Help Women Feed the World

Last week, Women Thrive's President Ritu Sharma spoke on a panel at the World Food Prize with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and philanthropist Howard G. Buffett on governments and their roles in solving global hunger and poverty.

In this discussion, Ritu emphasized the important role that women have to play in addressing world hunger and gave three recommendations on how to engage small scale women farmers on this issue:

1. Avoid creating new dependencies. Food policy cannot and must not foist production techniques on local farmers that will only be sustainable with additional, outside support.
2. Ensure women have the information they need. Women farmers deserve full information about possible food production methods — whether those methods are natural or high-tech — so they can decide what is best for their land and families.
3. Empower women. Women farmers must not only be informed, but they must also be empowered to decide on food production techniques. Social norms on gender roles, limits on land ownership by women, a lack of access to formal markets, and other structural barriers to equality can limit women’s success in addressing local food crises.

We could not have done this without supporters like you. Your contributions help keep us accountable to the women and girls living in poverty.

Please learn more about how we’re helping women feed the world at:

EX-UK leader: Governments key in hunger fight

Another View: Female farmers need to have their voices heard, too

Thanks again for your support,

Mei Powers

Links:

• Governments Key in Hunger Fight
• Another View: Female farmers need their voices heard too