Ending Food crisis in Africa relies on women in agriculture

Former Secretary General in management and Executive Director of World Food Program (WFP) at the United Nations, now senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Keynote speaker at the symposium titled “Gender and Agriculture: Unlocking Africa’s Potential”, Catherine Bertini, said “Investing women in Agriculture is one of the best opportunities we have to fight hunger, advance global development, and end extreme poverty.

• It is our hope that this symposium will encourage a dialogue in the development community that addresses the importance of gender in combating these major issues”.
• Women Thrive Worldwide, a leading non-profit organization which helps women in developing countries to lift themselves out of poverty and combines the power of over 50 organizational partners and 35.000 individual members in the U.S., united in the belief that ending global poverty starts with women, hosted a symposium titled “Gender and Agriculture: Unlocking Africa’s Potential” in order to address the urgent need of creating effective and cost-efficient agricultural programs worldwide.
• The symposium explored the importance of sustainable agricultural solutions by focusing on female agricultural workers in Africa. Development programs that specifically address gender are increasingly seen as the key to increasing food security and reducing poverty, especially in light of the global food crisis and high food prices that prevailed in many parts of the developing world earlier this year.     
• The typical African farmer is a woman: in sub-Saharan Africa, women produce up to 80 percent of basic foodstuffs both for household consumption and for sale. However, they often have limited access to the resources and opportunities needed to maximize and profit from their contributions. Many of the current approaches to agricultural development by governments, multilateral agencies, businesses, and aid programs do not take into account the different roles, rights, and responsibilities of women and men. This often means that programs do not meet the needs of the population and, consequently, are ineffective.
  
  "Women in Africa produce the majority of the food and are also responsible for their families' food and nutrition, so focusing on their needs and expertise is crucial for agricultural programs to work," said Ritu Sharma, co-founder and president of Women Thrive Worldwide. "Especially now, as women are having to pay higher prices to feed their families, it's crucial for us to work with them to create long-term, sustainable solutions. An investment in women is an investment in the whole community."
•  The Symposium showcased how gender is crucial to sustainable agriculture and to food security for millions of African families. It also charted the kind of commitment, leadership, and policies that are needed to ensure that African women -- who form the backbone of agriculture on the continent -- benefit from agricultural development.
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