1 Understanding food insecurity in rural Rwanda: how women ...

Understanding food insecurity in rural Rwanda: how women experience and benefit
from government strategies aiming to eradicate food insecurity.
Marie Jeanne Nzayisenga
I. Introduction
“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social
and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets
their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”
(FAO 2009).
The present study seeks to analyze the causes of food insecurity among women in the rural
households of Rwanda, the strategies used by the government of Rwanda in order to eradicate
food insecurity as well as how women in the rural households experience and benefit from
such strategies. Food insecurity remains a problem to most of the rural population of Rwanda.
Using the food consumption score (FCS), the 2009 Rwanda Comprehensive Food Security and
Vulnerability Analysis and Nutrition Survey (RCFSVANS) found that 4.2 percent of the
households have poor food consumption, 17.3 percent have borderline food consumption, and
78.5 percent have acceptable food consumption (NISR and World Food Programme, 2009).
There are cases of food insecurity in Rwanda even in regions known as having a high level of
food production. 1 The same study also revealed that female-headed households (21 percent)
are more likely to be vulnerable to food insecurity. (NISR and World Food Programme 2009,
13)
Therefore, food security is a priority for the government of Rwanda. It is stated in different
policies such as the Strategic Plan for Agricultural Transformation in Rwanda – Phase II that
covers the four-year period 2009-2012. In addition, the sixth pillar of the Rwanda Vision
2020 is the “modernization of agriculture and animal husbandry in order to increase food
security among the population of Rwanda. The government of Rwanda has massive
programme of change in the country including resettlement, land reform, agricultural reforms
etc. Below come some of the strategic programs used by the government of Rwanda to fight
food insecurity:
(1) the Crop Intensification Programme (CIP) which focuses on the intensification of priority
crops including cassava, potatoes, maize, bananas, wheat and rice as well as coffee and
1 Nyabihu and Ngororero (districts in the Western province known as regions that are high food producers) had
9.5% of households with poor food consumption score while Nyaruguru and Nyamagabe (districts in the
Southern Province which are known as hungry districts since back in the history of Rwanda) had 8.4% of
households with poor food consumption score. (NISR and World Food Programme 2009, 13)
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tea as the two main cash crops in Rwanda. The programme intends to increase
agricultural production by distributing fertilizers and seeds to farmers.(Republic of
Rwanda 2010, 18-19)
(2) Households in the rural areas are obliged to have a vegetable garden.
(3) The one cow per family that consists in distributing cows to poor households because
livestock play an important role in food security by providing animal products rich in
protein, providing manure, and it is a significant source of income for small holders
(Republic of Rwanda 2006, 5).
Although multiple measures have been taken at national and international level, food
insecurity is a complex issue in that it is driven by trends such as population growth and
urbanization, rises in food prices, a global economic crisis, changing diets and food
consumption patterns, processes such as environmental and climate change (Brown 2009;
Pinstrup-Andersen 2007; Smill 2000; cited in McDonald 2010, 5). The complexity of these
driving forces have led many analysts to conclude that the world faces a significant set of
challenges in the coming years as impacts of climate change, population growth, water
scarcity, and energy shortages will all contribute to and magnify the impacts of food
insecurity (Beddington 2009).
One of the challenges of food security studies is the common tendency in such studies to
focus on food production rather than other components of people’s provisioning strategies
(Liwenga 2003). The consequence of that is that a sole focus on production obscures the
range of livelihood strategies that work together with food production in order to ensure food
security (Cornwall and Scoones 1993, 68). A livelihood strategy encompasses not only
activities that generate income, but many other kinds of choices, including cultural and social
choices, that come together to make up the primary occupation of a household (Ellis, 1998).
Periodic or chronic food stress does not cause all members of a population to be similarly or
equally affected. As Van Andel (1998) says, the rural household is not a homogenous group
of individuals hence the importance of distinguishing not only households’ types, but also
individuals within households when considering factors such as access to resources and
livelihood issues (Guyer 1980; Moock 1986).
