“A new
report from the Bread for the World Institute entitled 'When Women
Flourish…We Can End Hunger,' states that women and girls are
disproportionately affected by hunger and poverty because of
discrimination practices against them.”
“There
are several ways in which discrimination against women is carried
out. Discrimination is behind women farmers working with fewer
productive resources than their male counterparts. It also explains
why women in all sectors of the economy earn less than men, and why
girls are taken out of school to work or to marry.”
“Discrimination
against women is a major cause of persistent hunger. In developing
countries, most women work in subsistence farming; in spite of that,
however, women farmers work with much fewer resources than men.
According to World Bank statistics, if female farmers had the same
access to productive resources as male farmers, agricultural output
could increase by 2.5 to 4 percent.”
“Policies
and programs that empower women increase not only their earning
potential; they also directly contribute to ending hunger. Providing
women more resources could bring the number of hungry people in the
world down by 100-150 million people, according to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO.)”
“Although
most national constitutions prohibit discrimination against women,
there is still a wide gap between what governments say they do to
eliminate gender inequities, and what they actually do in practice.”
“Children
are also affected. In many developing countries tradition dictates
that women eat last, after all the male members and the children in
the family are fed. In spite of that, however, 66 million primary
school-age children attend classes hungry, 23 among them in Africa
alone. According to the Hunger Project, every 10 seconds a child dies
from hunger-related diseases at world level, and a third of all
childhood death in sub-Saharan Africa is caused by hunger.”
Full
Report
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