Interactive Session: Addressing the Disproportionate Impact of the Global Food Security Crisis on Women and Girls

CONCEPT NOTE – INTERACTIVE SESSION

Thursday, 8 December 2022

OVERVIEW:

The world is on the brink of a hunger catastrophe as unprecedented levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition are rapidly escalating. In 2021 the number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million, representing an increase of about 46 million since the beginning of 2020 and 150 million after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to current estimates, up to 222 million people in 53 countries/territories are facing acute food insecurity (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) and require urgent assistance, and an estimated 45 million people in 37 countries are at risk of severe malnourishment, starvation, or death. The war in Ukraine and its wider implications for agricultural production and trade have exacerbated the seismic hunger crisis already driven by growing financial costs, climate shocks, economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing conflicts.
The mounting global food crisis continues to intensify in humanitarian contexts and hit marginalized and minority communities the hardest. Despite being the world’s main food producers, women and girls also represent the vast majority of people facing food insecurity.

In 2021, for example, 31.9 per cent of women in the world were moderately or severely food insecure compared to 27.6 per cent of men—a gap of more than 4 per cent, compared with 3 per cent in 2020 and 1.7 per cent in 2019.3 During humanitarian emergencies, women and girls face heightened risks and structural barriers and challenges to meet their food security needs, which endangers their health, nutrition, and right to protection. In the context of humanitarian crises, food insecurity exacerbates the risks of gender-based violence (GBV), including intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH). It also triggers the adoption of negative coping strategies, such as forced marriage, early marriage, transactional sex, forced labour and trafficking. While the global food crisis continues to show deep gendered dimensions, women and girls remain underrepresented in decision-making in humanitarian action. To address this issue, this interactive session will explore how to address the disproportionate impact of the global food insecurity crisis on women and girls. Panelists will take stock of existing experiences and current efforts to avert the escalation of acute hunger, food insecurity and poverty, with the aim to provide clear directions for actions that humanitarian organizations, the donor community and partners must urgently take to invest in gender equality and women's empowerment to build longer-term resilience and food security for people and communities worldwide.