The present research proposal consists of the following main parts: the first part is the
introduction that discusses briefly the work and motivation of why Rwanda is a relevant case
and how food security is a priority for the government of Rwanda; the second part is about the
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esearch problems, the third part consists of the theoretical departure points and it discusses
security as a broad concept, human security, gender and security, food security(its
dimensions, the social aspect of food security, the role of the international community and
local governments in food security); the last part discusses the research design, how the
questions will be answered, who will participate in the study, where the study will be
conducted, ethical considerations, and the time plan.
II.
Rwanda as a case
The 2006 Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis revealed that 52 percent
of households in Rwanda are food insecure or vulnerable and among them 43 percent are
concentrated in rural areas. Although food insecurity is found all over the country, it tends to
be concentrated in the Western and Southern provinces and it is highest among agricultural
labourers and those with ‘marginal livelihoods’ including those dependent on social transfers
and female-headed households (NISR and World Food Programme, 2006). Reading from
policy documents such as the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy
(EDPRS) 2007, most vulnerable households in Rwanda are headed by women, widows and
children and they represent 43 percent of all households (EDPRS 2007, 17)
After the genocide women comprised 70 percent of Rwanda’s population since men who
usually had been the breadwinner of their families were either deceased or disappeared
(Schindler 2010). This created a vacuum and women started to take breadwinner role
cultivating their lands. In 2008, women were 52 percent of the population of Rwanda, they
headed 32 percent of the home, and they have become a productive segment of the
population. However, after the war food insecurity amongst rural women and children
continue to elevate threatening the development of rural populations who are also vulnerable
to diseases. In addition, research on Rwanda has revealed that women are more vulnerable to
poverty and food insecurity. For example, Ansoms and McKay (2010, 588) distinguished
seven clusters of the population of Rwanda depending on their livelihood and they found that
the bottom cluster is made of female-headed households, in most cases headed by older
women. The human resources of this cluster are very limited in terms of the number of adults
in the households having an income, the education level of the households and the average
land available for cultivation. In terms of livestock, female-headed households are seriously
deprived.
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The factors contributing to food insecurity are numerous: dry spells, too much rainfall, crop
pests, overselling of crops during famines, human diseases such as cholera, population
growth, demographic change, the vast gap between the rich and the poor, climate change,
global food price on rise, impacts of new technologies on agriculture and food production
including low food production as well as challenges such as poverty, governance and trade
issues (Liwenga 2003, 58; McDonald 2010, 54-56; NISR and World Food Programme 2009).
However, households’ responses to food insecurity vary and they are often differentiated by
socio-economic factors such as wealth and gender and this determines a range of coping
options at the household’s disposal (Toulmin, 1986). This argument is supported by Pottier
(1993, 68) who argues that periodic or chronic food stress does not cause all members of a
population to be similarly or equally affected.
The Rwandan case is highly relevant to study due to a number of factors: (a) Rwanda is
recovering from very extreme violence/genocide, (b) the Rwandan government has launched
extremely ambitious programmes to rebuild the country, including programmes related to
agriculture, resettlement and poverty alleviations, all of which have major implications for the
food security of the population, and (c) it is particularly interesting to study the role of women
in Rwanda since women were substantially more numerous than men right after the genocide.
There are many female-headed households due to genocide and the government of Rwanda
gives women a central role in post-genocide reconstruction and poverty alleviation. Therefore,
studying women's food insecurity at the individual level will contribute to a more general
understanding of women's food insecurity and strategies against it in a post-genocide/postconflict
society. The study will find out if the women recognize that they are food insecure
and then it can be easy to convince them to participate actively in the strategies in place
aiming to fight food insecurity among them. Since most research in Rwanda talk about
“households” rather than “individuals” when reporting food insecurity, the present study
needs to find out how women within their households are affected differently from men as
well as reveal how food is distributed within households in rural areas of Rwanda.
III.
Aim and research questions
The present study seeks to analyze the causes of food insecurity among women living in
different households in the rural areas of Rwanda, as well as how the women experience
different strategies aiming to fight food insecurity in Rwanda. The main research questions of
the study are:
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• What are the causes of food insecurity among women in the rural households in
Rwanda even in the rural zones of high food production?
