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1991 Third World Legal Stud. 157 (1991)
Household Food Security and the Role of Women in Africa

handle is hein.journals/twls1991 and id is 169 raw text is: HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN AFRICA Rosemary A. McCarney* I. Household Food and Security and the Role of Women: Introduction and Overview One quarter of Africa's population (more than 100 million people) do not consume enough food to allow for an active, working life. More than one-half of Africa's food insecure live in seven countries - Ethiopia, Nigeria, Zaire, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique (World Bank, 1988). Food security comprises two main requirements: (1) assuring the availability of food; and (2) assuring the ability of households to acquire food through income. Most African countries are primarily agrarian. However, with respect to food security, Africa suffers both a production gap and a revenue gap. There is neither enough food being produced nor enough revenue to purchase the food surplus existing in world markets, so there are impli- cations for both consumer credit and production/enterprise credit. Why focus on women when the issue is food security? Women in Africa are integral participants to the success of the agriculture sector. We know that African women: -provide 60-90% of subsistence agricultural labour; -dominate food production with labour contributions of 50-85% of total agricultural labour; -engage in a high percentage of cash crop labour, thereby generating household income for food purchases; -have substantial decision-making power concerning timing, location of crops, use of inputs and intensity of crop management; * Rosemary McCarney, B.A., LL.B., M.B.A. is a founding partner of Consult International Inc., a Canadian consulting firm specializing in international economic development. The research for this paper was originally prepared with the help of Katrine Saito of the World Bank as background reading for a multi-county Conference hosted by the World Bank in Zimbabwe in 1990. World Bank documents provided the research content.

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