The World Food Programme (WFP) insists that achieving gender equality is vital to ending hunger.
Improving food security is at the heart of UN Sustainable Development Goals number 2. And Valerie Guarnieri, from WFP, says giving women access to the same productive resources as men could “increase food security for 150 million people”.
In Nepal the WFP is part of the Rural Women Economic Empowerment (RWEE) programme, which also has the support of FAO, IFAD and UN Women. According to a WFP blog, the initiative helping women in rural areas gain independence and is giving “Nepalese women and their families improved food and nutrition security”.
“This RWEE project is revolutionary, in the sense it’s holistic,” explained Meenu Hada, a policy officer for WFP’s Kathmandu office. “It is addressing women’s equal pay, access to infrastructure, skills and the technology needed to increase agricultural production, economic and social empowerment.”
With 795 million people undernourished worldwide it is clearly imperative women are given a platform to be as productive as males, a parity which can only accelerate the goal of the WFP – and other key stakeholders – who are working to zero hunger by 2030.