• How do women in the rural households in Rwanda experience and are affected by
different strategies aiming to eradicate food insecurity?
IV.
Theoretical departure points
4.1. What is security?
Food insecurity is part of the broader field of security studies. The dictionary defines security
in the most general sense as freedom from threats, fear and dangers (Miller 2001, 16). Thus,
people are secure under two conditions. First, when no one poses a threat to them; second, if
such threats exist, they will be secure if they have the capability to defend themselves against
the sources of danger at reasonable costs (Baldwin 1997, 13). This kind of security is referred
to as traditional security and it is the security of the state. It has five major dimensions: the
origin of threats, the nature of threats, the response, who is responsible for providing security,
and core values (Miller 2001, 16).
The idea of security has been at the heart of European political thought since the crises of the
seventeenth century. It was principally military and it is an objective of states to be achieved
by diplomatic or military policies. Security was an innovation, in much of Europe, of the
epoch of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (Rothschild 1995, 60). Scholars such as
Rothschild (1995), Arends (2008) as well as Waever (2008) have shown that the
understandings of security have changed quite significantly throughout history (Stritzel 2011,
347). The senses of the word ‘security’ have changed continually over time and the pluralistic
understanding of security as an objective of individuals and groups as well as of states was
characteristic of the period from the mid-seventeenth century to the French Revolution. This
understanding has been claimed in the 1990s by the proponents of security as an extended
concept. Efforts in redefining security put an emphasis on giving high priority to such issues
as human rights, economics, the environment, drug traffic, epidemics, crime, or social
injustice, in addition to the traditional concern with security from external military threats.
Such efforts are usually supported by a mixture of normative arguments about which values
of which people or groups of people should be protected, and empirical arguments as to the
nature and magnitude of threats to those people (Baldwin 1997, 1).
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According to Rothschild (1995, 55), the 1990s “extended” security takes four main forms. In
the first, the concept of security is extended from the security of nations to the security of
groups and individuals: it is extended downwards from nations to individuals. In the second, it
is extended from the security of nations to the security of the international system, or of a
supranational physical environment: it is extended upwards, from the nation to the biosphere.
The extension in both cases is in the sorts of entities whose security is to be ensured. In the
third form, the concept of security is extended horizontally, or to the sorts of security that are
in question. Different entities (such as individuals, nations, and “systems”) cannot be expected
to be secure or insecure in the same way; the concept of security is extended therefore, from
military to political, economic, social, environmental, or “human” security. In a fourth form,
the political responsibility for ensuring security (or for invigilating all these “concepts of
security”) is itself extended: it is diffused in all directions from national states including
upwards to international institutions, downwards to regional or local government, and
sideways to nongovernmental organizations, to public opinion and the press, and to the
abstract forces of nature or of the market. In the different extensions of security, food security
comes in the third form where different types of security are mentioned and it is part of the
human security because the individual is at the centre and food is among the basic human
needs.
However, the expansion of security has been criticized by different scholars who think that if
security is everything it ceases to be a useful concept and that expanding the 'security studies'
field will destroy its intellectual coherence" Miller (2001, 26). As Deudney argues, if we
begin to speak about all the forces and events that threaten life, property and well-being (on a
large scale) as threats to our national security, we shall soon drain the term of any meaning.
All large-scale evils will become threats to national security and there will be a de-definition
rather than a re-definition of security (Deudney cited by Miller 2001, 26).
In the discussion of the extension of security, Miller (2001, 28) suggests that some aspects
should be looked at as security concerns only if they have something to do with war and
peace. For example, environmental factors should be included only if they affect the
likelihood of violence (like water or energy shortages or other environmental scarcities) but
not if they are ecological developments that threaten all of humanity without affecting (for
better or worse) the question of war and peace. However, limiting security concerns to war
and peace would exclude a variety of threats to human beings. Those who support to look at
security as an extended concept suggest that the referent of security should be the individual,
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and the threats should not be limited to military ones. This is where different basic needs
including food and human rights came to be security concerns because the individual is given
high consideration in the extended security.
