Gender equality matters for nutrition

How EU development cooperation can improve both

gender equality and nutritional outcomes in the rural sector

This Brief is designed to help EU staff apply a gender lens to nutrition-related programming in the rural
sector. It is divided into three sections. The first section provides an overview of how gender relations
influence pathways to nutrition in the rural sector. The second section describes different ways in which
nutrition-sensitive programmes in the rural sector can be more effective if they consider gender equality and
the empowerment of women. The third section provides guidelines for strengthening the gender dimensions
of nutrition-sensitive programmes in the rural sector.

This Brief complements the EU guidance note Because women matter: Designing interventions in food,
nutrition and agriculture that allow women to change their lives.1

Core messages

1. Gender equality matters for nutritional outcomes and

improved nutritional outcomes matter for gender equality.
Women play an important role in the agricultural labour force in
low-income countries and their contribution to household food
and nutrition security is significant. Neither women nor girls
should be regarded as victims of malnutrition, but as key actors
in its elimination. However, they are at a disadvantage when it
comes to accessing assets and services to improve nutrition for
themselves and their families. This disempowerment is rooted
in discriminatory social norms that regard women and girls as
inferior to men and boys.

2. International evidence clearly demonstrates that

empowering women is central to tackling malnutrition,
without which the effectiveness of nutrition-sensitive
programming will be compromised.
This underlines the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach
to tackling malnutrition. Such an approach needs to challenge
those discriminatory norms that impede the potential of women
and girls to achieve better nutritional outcomes. At the policy level,
this can entail changing the attitudes of key decision makers. At
the community level, it can entail encouraging dialogue between
men and women for better nutrition and enhancing women’s skills
and knowledge. At the household level, it can entail encouraging
men and women to collaborate over the use of resources for
better nutrition. These are gender transformative approaches and
they work more effectively if they are implemented alongside
reform of infrastructure and services for health, nutrition, Ethiopia: Women’s empowerment helps healthy babies grow into healthy adults.
education, extension and social protection. Photo: European Commission

International
Cooperation and
Development
 2 Gender equality matters for nutrition

3. The EU is committed to improving gender equality and

empowering women and girls in its nutrition-sensitive
agricultural investments.
To do so, it is important to understand the complex dynamics
between women’s and girls’ empowerment, nutrition outcomes
and agriculture. There must be an examination of gendered
“ The man is the head of the family and
controls all the family resources – land, goats,
tree plantations and other household assets,
such as a bicycle and crops. He makes decisions
“
divisions of labour, patterns of empowerment, and discriminatory in everything and no one can stop him. I only
attitudes and behaviour in the rural sector that prevent women
and girls from fulfilling their role in nutrition. In order to track the decide on the household utensils – saucepans,
EU’s progress in this regard, indicators are needed that measure plates, cups, my clothes.
not only progress in the nutrition status of women and girls, but
also progress in their empowerment for nutrition.
(18 year old married girl, Uganda).3
A. Gender equality matters for nutrition

Rural women and girls in low-income countries play an important Rural men tend to control assets and make important
role in maintaining household food and nutrition security decisions around the use of assets such as land, income
through three key channels: agriculture and food; care practices; or technology for food production. Rural women generally
and health. With the skills and knowledge that they possess, operate in the ‘private’ sphere as providers of meals and
they offer very real opportunities to lower levels of malnutrition. ‘carers’ of household wellbeing. Their productive and
In order to maximise these opportunities, rural women and girls economic roles tend to be under-valued and unsupported,
need to be able to make choices around accessing the assets and they are restricted in the choices that they can make in
and services required for improved nutrition – they need to be accessing assets and services for food and nutrition security.
empowered. This process of empowerment depends on the This process of disempowerment can grow or diminish over
underlying social norms that dictate societal attitudes towards time and will depend on a range of factors, such as location,
the value of women and girls. There is plenty of evidence to wealth, age, religion, position in a household or marital status.
suggest that levels of hunger are higher in countries with a It stems from discriminatory social norms that pervade all
lower degree of gender equality.2 levels of society and that place a lesser value on a woman
and girl than on a man and boy.

Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls

Gender equality matter for nutrition because they have an important bearing on
the three underlying determinants of nutrition: food security;
Gender equality concerns the power relations between care practices; and health. These are summarised in Figure 1.
men and women. Gender equality is at the very heart of
human rights and United Nations values. A fundamental
principle of the United Nations Charter adopted by world
leaders in 1945 is, “equal rights of men and women”.

Empowerment

There are many definitions of empowerment, central

to all of which is: the process by which those who have
previously been denied the ability to make strategic life
choices acquire such an ability.

