Volume 1, Number 3
October 1995

New Food Policy Report on Women

Women: The Key to Food Security, an IFPRI Food Policy Report, brings together the latest evidence on the key roles that women play in ensuring food security. It provides evidence from IFPRI and other research on women's significant roles in maintaining the three pillars of food security: food production, economic access to available food, and nutritional security. The report also highlights the social, cultural, and economic constraints they face in fulfilling these roles. The report examines ways to strengthen the three pillars of food security through policies and programs that enhance women's abilities and access to resources to fulfill their roles. The report recommends that national governments and international organizations take policy steps in three broad areas: increasing increase women's physical and human capital, increasing women's ability to generate income, and protecting women's health and nutritional status to allow women to fulfill their productive and reproductive roles.