Women’s unequal social and economic status creates poverty, hunger, violence and abuse.

• Women make up 60% of the chronically hungry and food price increases hit them the hardest._¹
• Women farmers produce 60-80% of the food in poor countries but only own 1% of the land, and are excluded from farmers’ associations, services and technical know-how._²
• Every year 115,000 maternal deaths worldwide are associated with iron deficiency, caused by malnutrition._¹
• Rural women alone produce half of the world’s food but receive less than 10 percent of credit provided to farmers._²

RESPECT WOMEN'S RIGHTS! - What must happen.

1. Women farmers must be given land rights to secure their sources of food and livelihood.
2. Women small-scale farmers must be supported with agricultural aid, and enabled to access resources they need to be productive, like cheap fertiliser.
3. Women’s rights must be respected: for example enabling women to get education has been identified as the single most powerful contribution to reducing malnutrition over a 35-year period.

Real Lives:
Niumi Baba has joined HungerFREE's fight for equal treatment for all farmers. She sees discrimination between men and women only too clearly in her country.

International Women's Day is on the 8th of March. Find out what we are doing to celebrate it

<sup>Notes
1. World Food Programme PDF - Paying the price of hunger: the impact of malnutrition of women and children
2. “Gender and food security: agriculture.” FAO web site brief. http://www.fao.org/gender/en/agri-e.htm
as cited by: USAID. March 2003. Women’s Property and Inheritance Rights: Improving Lives in Changing Times</sup>.