Members of the Tubehoneza cooperative (Burundi), supported by the SFOAP

programme which helps in the production and sale of cassava. Women’s
control over agricultural production and income can help improve household
nutrition.
Photo: IFAD
 Gender equality matters for nutrition 3

Figure 1: The central role of gender in determining nutrition

A.1. What is malnutrition and who is malnourished? wasting (low weight compared to height);
underweight (low weight for age);
Malnutrition encompasses all forms of nutrient imbalances, micro-nutrient deficiency (such as anaemia, goitre,
including undernutrition as well as being overweight or obese. night-blindness and lowered immunity, which result from
Whilst recognising that being overweight and obese are an inadequate iron, iodine, vitamin A and zinc, respectively).
increasingly serious problem in low-income countries, this
Brief is largely informed by experience of the linkages between Different forms of malnutrition can co-exist in the same area,
gender and undernutrition. household and even individual. The 2017 Global Nutrition Report
shows that 88% of countries for which data were available still
Undernutrition is the physical outcome of insufficient dietary face a serious burden of either two or three forms of malnutrition
intake and/or infectious disease. Undernutrition can appear in (childhood stunting, anaemia in women of reproductive age and/
several different forms, singly or in combination: or being overweight in adult women). Two billion people lack
key micronutrients; 151 million children are stunted; 51 million
 low birth weight (and small for gestational age); children are wasted; and nearly 2 billion adults are overweight
stunting (low height compared to age); or obese.4
 4 Gender equality matters for nutrition

Global progress is not rapid enough to meet the sustainable directly or indirectly: directly – by providing food for household
Development Goal (SDG) target 2.2 to end all forms of consumption; indirectly – through the income from the sale of
malnutrition by 2030. No country is on track to meet the targets agricultural produce or from rural employment, so a household
to reduce anaemia amongst women of reproductive age; the can buy more nutritious food.
number and percentage of women with anaemia has actually
increased since 2012. The achievement of global targets In low-income countries, women comprise on average 43% of the
recedes further as famine cycles become more frequent, putting agricultural labour force and in some regions this is increasing.8
the nutrition security of millions of people in peril. In 2017, the They work as unpaid family labourers, pastoralists, fishers, self-
north-east states of Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen employed producers and processors, commercial farmers, on-
experienced significant acute food insecurity and malnutrition.5 and off-farm employees, traders and service providers.

In low-income countries, national data show that marginally If a rural woman is empowered, she can make choices about
more boys than girls are under-nourished up to the age of five assets and services – such as land, rural credit, technology,
and there is some evidence that this pro-girl bias continues into irrigation, labour, knowledge and extension – that contribute
adolescence.6 However, high and increasing levels of anaemia in towards nutrition. It is estimated that if women worldwide had
women and girls of reproductive age is universally acknowledged the same access to productive resources as men, they could
as a serious concern because of their reproductive role. increase the yields from their farms by 20% to 30% and total
agricultural output by 2.5% to 4%. This would li between 100
Addressing malnutrition and 150 million people out of hunger.9 This section describes
Development programmes can contribute to nutrition security how the empowerment of rural women and girls needs to be
through nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions. improved for this to happen.

Nutrition-specific interventions address the immediate A.2.1. Agricultural roles in a commercialised world
causes of malnutrition and tend to be linked to health or
humanitarian programmes. These commonly focus on the 1000 Rural women are responsible for a large share of dietary
days that span pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s staples. They manage small kitchen gardens or homestead plots,
life, a period that has been identified as critical for preventing producing fruit and vegetables that are rich in micronutrients
long-term malnutrition.7 Examples include: optimising maternal for household consumption. They also play an important role
nutrition, early and exclusive breastfeeding, micro-nutrient in livestock husbandry, especially poultry and small ruminants,
supplementation, and management of acute malnutrition. providing nutrition through meat, eggs and dairy products.

Nutrition-sensitive interventions address the underlying A disempowered woman may not be able to decide how
and basic causes of malnutrition in a multi-disciplinary way, her produce is used. Even when she is responsible for raising
spanning the agriculture, health, WASH, education and social poultry, her husband may force her to sell the eggs rather than
protection sectors. keep them for her children or herself. As agriculture becomes
increasingly commercialised, women are displaced from their
A.2. Gender equality influences nutrition through food roles as producers of nutritious food for home consumption
security and men, with their better access to resources and markets,
take control and reap the income benefits. This can widen the
In rural communities, especially amongst the poor, agriculture income gaps between men and women, reinforcing the cycle
determines dietary intake. Agriculture determines diets either of women’s disempowerment. In Africa, there is evidence that
this widening of the gender gap in agrarian incomes is more
pronounced between men and women within a household than
between households.10

“ When Kenyan household milk production

became more profitable, it was taken over by
men to the detriment of household nutrition.11
“
A.2.2. Control over income

Women and men oen have different preferences for income

expenditure. As principal caregivers, women prefer to spend their
income on food, health and clothing, whereas men prefer to
spend their income on production, household maintenance and
their personal use. A woman’s lack of bargaining power within
Ethiopia: Men oen have better access to markets which can widen the income the household means that even when she earns her own income
gap between men and women. from the sale of agricultural products, she cannot always decide
Photo: European Commission on how this income is spent.
 Gender equality matters for nutrition 5

Prioritising income expenditure in Cambodia –

women and men do it differently

Research in Cambodia found that according to men,

money should not be used to buy food, which is
something they produce, but on better housing and
unexpected expenditures. Women preferred to save,
although they also needed money to buy food for
nutritious family meals.12

A.2.3. Control over land13

Women who enjoy some form of land tenure security, either

through inheritance or marriage, do not necessarily have
control over how the land is used, even if it is jointly owned.
Customary traditions favour men and boys in land and property
inheritance, and widows can find themselves ‘inherited’ by their
late husband’s brother, along with their land and children. Even
when statutory law is non-discriminatory, traditional practices
may continue to disadvantage women who may not have the
knowledge or the ability to fight for their legal rights.