4.2. Human Security
‘State security is essential but does not necessarily ensure the safety of individuals and
communities (Hoogensen and Rottem 2004, 158). It is in that perspective that, in the
aftermath of the Cold War, there have been many calls for adopting a new conception of
security and for extending the traditional concept. Thus, the United Nations Development
Program advocated in 1994 a transition 'from nuclear security to human security', or to 'the
basic concept of human security', defined as safety from 'such chronic threats as hunger,
disease and repression', and 'protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions'. Furthermore, the
International Commission on Global Governance recommended in 1995 that 'Global security
must be broadened from its traditional focus on the security of states to the security of people
and the planet' (Miller 2001, 2). Human security brings the focus of security to the level of
the individual, thereby recognizing the constraints of a solely state oriented security
perspective and acknowledging the importance of security at non-state levels. Thus, the
individual or personal perspective becomes important (Hoogensen and Stuvøy 2006, 210).
While its application varies widely, human security is by definition concerned with
individuals and their rights rather than national militaries, and in particular the consequences
of national or global events for individual human beings (Lemansky 2012, 62). The UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan states that human security can no longer be understood in
purely military terms. Rather, it must encompass economic development, social justice,
environmental protection, democratization, disarmament, and respect for human rights and the
rule of law.” Therefore, human security issues encompassed considerations for protection not
only on national and international levels, but also on regional, local, and individual levels
(Annan 2001; den Boer and de Wilde 2008; McRae and Huberts 2001 ; Tadjbakhsh and
Chenoy 2007 ; UNDP 1994 ).
The Human Security shifted attention away from the military defence of national borders
from external threats, towards a focus on the safety and security of individuals, who were
often more at risk from their own governments than from external threats (Miller 2001, 19).
To numerous human beings, the major security threat is posed by the states themselves, which
violate their human rights, discriminate on ethnic, racial or gender basis, jail dissidents and
even carry out ethnic cleansing and mass killings. However, although Human security has
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een criticized for meaning everything and therefore meaning nothing (Paris 2001), it has
proven to be remarkably malleable. Its elasticity and non-specificity have allowed
policymakers to fit a range of programmes within its framework (Christie 2010, 176). Human
security provides an effective framework that tells policymakers both where to look (at people
inside of the state) to understand sources of conflict and what to look for in broad terms
(things that threaten, risk or impoverish people). What the policymakers in turn take from this
is that these things – previously seen as more general ‘development’ or ‘quality of life’ issues
– are matters of security (Callaway & Harrelson- Stephens 2006; Clarke 2008). Those issues
include basic material needs such as shelter and food that become threats to individuals’
everyday life when they are not assured (Thomas 2000, 6). This is how food as a basic human
need and human right became a security concern and it is a human right to be free from
hunger.
4.3. Gender and security
Women’s security needs differ significantly from those of men (Boulding 2000, 107; SAP
Canada 2002, 3; United Nations 2002, 4–5). Women’s experiences have played a central role
in gender analyses because women have been marginalized, disadvantaged and made insecure
within existing gendered power structures. Some scholars, such as David Roberts (2008a, b),
have used the language of human security to draw attention to the ways in which women and
children suffer from forms of insecurities that are obscured by traditional renderings of
security. Such studies take the human as referent and further refine it by taking ‘women and
children’ as a particular focus because they are more disadvantaged, marginalized and more
insecure in times of insecurity.
Besides women’s vulnerability, one can’t ignore the multiple efforts in place regarding
helping women to play a role in overcoming their insecurities. For example, the UN Security
Council Resolution 1325 of October 2000 not only focuses on violence experienced by
women, but also recognizes the important role a gender perspective has with regard to
peacebuilding and conflict resolution. The UN Security Council Resolution 1325 also
encourages the participation of women at all levels of decision-making, including the military,
on all aspects of prevention, conflict settlement, and peace building.
As women play a big role in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, they can also contribute in
fighting insecurity. Women are often the farmers who cultivate food crops and produce
commercial crops alongside the men in their households as a source of income. When women
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have an income, substantial evidence indicates that the income is more likely to be spent on
food and children’s needs. Women are generally responsible for food selection and
preparation and for the care and feeding of children. Women are key to food security for their
households and in many societies women supply most of the labor needed to produce food
crops and often control the use or sale of food produce grown on plots they manage.
