1. Food security, Livelihoods, Economic Empowerment and Gender
ICPS Course 2017
Henri Myrttinen

2. Terminology (1) Food security – Food sovereignty – Livelihoods –
“when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life” (World Food Summit, 1996)
Food sovereignty –
“the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems” (Food Secure Canada)
Livelihoods –
means of securing the necessities of life

3. Terminology (2) Economic empowerment –
“the process of harnessing the potential to change one’s economic status, as well as that of the communities and countries in which one lives.” (Adapted from ICRW)
Resilience (‘opposite of fragility’) –
“A system's capacity to absorb and recover from the occurrence of a hazardous event; reflective of a society's ability to cope and to continue to cope in the future.” (Timmermann, 1981)

4. How does gender play a role?
Exercise: taking your own country as an example, how does gender play a role in social and economic life?
Who does what on a daily basis (incl. productive and reproductive work)?
Are there pay gaps?
Are there glass ceilings?
Are there ‘gender ghettoes’ in the workplace/workforce?
How does gender affect educational and occupational choices?
Are there differences in tax law, inheritance law, adoption law?

5. Food security and gender
Women and girls make up majority of the extremely poor globally
Different women have different vulnerabilities (e.g. widows, divorcees, survivors of SGBV)
Depending on culture and society, often very different expectations on men and women, including in agriculture
Often: Women responsible for private sphere and reproductive work, men for public sphere and productive work
But: women also expected to carry out productive tasks
Women often lack access to land, resources, information, mobility, finances
Men may also be caught between social expectations and reality

6. Changing economic roles
Globally increased participation of women in productive labour and education
At times change is gradual, at times (conflict, disaster) sudden, sometimes reversals (e.g. ex-USSR)
Feminisation of poverty? Feminisation of precarity
Complex impacts of migration, also on family structures and gender expectations
Women out-performing men in education – what impact will this have?

7. Strategies for change
Need for societal (and family) consensus to avoid backlash
Working with women and men on gender equality
Overcoming stereotypes of ‘weak women’ and of ‘lazy men’
Role of “old boys’ networks”
Tackling issues of double-/triple burdening