This lack of control over land affects women’s ability to produce

nutritious food or to earn sufficient income from the land to Ethiopia: Women’s nutrition status affects the nutrition status of their families.
Photo: European Commission
buy nutritious food. An OECD report has claimed that countries
where women lack rights or opportunities over land have, on
average, 60% more malnourished children than countries where extension officers are largely male, but also because women’s
women have some or equal access to land.14 roles as subsistence producers are not always recognised
beyond being an ‘add-on’ to their domestic tasks, so they are
A.2.4 Access to irrigation denied opportunities, such as extension or training. The multiple
roles that women fulfil as producers, carers and mothers leave
Small-scale agricultural production relies on rainfall patterns them with little time to attend training. Social norms may also
that are becoming more variable with the acceleration of climate disallow them from interacting with male outsiders, considering
change, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. If farmers have access this interaction to be a ‘male’ responsibility.
to irrigation, they can increase their crop yield by cultivating during
the dry season and by growing more diverse crops. This includes A.3. Gender equality influences nutrition through care
increased production of nutrient-rich fruit and vegetables, which
women tend to be responsible for managing. Women may lack Nutrition is influenced by the quality of care provided within a
the capital, labour or knowledge required (including measures to household and community. Rural women are considered the
protect against the increased risk of malaria that irrigation can principal care providers, not only because of their reproductive
bring), or they may lack control over the new irrigation technology role, but also because they are primarily responsible for
to grow nutritious crops for household consumption. household food preparation, childcare, and the health and
hygiene of the household. In reality they face multiple challenges
A.2.5. Access to finance in fulfilling their role as carers. This section describes some of
those challenges.
Credit can be important not only as a means of expanding and
increasing agricultural productivity, or establishing an agri- A.3.1. Juggling labour, employment and care
business, but also of maintaining household food consumption
during hungry periods. Rural women do not commonly enjoy Women’s multiple roles as carers and income earners mean that
the same access to financial products as rural men. There are they cannot always breastfeed if they are working long hours
various reasons for this. Social norms may mean that they lack labouring in the field or in farm or non-farm employment. They
the autonomy or the mobility to travel to a financial institution. are more likely to be employed in the informal agrarian sector,
They may not have exposure to the range of financial products with low wages on insecure part-time or seasonal contracts. This
on offer, or they may not have the required literacy level or may be because they do not have the time to take on a full-time
confidence to apply, or land or property to use as collateral. contract; they have lower education and literacy levels than men;
a traditional culture prevents women from straying beyond the
A.2.6. Access to extension and rural advisory services confines of their homes; or their economic potential is under-
valued. Insecure employment is unlikely to provide services and
Rural extension services can teach farmers how to produce more provisions, such as child care, maternity and paternity leave, or
nutritious food, but these tend to be targeted more towards breastfeeding facilities that affect child nutrition.
male rather than female farmers. This is not only because
 6 Gender equality matters for nutrition

may deprive them of the opportunity to seek such services. This

Combining infant feeding with field labour in Lao disempowerment is aggravated in remote rural areas where
People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) travel is limited by poor infrastructure and women do not have
the time or resources to make long journeys by foot.
Researchers in Lao PDR found that infants are oen
fed steamed rice when they are only 1.5 months old A.4 Gender equality influences nutrition through health
because mothers are unable to breastfeed them whilst
labouring on farms. This has serious consequences: it The health status of women and girls of reproductive age
is much earlier than the 6 months age recommended affects not only their own nutritional status, but also that of
by WHO for the introduction of solid food; steamed rice their babies. Undernutrition in mothers (including iron and
lacks the essential nutrients that a 1.5 month old infant calcium deficiencies) increases the risk of poor foetal growth.
needs; and the rice is fed by hand, which can lead to This can lead to childhood stunting and can, in turn, persist into
contamination and disease. Women felt they had no adulthood if not addressed during the first two years of life.
choice because they work in fields far from their homes, Thus, the nutritional status of girls and women of reproductive
so they leave their infants at home with caregivers – age is important for inter-generational nutrition security and it
their parents or older children.15 is the reason why there is an international focus on lowering the
increasing rates of anaemia in women and girls. This section
describes some of the challenges that they face.

A.3.2. Accessing clean water for good nutrition

In Indonesia, decision-making power influences a
Clean water is an essential ingredient for healthy nutrition. mother’s nutrition status
When contaminated water is used for drinking, food preparation
or hygiene, it can lead to diarrheal diseases, worm infections In Indonesia, many pregnant women are underweight
and stunted growth. The task of collecting water for domestic because of poor nutrition and limited healthcare. As a
use falls disproportionately to women and girls, especially in result, 5.5% of babies are born with low birth weights.
rural areas, who may have to walk long distances to do so. Repeated pregnancies, pregnancies at a young age,
In Asia and Africa, the average distance that women walk to and high workloads during pregnancy all contribute to
collect water is 6 kilometres.16 In some instances, these daily the problem and are influenced by the decisions that
distances walked are likely to compromise women’s health and women are able to make.18
nutrition, as well as their ability to provide quality care for their
households, or to spend time on more productive activities.