However, the asymmetries in ownership of, access to and control of livelihood assets (such as
land, water, energy, credit, knowledge, and labor) negatively affect women’s food production
(FAO 2006, 12; Quisumbing et al. 1995).
For example, women are less likely to own land and usually enjoy only use rights, mediated
through a man relative. Studies cited in Deere and Doss (2006) indicate that women held land
in only 10 percent of Ghanaian households while men held land in 16–23 percent in Ghana;
women are 5 percent of registered landholders in Kenya, 22.4 percent in the Mexican ejidos
(communal farming lands), and 15.5 percent in Nicaragua. On average, men’s land holdings
were almost three times the women’s land holdings. This compromised land access leads
women to make suboptimal decisions with regard to crop choices and to obtain lower yields
than would otherwise be possible if household resources were allocated efficiently (World
Bank 2007).
4.4. Food Security
Food security can be traced back to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 when
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating that “Everyone has the right to a standard
of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food…”
(Marambanyika 2011). Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights went further, in 1966, when it affirmed the “right of everyone to be free from
hunger”. The right to food is even characterised as a “fundamental right” and is acknowledged
as the primary economic right of a human being (Marambanyika 2011). This global concern
heightened after the world food crisis of 1972–1974. In response to this food crisis, world
leaders gathered in the 1974 World Food Conference and issued a declaration that “every man
woman and child has an inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to
develop fully and maintain their physical and mental faculties” (UN 1975, 2) The aim of the
international community was to increase domestic agricultural production and to create
international grain reserves, and this was one of the strategies to reduce hunger and ensure
food security. In the beginning, the focus was on national and international food supplies, but
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later shifted to access to food at household and individual levels after 1980 (Maxwell and
Smith 1992). The 1980s shift of emphasis from 'food production' via 'food security' to
'household food security' brought the household into the picture as a target and unit of
analysis (Gillepsie and Mason 1991, 32). The shift took place due to the realisation that the
problem of hunger has more to do with inequalities in distribution and that increased food
production was only part of the solution. Since then, the concept of food security has shifted
from simply being a question of availability of food (at the national or even local level) to the
more complex issue of access at the household or individual level (Maxwell and Smith 1992).
Although food security refers to the availability of food and people’s ability to access it, food
security can be a confusing concept because it is a complex, multifaceted problem involving
different interlinked aspects (McDonald 2010; DEFRA 2006). The definition of food security
changed with time. For example, the 1974 World Food Summit definition focused largely on
food supply, defining food security as the “availability at all times of adequate world food
supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset
fluctuations in production and prices” (UN 1975, 6). In the early 1980, the definition of food
security used by FAO (1983) was expanded to include both the physical and economic access
as vital components of food security, a concern incorporated into later definitions as well,
such as the 1996 Rome Declaration on World Food Security (Rome Declaration 1996). In
2001, FAO further redefined this idea, adding “social access” (asking whether all household
members have equal access to food) into food security, establishing the definition used today:
“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access
to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for
an active and healthy life” (FAO 2009). What all the definitions have in common is not only
the availability of food supplies, but also the ability of all people to gain access to sufficient
amounts of nutritious food for an active and healthy life (Sen 1982; Clay 2002; FAO 2003b;
Runge et al. 2003; Barrett and Maxwell 2005; Shaw2007; Barret 2010 cited in McDonald
2010).
4.5. The dimensions of food security
1. Availability of food: availability of sufficient food refers to the overall ability of the
agricultural system to meet food demand (Schmidhuber and Tubiello (2007) and it is achieved
if adequate food is ready to have at people’s disposal (Gross 2000, 5). Therefore, food
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availability addresses the “supply side” of food security and is determined by the level of food
production, stock levels and net trade.
