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

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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 8
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 9
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