A.3.3. Accessing health services and information for good

nutrition

Good quality care depends on access to health and information

services about nutrition and then having the capacity (time,
resources and skills) to change behaviour accordingly. As
principal carers, women need to know about the nutritional value
of the food they produce or buy and about the recommended
care practices during the critical 1000 days between conception
and the end of the first two years of the child’s life. These
practices include exclusive and early breastfeeding. They need
to be able to act on that knowledge but all too oen other
priorities prevent this (as illustrated in Lao PDR above). In cases
of wasting, caused by poverty, disease, drought or conflict,
women need access to specific services and support. However,
social norms around women’s restricted mobility and autonomy

In Senegal, household dynamics impact on nutrition

Researchers in Senegal found that where grandmothers

participated in nutrition education initiatives, they
played a positive role in encouraging mothers to eat
special foods, decrease their workloads and exclusively Auxiliary midwife providing a young mother and her newborn with essential
breastfeed their infants for the first six months.17 health services in Myanmar. Women’s ability to access health services is
essential for good quality care.
Photo: 3MDG/UNOPS
 Gender equality matters for nutrition 7

Providing services and training to improve sexual and reproductive health in Bangladesh. Empowering women and adolescent girls with more choice around
reproduction can positively affect their health and the health of their children.
Photo: Plan International

A.4.1. Access to healthcare and information about nutrition

Food taboos can threaten the health of women
Women’s access to health services and information impacts on their and girls20
health and nutrition. Learning about the causes and prevention of
anaemia, for example, can help reduce the incidences of maternal  Amongst the Orang Asli people of Western Malaysia,
deaths and undernutrition in infants born to anaemic mothers. pregnant women must restrict themselves to eating
only certain small animals thought to possess
Rural women are oen denied the freedom or the choice to ‘weak’ spirits.
seek these services, especially those living in remote rural areas  In Papua New Guinea, some tribes forbid
with poor infrastructure. This may be because they are illiterate, menstruating women from eating fresh meat, juicy
or lack the confidence to seek a service. Maybe their culture bananas and all red-coloured forest fruits.
prevents them from travelling far from home or from having  In the south-western and central parts of Ethiopia,
contact with outsiders, especially men. In South Asia, 25-50% of pregnant women are forbidden to eat foods which
women have no say in the decisions about their own healthcare. are white in colour, such as milk, fatty meat, porridge
In West Africa, this figure ranges from 30 to 85%.19 and potatoes.
 In some parts of the Nusa Tenggara Timur of
A.4.2. Time use and employment Indonesia, pregnant and lactating women are
forbidden to eat certain nutritious foods, such as
The multiple roles that rural women oen have to perform leave fish, to avoid the baby smelling ‘bad’, chilli to avoid
them with little spare time. These roles may include labouring the baby suffering from conjunctivitis and pineapple
long hours in fields, walking long distances to fetch fuel wood to prevent miscarriage.
and water, or informal employment at the lower levels of the
rural value chains under poor working conditions. Such types of
work can lead to over-exertion and exhaustion and compromise
their health and nutrition status, especially when pregnant or
breastfeeding. A.4.4. Early pregnancy

A.4.3. Food consumption patterns Adolescent pregnancy can slow and stunt a girl’s growth, as well
as result in poor foetal growth and a greater risk of low birth
Even if a household has an adequate supply of nutritious food, weight. One key cause of adolescent pregnancy is early marriage,
this does not always lead to healthy nutrition levels for all its which in many societies – especially remote rural ones – is still
members. During periods of economic stress women are oen considered the norm. Early marriages can be arranged by parents
the first to stop eating, despite the risks to their own health and for a number of reasons – protection (especially in conflict and
pregnancy and to the long-term nutrition security of the family. displacement), economic security for the girl and bride wealth for
Traditional customs and beliefs may influence eating habits the parents, removing a mouth to feed, or the belief that girls do
and food taboos that deny women, especially when they are not need an education. Oen, girls do not have the power or the
pregnant or breastfeeding, from accessing the nutrients they support to refuse. Once married, as adolescents they may lack
require. Women are likely to lack the power or the choice to the knowledge, or the physical access to reproductive services
overturn these traditions. so that they cannot control the age at which they first give birth.
 8 Gender equality matters for nutrition