The paradox regarding food availability and food insecurity is that national self-sufficiency is
neither necessary nor sufficient to guarantee food security at the individual level
(Schmidhuber and Tubiello 2007). As examples, Hong Kong and Singapore are not selfsufficient
(agriculture is nonexistent) but their populations are food-secure, whereas India is
self-sufficient but a large part of its population is not food-secure.
2. Access to food: As discussed above, an adequate supply of food at the national or
international level does not in itself guarantee household level food security. Food availability
for the nation as a whole or even for the world as a whole does not necessarily translate food
availability to all sections of a given community or of each individual household (Sen 1981,
43). Access refers to the household’s or individual’s command over food (Sen 1981), and it is
ensured when all households have sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods (through
production, purchase or donation) for a nutritious diet (Gross 2000).
(Maxwell and Smith 1992, 11) discuss access to food using the term ‘entitlement’ and they
say that the entitlement of a person stands for the different alternative commodity bundles that
a person can acquire through the uses of various legal channels of acquirement open to
someone in his position. The entitlement relations of individuals are determined by what they
own, what they produce, what they can trade, and what they inherit or are given
3. Food utilization: utilization is only discussed from a biological perspective and it
encompasses all food safety and quality aspects of nutrition; its subdimensions are therefore
related to health, including the sanitary conditions across the entire food chain (Gross 2000;
Schmidhuber and Tubiello 2007). It is not enough that someone is getting what appears to be
an adequate quantity of food if that person is unable to make use of the food. This is where
food security and nutrition get connected. People are food secure if the food intake at their
disposal is beneficial to their bodies and if their bodies use the food intake in a healthy and
nutritious way. Utilization also refers to the proper use of food and includes the existence of
appropriate food processing and storage practices, adequate knowledge and application of
nutrition and childcare and adequate health and sanitation services (FAO 2000; FANTA
2006). This dimension is not relevant for the present study due to its biological character and
it won’t be developed further.
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For food security to be assured, availability, access, and utilization need to be stable over
time. Even if people’s food intake is adequate today, they are still considered to be food
insecure if they have inadequate access to food on a periodic basis, risking a deterioration of
their nutritional status. The role of governments is to plan and set adequate strategies that
enable their populations to be food secure all the time. Stability refers to the temporal
determinant of Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) and affects availability, access, and
utilization (Gross 2000). Stability makes it possible to distinguish between chronic and
transitory food insecurity. Chronic food insecurity means that a household runs a continually
high risk of inability to meet the food needs of household members (Maxwell and Smith
1992, 15). In contrast, transitory food insecurity occurs when a household faces a temporary
decline in the security of its entitlements and the risk of failure to meet food needs is of short
duration. This category can be further divided into cyclical and temporary food insecurity.
Temporary food insecurity occurs for a limited time because of unforeseen and unpredictable
circumstances while cyclical or seasonal food insecurity occurs when there is a regular pattern
in the periodicity of inadequate access to food (CIDA 1989, 21). For food security objectives
to be realized, all the dimensions must be fulfilled simultaneously in order to make sure that
all people, at all times have access to the food that enables them to live an active and healthy
life.
4.6. Social aspects of food security
The highest state of food security requires not just secure and stable access to a sufficient
quantity of food, but also access to food that is nutritionally of adequate quality, culturally
acceptable, procured without any loss of dignity and self-determination, and consistent with
the realization of other basic needs. Therefore, food insecurity is not an objectively defined
level of access to food or quality, but rather the level or quality that people perceive to be
inadequate (Maxwell and Smith 1992, 41). For example in India, subjective questions have
been included in the national survey to ask whether respondents consider their food intake
adequate. Results showed that 18.5 percent households, on average in India, self−reported
chronic and/or seasonal food inadequacy. This compared with figures of 14.6 percent
according to food behavioral thresholds and 50.2 percent according to caloric norms (Minhas
1990, reported in Gillepsie and Mason 1991, 31). It is important to find out if the population
recognizes that they are food insecure and then it can be easy to convince them to take part of
the strategies in place aiming to fight food insecurity among them. In addition, Mudimu
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(2008) says that food security in Zimbabwe is mainly defined in the context of availability or
access to cereals, particularly maize as a staple food crop. This is because cereals such as
maize, sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet and wheat make up the traditional food grain crops
at the expense of horticultural products which are essentially for direct consumption. Food
security also touches areas such as consistency with local food habits and cultural
acceptability (Oomen 1988; Oshaug 1986; Eide et al 1985, 1986; Teller et al 1991 cited in
Maxwell and Smith 1992, 39). In particular, Oshaug (1986, 5-9, 10) says that efforts to direct
changes in food patterns for optimal nutritional conditions should always take the indigenous
food culture and food production pattern of a society as a starting point. Therefore, a country
and people are food secure when their food system operates in a way that removes the fear
that there will not be enough to eat. In particular, food security will be achieved when the
poor and vulnerable, particularly women and children and those living in marginal areas, have
secure access to the food they want.
