Improved Access to quality services

The presentation established food security as the means of tackling the food supply situation and also stated that the world produces enough food, but not everyone had access to this food. Causes of food insecurity among the poor included lack of access to means of production (land and water) to produce food, lack of resources to buy food and inappropriate distribution of food.

Session on Improved Access to Quality Water Services: Food security

23rd and 24th September by Simi Kamal

Session 1

The chair and facilitator were not sure how to proceed. Eventually, with help from the gender ambassador, a procedure was established where IWMI first made a presentation. This presentation showed that 800 million people did not have access to sufficient food, that South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa stand out as poverty reserves. Within South Asia, poverty is highest in Bangladesh, followed by Nepal. The presentation established food security as the means of tackling the food supply situation and also stated that the world produces enough food, but not everyone had access to this food. Causes of food insecurity among the poor included lack of access to means of production (land and water) to produce food, lack of resources to buy food and inappropriate distribution of food. The role of agriculture was established as the most effective way to alleviate food poverty and enhance food production. The issue of water for food was highlighted in terms of the continuing degradation of land and water and increasing competition from other sectors for these resources.

Discussions covered the balance of financing issues with food security and poverty concerns, pro-poor technologies, pro-poor institutions, targeted interventions for the poor etc. The importance of smaller self-worked land holdings was highlighted, and it was noted that the food security of poor households across South Asia was going down.

Mention was made of artificial scarcities created to benefit certain groups and that food was sometimes destroyed to support prices. The issue of ‘markets’ versus ‘food for all’ was also brought forward. Political will, role of private sector and development assistance in the food security issue was also discussed in detail.

There were no references to gender.

The gender ambassador then introduced the following, which were agreed to by the participants:

The term ‘household food security’ masks the gender disparities in food availability within households, with women and girl children suffering more from low-protein diets.
The products of household market gardens and household livestock (which are looked after by women) are often sold to obtain household goods, and do not complement their diets (such as milk and milk products and fruit).
Women are managers of household food distribution and should be focus of improvement in nutrition.
Access issues of women relating to water and food need highlighting – women are the carriers of water as well.
Women good at stretching meager resources and are proven good managers of both food and water at household level. This skill can be used to improve management of water and food at farm level, community level, local level and national level.
Keeping women out of the designing and management of water and agricultural systems (as professionals, mangers, and advisors) is irrational
During summing up, the chairperson made reference to the gender and food issues and the lack of participation of women in decision making at various levels.

Session 2

At the beginning of this session the IWMI representative presented a summary of the issues raised in the previous session and also made some conclusions. The gender issues were not mentioned! The gender ambassador then went over these issues again and provided a written copy to the IWMI representative (acting as facilitator) to add to his summary. She also amended the conclusions by adding (poor men and poor women) wherever the poor were mentioned. During the discussion on policies and actions on the issues identified the day before, the gender ambassador made many interventions.

A summary of the points agreed to:

Increased productivity and food welfare per until of water.
Intentional treaty on banning food destruction and limits to food hoarding.
Right to food and water.
Food security policy in each country.
Priority of water allocation (water for human food first, followed by water for animals, then crop production and then other uses).
Ago-climatic zones as the basis of water and distribution and food production planning.
IWRM in basin-wise management (contiguous with agro-climatic zones).
Local wisdom included for solutions.

The gender ambassador then added the following points:

Add water and food related concerns to national gender or women development policies (if available).
Add gender inputs to water, agriculture or food policies (if available).
Gender mapping in all poverty studies and programmes.
Gender audit established across the board.
Resources earmarked for agricultural inputs and pogrammes.
Capacity building of women to improve household and farm water and food management.
Improvement in nutritional component of household foo