B. Gender-sensitive programming for nutrition in

Social norms push girls into early marriages and a rural world
early pregnancies in Ethiopia and Uganda
As Section A has highlighted, an emphasis on empowering
Research in Amhara Regional State in Ethiopia found women and girls by tackling underlying discriminatory social
that the traditional value placed on a girl’s sexual purity norms needs to be embedded in all nutrition programming. This
drives child marriage in order to keep their reputation is called a Gender Transformative Approach (GTA). In the
clean. These child marriages lead to early pregnancies. agriculture–gender–nutrition nexus, a GTA is best implemented
The same research found that, with increasing land through nutrition-sensitive programming, which moves
fragmentation, girls who have or will inherit land are beyond regarding women as victims of malnutrition and instead
at risk of being forced to leave school and enter into operates across sectors and at different levels of society, from
a marriage because they are more in-demand on the national policy to household level.
marriage market.21
This section describes some of the GTAs that can be embedded
Early pregnancies also happen outside marriage in nutrition-sensitive programming in the rural world.
in situations where girls have even less access to
contraception. Research in Uganda found adolescent B.1. Engendering laws and policies for better nutrition
girls had very little knowledge about sexual and
reproductive health issues, including how to prevent In order to shi social norms that discriminate against
pregnancy. Mothers were reluctant to tell them and women and girls, government investment is required. Donors’
schools do not provide such education because of engagement in a dialogue around legal and policy reform can
continuing perceptions that doing so would encourage strengthen understanding and change attitudes amongst key
young girls to engage in sexual relations. There decision makers about the importance of considering gender
was also a lack of quality health services and an equality to improve a country’s nutrition outcomes. Here are
ambiguity around providing adolescents with sexual some of the changes that high-level dialogue can bring about.
and reproductive services in a context where sexual
relations amongst under-18 year olds is illegal.22  Policies to reduce the gender wage gap and improve
conditions for female employees in the agrarian sector
through secure contracts, maternity leave, child care and
breastfeeding facilities.
 Family law that provides equal rights to marital property on
divorce or death of spouse – including the land rights
of widows.
 Extension and rural advisory services that ensure equal
access for female farmers.
 Stronger links between national gender policies and national
food and nutrition security policies that reflect a deeper
understanding by decision makers of the important roles
that women and girls play in nutrition.

Engendering policies through FIRST

The EU has developed a programme in partnership with

FAO called FIRST (Food and Nutrition Security Impact,
Resilience, Sustainability and Transformation). FIRST
deploys officers who provide nutrition-focused support and
expertise to Ministries of Agriculture. FIRST has produced
a guide for facilitating greater coherence between food
and nutrition security and gender policies. 23

B.2. Community dialogue for better nutrition

GTAs can improve nutrition outcomes through participatory

methodologies (such as games, drawings, role play or drama) to
bring women and men together in a reflective dialogue around
harmful social norms. Engaging men in this process is key, so
Positive behaviour, such as families eating together, and positive attitudes,
such as parents taking a joint interest in their children’s diet, can help they understand the barriers that women face, such as accessing
improve household nutrition. health and nutrition services, or the assets required for a more
Photo: EUD Bangladesh nutritious diet. By moving towards a collective understanding of
 Gender equality matters for nutrition 9

This type of community dialogue is unlikely to improve nutrition

outcomes unless accompanied by an improvement in access
to assets and services. Research in Uganda found that non-
governmental organisations were able to bring about attitudinal
change towards early marriages and pregnancies, but that this
needed to be accompanied by investments to strengthen access
to and the quality of health services for adolescent girls.24

B.3. Knowledge and skills for better nutrition

Community dialogue can be accompanied by efforts to increase

rural women’s knowledge and skills to improve nutrition. Building
up their capacity for homestead food production will help increase
dietary diversity by allowing them to grow fruits and vegetables
or tend to small livestock, whilst fulfilling their domestic and
child care responsibilities. This may also provide them with
additional income to accumulate assets. Knowledge and skills
can be channelled through the arts (including radio soap operas,
phone-in programmes or drama), or through community-level
organisations, such as farmer organisations, credit groups, or
cooperatives, which will also provide women with opportunities
for pooling information, peer to peer learning and role models.

Homestead food production for household nutrition

The NGO Helen Keller International (HKI) has pioneered

a model of community-level skills development through
Nutritious infant feeding in Nepal. When women are empowered with knowledge its Enhanced Homestead Food Production Programme. It
and skills for a healthy diet, the health of their children improves.
works through community organisations in Africa and Asia
Photo: Pallavi Dhakal / Suaahara Program
to deliver hands-on training for women about the healthiest
ways to feed their children and themselves. This includes
negative social norms, these types of dialogues can encourage how to grow nutrient-rich crops in home gardens, such
communities to challenge together the deep-rooted causes of as iron-rich green and leafy vegetables; how to cultivate
discrimination, and trigger positive behaviour change. Inclusion fruit rich in vitamin A; and how to raise chickens, fish and
of community leaders and service providers, such as teachers, other small animals that are rich in protein. In Africa, HKI
local government officials, extension workers and nurses, can also promotes the cultivation and consumption of orange-
speed up the process. fleshed sweet potatoes, a vitamin A ‘super-food’.25