4.7. The role of the international community in food security
Ensuring food security has been a prominent feature of global agreements since World War II
and some of them set ambitious targets to address food insecurity. For example, the World
Food Summit of 1996 sought to halve the number of the undernourished by 2015, while the
millennium development goals (MDGs) set in 2000, aspired to reduce by half the proportion
of people suffering from hunger (Mc Donald 2010, 4).
During the previous decades, many countries were satisfied in terms of food security because
they were relying on cheaper imports that they thought would be always or usually available
(Behnassi and Yaya 2011, 106). In this context, local food production was not often necessary
and many developing countries have consequently reduced it by reference to international
donors’ instructions. Some of the structural adjustment policies include (a) dismantling
marketing boards and guaranteed prices for farmers’ products; (b) phasing out or eliminating
subsidies and support such as fertilizer, machines and agricultural infrastructure; and (c)
reducing tariffs of food products to low levels (Behnassi and Yaya 2011, 107).
However, the high price of many food items in recent years makes food imports increasingly
expensive, and intensifies inflation of food prices in local markets. There have also been cases
of shortages, as some countries placing orders – for example for rice – have found that the
supply is not guaranteed sometimes because of export restrictions by the exporters of the food
items.
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Agriculture has important functions to perform in the economic development of most
developing countries (Haruna and Umar 2011). However, many agricultural economists
believed agricultural increase can only be achieved with introduction of new technology in
traditional agriculture (Mohammed et al. 2005). The introduction of simple technologies in
the form of improved seeds, agrochemicals, fertilizers and improved cultural practices is one
of the quickest ways of improving agricultural production technology raising the productivity
of agricultural resources (Haruna and Kushwaha 2003). Although a lot of efforts have been
made to improve agricultural systems in order to increase the agricultural production both
globally and internationally, it is still necessary to investigate in how the vulnerable poor
members of communities benefit from the increase in agricultural production.
4.8. The role of governments in food security
Governments in the developing countries found it necessary to invest in efforts enabling them
to increase their own agricultural production. This is because, although the factors behind the
food crisis are numerous, one of the longer-term reasons remains the decline in agricultural
production in many developing countries (Behnassi and Yaya 2011, 107). Rwanda’s longterm
development strategy articulated in the document “Vision 2020” has the ultimate goal of
vanquishing poverty and misery, and attains a per capita income of middle-income countries
by the year 2020. Agricultural transformation is one of the major pillars for achievement of
the Vision 2020 goals. In order to achieve food security, the government of Rwanda uses
policies such as the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), the
National Agricultural Policy (NAP), and the Strategic Plan for the Transformation of
Agriculture (PSTA). 2 The agricultural sector remains the economic backbone of Rwanda; it
employs about 87 percent of the working population, produces around 46 percent of GDP and
2 EDPRS identifies seven priority areas, including two that are relevant to food and nutrition security: “Poverty
and vulnerability reduction” and “rural development and agricultural transformation”. The EDPRS was
developed in 2007 as a medium term strategy and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework
(UNDAF) 2008-2012 is entirely aligned with the EDPRS. In addition, the National Agricultural Policy (NAP)
was adopted in 2004 and is based on the guidelines of Vision 2020. Its overall objective is to ensure sustained
economic growth through poverty reduction and increasing farmers' incomes. Its specific objectives are: i)
empower rural communities as active actors in the development of agriculture, ii) increase agricultural
production, livestock and forestry through improved productivity of land and water iii) increase cash income
through diversification of economic activities in rural areas iv) strengthen the link production/market v)
sustainable management of natural resources and vi) improving the economic and social status of women and
youth farmers in rural areas.
