The role of women in the Zero Hunger Challenge

About 60 percent of those suffering from chronic hunger in the world are women. This is due to the fact that women often do not have equal access to resources, education and income generation, as well as having a minor role in decision-making. Over 19 million children are born every year are underweight; to cause, often, of inadequate nutrition of their mothers before and during pregnancy. Yet, in many countries, women are the backbone of systems agriculture and food and the majority of the workforce in the primary sector. They also play a key role in ensuring food security for the whole family: when women suffer from hunger and malnutrition, suffer also their children.

Yet around the world, women play a key role in agricultural activities, livestock and fisheries, many of them have not, than men, equal access to land, financial services, education, training, markets, technologies. WFP is dedicated, with its policies, its programs and its activities, to promote the strengthening of their rights and their capacity to improve food security worldwide. Promote women’s empowerment and gender equality is fundamental to win the Zero Hunger Challenge: if women had equal access to productive resources and investment, and the same opportunities as men, productivity and household income would increase significantly so how nutrition and health of the whole family. The World Food Programme is committed through a number of initiatives to reduce the gender imbalance and to ensure that women have the right access to food. Even during Expo 2015 will be paid special attention to the issue of women and the critical role that they play in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. WFP, in fact, supports We Women for Expo, a network of women around the world who speak and act together on issues of nutrition and sustainability.