reason is the weak status of women in South Asia.
Women and Education
- IFPRI country studies have demonstrated that mothers’ education is crucial to poverty reduction. For example, in Egypt and Mozambique, female education has a much larger impact on poverty than other factors, including male education.
- In Egypt, increasing mothers’ schooling from little or none to completion of primary school reduces the proportion of the population below the poverty line by one third.
- In Bangladesh, under the Food for Education program, transfers of food based on school attendance increase girls’ enrollment by 44 percent.
Women and Land Rights
- Although women have primary responsibility for family food production and provide the majority of agricultural labor in much of Africa, their rights to land are restricted.
- Securing land rights for women will lead to greater agricultural productivity and improved environmental stewardship.
Women and Household Power
- Women are much more likely than men to spend time, money, and other resources on nutrition and education for their children. Unfortunately, women often have less control than men over family resources.
- In order to succeed, development programs need to be sensitive to the unequal distribution of power between men and women in the family, and they need to focus on providing resources in a way that empowers women.
Targeting of Programs to Women
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Cash, food, and other transfer programs targeted to women improve overall household welfare. For example, benefits under PROGRESA, an anti-poverty program in Mexico, resulted in a 14 percent increase in female enrollment in secondary school and a 12 percent reduction in the incidences of illness among boys and girls.
- Micro-credit programs empower women’s decision-making over household resources. In Bangladesh, a study has shown that there was a significant impact on the nutritional status of both sons and daughters only when loans went to women.
- As caretakers, women’s income earnings often depend on access to affordable, quality day care, particularly in urban areas and among poor women who are the only income earners in the family. In Guatemala, the government-sponsored Community Day-Care Program has been successful in providing such child care so that women can earn incomes.
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