Taking control: Community conversations in

Ethiopia can improve food security Training men and women together in groups can increase
knowledge around, for example, optimal child feeding practices,
As part of the EU’s resilience programme in Ethiopia dietary diversity, sanitation and hygiene, and the use of health
(RESET), CARE and its partners are using a community- services. It can also change attitudes towards gender relations.
oriented approach called Social Analysis and Action. In Zambia, a programme to mobilise access to maternal and
Through this, communities explore and challenge together new-born health services included dissemination of key
the social norms, beliefs and practices that lead to gender messages to men and women, such as the special care that
inequality and collectively agree on what steps to take to pregnant women need. As a result of this programme, men now
catalyse social change. Amongst the norms identified are: understand about the types of food that pregnant women need,
early marriage; division of labour; power relations and and have changed their attitudes towards pregnant women
decision making; and men’s and women’s involvements in working in the fields.26 An impact evaluation has recently been
household nutrition and access to resources. Community carried out of a 3-year initiative in Bangladesh that aimed
groups have imposed penalties on negative behaviour. to identify actions and investments in agriculture to promote
For example if an individual spends too much money agricultural diversity, increase farm household income, improve
on a wedding ceremony, the other group members will nutrition and empower women. The evaluation found that whilst
boycott the ceremony. Savings accrued from decreased men and women benefited from agricultural training, women
spending on ceremonies has led to increased investment learned more so that crop diversity increased substantially in
in income generation activities and progression towards homestead gardens. Similarly, increases in nutrition knowledge
food security. were greater for women than men and this knowledge improved
nutrition outcomes, with improvements in household diet quality
and child dietary diversity.27
 10 Gender equality matters for nutrition

C. Moving forward: strengthening gender equality

Combining irrigation with training for nutrition in in nutrition-sensitive rural programmes
Mali
This section begins by describing the EU’s commitment to
IRRIGAR (Initiative to Reinforce Resilience through Irrigation gender-sensitive nutrition programming and then provides
and the Appropriate Management of Resources), an EU- tips for conducting a gender analysis for nutrition-sensitive
funded project in Mali, works with decentralised health programming in the rural sector and for establishing gender-
and agricultural services to support small-scale irrigation sensitive indicators to track progress.
activities for women and men. These aim to diversify food
production and consumption, particularly of vegetables The SDGs call for an end to all forms of malnutrition
and fish, whilst minimising the potential adverse effects (2.2) and an end to all forms of discrimination against
that can arise from irrigation, such as an increased women and girls (5.1). The SDGs address the gender-related
incidence of water-borne diseases and malaria. This is barriers to nutrition that have been mentioned in this Brief, such
accompanied by a strong behaviour change component, as social protection (1.3); early marriage (5.3); care work (5.4);
with training for producers and service providers on the women’s decision making (5.5); sexual and reproductive health
risks of malnutrition, the advantages of a healthy diet, and (5.6); legislation for gender equality (5.C); nutritional needs
good practice for food hygiene. of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women (2.2); and
women’s rights to productive services and resources including
land (2.3).

The EU recognises that nutrition outcomes and the

empowerment of women and girls are inextricably linked.
B.4. Households collaborate for better nutrition The EU’s Gender Action Plan (2016-2020) – GAP II – which aims
for the empowerment of women and girls by transforming their
‘Household methodologies’ specifically aim to change gender lives, has as an objective: Healthy nutrition levels for girls and
relations within the household by encouraging members to plan women and throughout their life cycle (12). Echoing the SDGs,
together for a future vision. They centre around men and women GAP II also addresses the gender-related barriers to nutrition
understanding each other’s roles, the barriers and opportunities mentioned in this Brief.30
that they face, and supporting each other by sharing resources
rather than working in conflict. Evidence has shown that these The EU’s commitment to nutrition is predominantly channelled
methodologies have a direct impact on food and nutrition through nutrition-sensitive interventions relating to agriculture,
security by bringing household members together to care jointly rural development and food security. Within this, the EU’s Action
about their food and nutrition security needs. Plan on Nutrition recognises the importance of enhancing gender-
sensitive approaches.31 Women’s empowerment is counted as an
intermediate outcome of the Nutrition Results Chain.

C.1. Gender analysis

GALS: Households working together for better food
security Nutrition programming in the rural sector must be
reinforced by an in-depth understanding of how women’s
One well-known household methodology is called Gender empowerment and social norms impact on the quality of
Action Learning System (GALS). With support from IFAD, pathways to nutrition. It must take into account how these
GALS has been implemented in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, are continuously changing, are influenced by the wider social,
Rwanda and Uganda. One identified result is a reduction political and cultural environment, and vary from one context to
in the number of food insecure months experienced by another.
households, made possible by a number of behaviour
changes at the household level. One of the GALS tools is There are many different frameworks for conducting a gender
called the Gender Balance Tree which analyses workload, analysis.† Reverting to the central circle in Figure 1, the following
expenditure and asset ownership at the household level.28 three key areas of enquiry can be followed to inform nutrition-
sensitive programming.
“My wife and I used to farm privately. When I found out
about her ‘secret garden’ I chased her away, not taking  The different roles that rural women and men play in the
into account that having a secret garden was the only three key determinants of nutrition: food; care practices; and
way she ensured that there was food in the house. I forgot health (gender division of labour)
that I used all the family land to plant my desired crops  The levels of decision making and control that rural women
and never bought food. I only realised my mistakes aer and girls enjoy, and how this affects the fulfilment of their
drawing the Gender Balance Tree. I made commitments roles in nutrition (empowerment)
towards creating a food secure household, improving  How social and cultural attitudes and behaviours in the
relations with my wife and also allocating her land of her rural world act as key determinants of women’s and girls’
own for growing food crops”.29 empowerment for nutrition (social norms).

