This monthly e-publication of the WOW! (Work of Women) program at World Neighbors provides WOW! members with regular updates on concerns affecting women in the developing world. To subscribe to our monthly issue briefs, click here. We also invite you to scroll down to view a selection of archived issue briefs. Hunger Now Rising to Historic HighsJuly 2009
In fact, hunger is projected by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to reach historic highs this year, with one sixth of all people around the world likely to go hungry. Once again, hunger is likely to affect poor women disproportionately, since women often eat less in order to give men and children, especially male children, more. Women are also more impacted by the additional time and work required when food is scarce. For example, it is they who stand in long lines to get the food at markets or distribution centers. It is they who care for family members who are weak or ill due to insufficient food or malnutrition. It is they and their babies who bear the consequences of poor nutrition during pregnancy and the first year of their babies lives. The good news is that the FAO and others are recognizing that smallholder farmers in developing countries can provide the impetus to improve food availability globally, and even to spur broader economic growth. There is an increased call for investment in and attention to smallholder farmers – or “peasant” farmers – work that World Neighbors has been a leader in for decades. “For most developing countries, there is little doubt that investing in smallholder agriculture is the most sustainable safety net, particularly during a time of global economic crisis,” notes Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). Says Dr. Scott Killough World Neighbors knows from experience that World Neighbors collaboration and partnership with local farmers helps communities better survive crises like the one looming this year. During last year's food crisis, Cantave Jean-Baptiste, our then country representative in Haiti, reported that while the communities World Neighbors partners with were feeling the pressures of the food crisis, they were far less vulnerable than other villages. “The different livelihood strategies, including diversification of agriculture production, microcredit and the promotion of local production that improves diet makes our areas less vulnerable than others without such programs,” he explained. Killough continues, “From our perspective, we would emphasize that smallholder farmers – both men and women – need to be involved in, or at least have a voice in, determining what technology, what infrastructure, what types of rural finance and markets, and so on global organizations invest in. Our experiences with seeking to ensure participation of community members and leaders is critical in setting priorities, determining action and mobilizing local resources. This type of approach is not applied often when investments are decided.” World Neighbors helps communities to find lasting solutions to hunger and malnutrition by developing sustainable, local solutions, instead of having to rely on external, short term solutions such as food aid. Women are at the center of these efforts, both in terms of solutions and beneficiaries. LEARN MORE
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). N.d. More People Than Ever Are Victims of Hunger. Available online at http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/newsroom/docs/Press%20release%20june-en.pdf. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). N.d. Women: The Key to Food Security. Washington, DC: IFPRI. Available online at http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/ib/ib3.pdf. Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS). June 30, 2009. Development: Investment in Agriculture Falls Alarmingly. Available online at http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=47435. World Food Programme (WFP). June 11, 2009. Financial Crisis Pushes Poor Families Deeper Into Hunger. Available online at http://www.wfp.org/stories/financial-crisis-pushes-poor-families-deeper-into-hunger. Women and WaterApril 2009
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ending Poverty Begins with WomenMarch 2009
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Back to Basics: What is WOW!January 2009
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Women's Rights are Human RightsDecember 2008
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Women, Girls and HIV/AIDSNovember 2008
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Modern Day SlaveryOctober 2008
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ArchivesInvesting in Women's Literacy - September 2008 |
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Home > Issue Briefs
"For those living on less than $2 a day, the financial crisis is accelerating hunger, and the worst is yet to come," predicted Josette Sheeran, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), last month. The WFP and others are finding that the global economic situation is worsening food availability and hunger for millions of families around the globe.
Water is critical to the health and well-being of the world’s population, yet the United Nations reports that 1 in 6 people around the world do not have access to safe drinking water and 1 in 3 people lack adequate sanitation. Consequently, death and disease related to inadequate water supplies is high in the developing world, with approximately 3 million people dying each year and millions more suffering from water-related diseases. Most of those affected by these illnesses are children under the age of 5.
Today, more than 1.4 billion people are living in extreme poverty – on less than $1 per day – and almost half of the world’s population is considered poor. A majority of these people are women and girls. The number of rural women living in poverty has more than doubled over the last 20 years, and the gap between women and men in poverty continues to expand. According to the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, although women perform two-thirds of the world’s unpaid labor and grow more than 50 percent of the world’s food supply, they account for approximately 70 percent of those living in poverty. 
WOW! – the Work of Women group at World Neighbors, was begun in 2000 by a group of women who had been strong World Neighbors supporters. These women were particularly interested in focusing on women’s struggles and women’s contributions to community progress around the world, and also in connecting sister-to-sister with women in the countries that World Neighbors works in. 
In the most basic sense, the idea of women’s human rights is simply that as human beings, women have human rights. Why does this need to be stated? Because for decades, human rights were primarily defined from the perspective of men’s needs and experiences. For example, human rights were defined primarily as individuals’ right to be free from State intrusion and abuse. The ways that women are affected by war and other abuses was largely invisible, and the abuses that primarily affected women were not seen as human rights issues. But as Hillary Clinton famously asserted, “Women’s rights are human rights.” Our understanding of human rights must encompass women’s experiences. 
Women represent slightly more than half of all individuals living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and more than 98 percent of these women live in developing countries. In many of the world’s most affected regions, women have become increasingly at risk for contracting this deadly disease. Women represent 60 to 70 percent of new infections in sub-Saharan Africa, and since 2001, the number of women living with HIV globally has increased by 1.6 million. 
Although most people around the world believe that slavery ended centuries ago, the reality is that millions of people are forced into and exploited in a modern day slave trade every day. Human trafficking is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise, tying with the arms trade and falling closely behind the drug dealing industry, yet it goes strikingly unnoticed by much of the population.