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generates about 80 percent of the total export revenues. The ultimate objective of the
agricultural policy is to contribute to the national economic growth, to achieve improved food
security and the nutritional status of the population and increase the incomes of the rural
households (Republic of Rwanda 2004, 1). Agricultural increase is very beneficial especially
for rural households since over 80 percent of Rwanda's population live in rural areas and a
large part of the farmers have an average size of their land less than 1 hectare per household.
The rural incomes come mainly from the sale of food crops, livestock and crops. However,
there may be a tension between the aim of increased agricultural production and increased
food security, for instance when policies oblige people to grow export crops rather than mixed
crops in their lands. In Rwanda, the agricultural production remains insufficient to meet the
needs of the growing population thus inducing food insecurity and increasing poverty levels
especially in rural areas where it is hard to find non-agricultural work. Although agricultural
productivity is not the only solution to food insecurity, it is essential because higher
productivity, especially in food staples and on smallholder farms, builds food security by
increasing food availability and lowering the price of staple foods, thus improving access. It
also boosts the incomes of millions of smallholder farmers, raising living standards and thus
enlarging people’s capabilities and knowledge (United Nations Development Programme
2012, 22).
V. Methodology
5.1. Design of the study
The present study is qualitative. Qualitative research is a means for exploring and
understanding the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem
(Cresswell 2009, 3). The advantage of qualitative research is using multiple forms of data
collection rather than rely on a single data source (Cresswell 2009, 175). The present study
will use semi-structured interviews and observation.
5.2. Research instruments/ interviews and observation
The present study will collect data using semi-structured interviews and observation. While
conducting semi-structured interviews I will have an interview guide i.e. a list of questions or
specific topics to be covered. Due to flexibility in semi-structured interviews, the order of
questions will change where necessary and some questions that are not included in the guide
15

will be asked basing on what the interviewees will say (Bryman 2008, 438). 3 By using the
same interview guide everywhere, I will be able to find out what similarities and differences
exist among women from the two different types of households and from there conclusions
will be drawn about food insecurity among women in the rural households of Rwandan zones
of high food production.
The study will also include observation of women in the households that will be included in
the study to access some information that is not easily accessed in interviews. Observation
enables the researcher to be in much closer contact with people for a longer period of time.
Because of the unstructured nature of participant observation, it is more likely to uncover
unexpected topics or issues (Bryman 2008, 465-466). It is in that perspective that visits to the
women’s families will make it possible to access the information that can’t be accessed in
semi-structured interviews with them. For example, there is a policy that requires every
family in the rural areas of Rwanda to have a vegetable garden. By visiting each selected
household, I will be able to observe and find out whether they have a vegetable garden or not,
which plants are more likely to be found in the gardens, and other issues related to the garden.
More issues and realities will be revealed as I spend more time in natural settings with them
because I will observe them when they are working in their gardens and I will be able to hear
them talk to one another as they work.
5.3. Who will participate
The present study will conduct interviews with two main groups of people: the group of
women who live in households headed by a married couple, and the group of women who live
in female-headed households. The women will be selected using strategic sampling. 4 Using
women from both groups will enable me to get experiences from women with different
experiences and contexts. There will be 20 women from households headed by a married
couple and 20 women from households headed by a woman. The study will also interview
central and local government officials relevant for the study.
5.4. Where
3 In a semi-structured interview the researcher has a list of questions or fairly specific topics to be covered, often
referred to as an interview guide but the interviewee has a great deal of leeway in how to reply. The order of
questions may change and questions that are not included in the guide may be asked as the interviewer picks up
on things said by interviewees (Bryman 2008, 438)
4 The goal of strategic sampling is to sample cases/participants in a strategic way, so that those sampled are
relevant to the research questions that are being posed (Bryman 2008, 415).
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