These three areas of enquiry are elaborated in Table 1.

†
Some of these can be found in Appendix 2 of the EU guide Because women matter: Designing interventions in food, nutrition and agriculture that allow women to change their lives.
 Gender equality matters for nutrition 11

Table 1. Gender analysis following three key areas of enquiry for nutrition-sensitive programming

Gender division of labour Decision making and control Social and cultural attitudes and
(empowerment) behaviours (social norms)

FOOD
 Labour  Land use  Mobility of men and women
 Fishing  Use of inputs  Education and literacy levels of girls
 Processing  Membership and participation in and boys
 Irrigation community organisations  Value of men’s and women’s agricultural
 Marketing  Ability to negotiate employment labour and paid work
 Agri-enterprises conditions  Land control
 Employment in agricultural value chains  Legal and policy framework for
 Time use land inheritance

CARE
 Food provision and preparation  Access to skills and knowledge around  Value of care work
 Household health nutrition (e.g. extension, farmer field  Mobility of men and women
 Infant and child feeding schools and media)  Education and literacy levels of men
 Water and fuel collection  Negotiation of rural employment and women
 Time use contracts (e.g. maternity/paternity leave  Legal and policy framework for
and breastfeeding) employment
 Access to childcare for pregnant and
lactating working women

HEALTH
 Health-seeking behaviour of women and  Access to nutritious food for pregnant  Mobility of men and women
adolescent girls and lactating women and adolescent girls  Education and literacy levels of men
 Time use of pregnant and lactating women  Access to maternal health services and and women
micro-nutrient supplementation  Food taboos and consumption patterns
 Access to information on nutrition for  Legal and policy framework for social
pregnancy and lactating mothers protection and transfers

C.2. Measuring progress through indicators included empowerment measurements in the agriculture
sector relating to nutrition and health.
Indicators should go beyond recording the number  Do not be over ambitious when establishing indicators
of female beneficiaries who have been reached by a for women’s empowerment or social norm change.
programme and track the progress towards eliminating Indicators must attempt to measure progress towards
the discriminatory social norms that prevent rural change rather than change itself. For example, if a
women and girls from fulfilling their potential to improve programme aims to change gender relations within a
nutrition. It is not easy to find appropriate indicators because farming household so that women can devote more time to
empowerment and social norm changes are processes that are producing nutritious food, the indicator might measure
not always visible or measurable in a programme’s life-span changes in women’s and men’s time use.
and concepts, such as ‘decision making’, ‘control’ and ‘power’,  It is generally acknowledged that there is a dearth
are hard to capture. Many guides and methodologies exist to of information available relating to the complex
help programmers set appropriate gender-sensitive indicators gender relationships around agriculture and nutrition.
for nutrition.†† This section ends with some tips to guide This means that setting indicators to track progress in
programmers. women’s empowerment and social norm change may require
lengthy field surveys to gather qualitative and quantitative
 Consider using the following two noteworthy indicators: information as well as training of field researchers in
  Minimum dietary diversity of women of reproductive age research methodologies. A budget for these types of
(MDD-W). In collaboration with FAO, the EU has surveys must be included in the programme design.
promoted the use of this, the first global indicator to  When setting indicators on nutrition status, bear in
measure women’s dietary quality. mind that sex-disaggregated data on the key forms of
  Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI). malnutrition only exist for children under-five.
Developed by a collaboration of agencies, this is a Therefore, it is not possible to compare, on a national basis,
compound index that measures the inclusion of women trends in malnutrition between boys and girls who are over
in the agricultural sector. An additional PRO-WEAI has five, or between male and female adolescents and adults.

††
Some of these are provided in Appendix 2 of the EU guide Because women matter: Designing interventions in food, nutrition and agriculture that allow women to change their lives.
Appendix 3 of the same guide provides some suggested gender-sensitive indicators for nutrition-sensitive programmes.
 12 Women’s land rights matter

Conclusions

Rural women and girls should be considered as key agents in EU is committed to the dual objective of improving nutrition
the fight against malnutrition rather than as passive victims and empowering women and girls through multi-sectoral
of malnutrition in need of assistance. In order to unleash their approaches. These objectives need to combine investments that
potential as change agents, they need to be empowered so that strengthen women’s and girls’ access to health and agricultural
they can make decisions about accessing relevant assets and assets and services with investments that challenge negative
services. attitudes and behaviours towards the role of women and girls
in nutrition.
The EU is committed to breaking down silos and creating
synergies and alignment wherever possible. In this spirit, the

