Reposted from the India Food Security Portal.
The India Food Security Portal is organizing a second national conference on ‘Gender Just Food and Nutrition Security in India’ on August 29, 2016 at the Indian Habitat Centre in New Delhi as a follow-up to an event on ‘Gender Just Food Security’ that was organized by IFPRI on December 14-15, 2015 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It will bring together national policy makers, researchers, donors and implementing agencies to present the most recent evidence on gender and food security in India that will contribute to the ongoing local policy debate.
Some of the important themes that have emerged after the selection of research briefs that can contribute towards policy making are gender, drought and food security; gender and social safety nets (e.g., Public Distribution System and MNREGA); gender and the labor market; gender and agricultural technology adoption and maternal entitlements.
Indian government is currently finalizing National Policy for Women 2016 that will be sent to the cabinet and passed in next few months focused on the empowerment of women and this mission focuses on health and nutrition, economy, education, governance and decision making, violence against women, enabling environment, and environment and climate change.
There is a growing recognition and interest among policy makers, practitioners and researchers of the intersections between gender and food and nutrition security. The growing evidence indicates a correlation between higher levels of gender inequality, and food insecurity, malnutrition and other nutrition deficiencies. Despite rapid economic growth, thousands of women and girls still lack food and nutrition security, largely because of entrenched gender inequalities in many areas. There is a need for a comprehensive, gender-aware strategies that are grounded in an evidence-based understanding of the causes and impacts of hunger and malnutrition. These could range from women’s contribution to food production, their role as consumers and family care-givers; the lack of access to capital and resources; inequitable land and property rights; lack of access to market and credit, gender gaps in education and information; gender inequities at the household level; and the varying needs of girls and women across their life cycle for specific nutrients and additional calories.
The International Food Policy Research Institute initiated a call for policy briefs on a number of topics that are relevant to gender and food security in India and part of the national discussions around policy changes. There were many submissions and a number of these selected and have been summarized to become part of the dialogue. One example is a study on drought and gender relations in Odisha. The event will be marked by presence of National Commission for Women and several other government representatives.
The Agenda is posted here. A brief summarizing the highlighted research is availablehere. A summary of the discussion will be available after the event.
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