Endnotes
1
European Union (2017) Because women matter: Designing interventions in food, nutrition and agriculture that allow women to change their lives,
https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/public-gender/discussions/because-women-matter-designing-interventions-food-nutrition-and-agriculture-allow-women
2
For example, see: IFPRI (November 2009) Global Hunger Index, The Challenge of Hunger, Focus on Financial Crisis and Gender Inequality, Issue Brief 62,
https://www.developmenteducation.ie/media/documents/ghi_briefing_paper%202009.pdf
and Institute of Development Studies (2014) Gender and Food Security: Towards Gender-Just Food and Nutrition Security, Overview Report, BRIDGE Cutting Edge
Programmes, https://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/ids-document/A69889?lang=en#lang-pane-en
3
Watson, C., Kyomuhendo Bantebya, G., and Kyoheirwe Muhanguzi, F. (eds.) (2018) The parady of change and continuity in social norms and practices affecting adolescent
girls’ capabilities and transitions to adulthood in rural Uganda. In Empowering Adolescent Girls in Developing Countries, Gender Justice and Norm Change, Routledge.
Chapter 4.
4
Development Initiatives (DI) (2017) Global Nutrition Report, Nourishing the SDGs, https://www.gainhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/GNR-Report_2017.pdf
5
Food Security Information Network (FSIN) (2018) Global Report on Food Crises 2018,
https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000069227/download/?_ga=2.222756178.893678025.1541428986-893711272.1541428986
6
Lancet (2017) Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement
studies in 128·9 million children, adolescents, and adults.
7
Lancet (2008 and 2013) Maternal and child undernutrition series.
8
FAO (2011) The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11: Women in Agriculture – Closing the Gender Gap for Development.
9
Ibid.
10
Kelleher, F, (2018) Disrupting orthodoxes in economic development – an African feminist perspective. Feminist Africa 22.
11
Meinzen-Dick R., Behrman, J., Menon, P., Quisumbing, A (2011) Gender: A key dimension linking agricultural programs to improved nutrition and health, Leveraging
Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health, 2020 Conference Brief 9. This can be found at:
http://www.ifpri.org/publication/gender-key-dimension-linking-agricultural-programs-improved-nutrition-and-health
12
KIT, SNV (2015) Bringing agriculture and nutrition together using a gender lens. Available at: http://a4nh.cgiar.org/2016/02/10/ag-nutrition-gender-toolkit-available/
13
For a comprehensive analysis of the gender dimensions to land, see: EU DEVCO C1 (2018): Women’s land rights matter. How EU Development Cooperation can help close
the gender gap in land tenure security,
https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/hunger-foodsecurity-nutrition/discussions/technical-brief-because-womens-land-rights-matter-how-eu-development-cooperation-can-0
14
OECD (2012): Do Discriminatory Social Institutions Matter for Food Security? Available at: https://www.oecd.org/dev/development-gender/49756756.pdf
15
KIT, SNV (2015), op. cit.
16
UNHCR, UN Habitat and WHO (2010) The Right to Water.
17
Aubel, J., Touré I., and Diagne, M. (2004) Senegalese grandmothers promote improved maternal and child nutrition practices: the guardians of tradition are not averse to
change. Social Science and Medicine 59.
18
KIT, SNV (2015), op. cit.
19
Quoted in an interview that can be found at: http://a4nh.cgiar.org/2016/01/05/linking-agriculture-and-health-through-the-gender-lens/
20
These examples are cited and referenced in a guidance note published by FAO under the EU-funded FIRST project (2017): Facilitating greater coherence between food and
nutrition security and GEWE policies: A step-wise approach.
21
Jones, N., Tefera, B., Emirie, G., and Presler-Marshall, E. (2018): ‘Sticky’ gendered norms, change and status in the patterning of child marriage in Amhara, Ethiopia. In
Empowering Adolescent Girls in Developing Countries, Gender Justice and Norm Change. Routledge, Chapter 2.
22
Watson et al. (2018), op. cit.
23
FAO (2017) Strengthening sector policies for better food security and nutrition results, Policy Guidance Note 6, Gender Equality.
24
Watson et al. (2018), op. cit.
25
Information about this programme can be found at: https://www.hki.org/our-work/improving-nutrition/helping-families-grow-better-food#.W6jh93mQxjo
26
This information came from a study entitled: Knowledge Outcome Thematic Study: Empowerment Outcomes (2016), for MORE MAMaZ (Mobilizing Access to Maternal Health
Services in Zambia).
27
USAID, CGIAR, IFPRI Bangladesh and Helen Keller International (2018) Agriculture, Nutrition and Gender Linkages (ANGeL), Outcome Brochure.
28
IFAD (2014) Gender Action Learning System in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Uganda, Case Study.
29
Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda (2016) Adapting the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) in development programmes.
30
Council of European Union (2015) Gender Action Plan 2016-2020.
31
European Commission (2017) Action Plan on Nutrition, Second Progress Report, April 2016 – March 2017.

This Brief has been prepared jointly by the Integrated Support Service on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (ISS FANSSA) and the
Nutrition Advisory Service, both working with Unit C1 of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development
(DG DEVCO).

The contents of this publication do not necessarily represent the official position or opinion of the European Commission. Neither the European
Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use that might be made of information in this publication.

Directorate General International Cooperation and Development – EuropeAid, Rue de la Loi 41, B-1049 Brussels; email: [email protected]

Published by Directorate General International Cooperation and Development – EuropeAid, Directorate Sustainable Growth and Development.

For further information: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/