Food Security, Gender, and Occupational Choice among Urban Low-Income Households

Floro, Maria S.; Swain, Ranjula Bali

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.08.005

Cited by 64 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…In Hovorka et al [51], the role of women in feeding the urban population was emphasized, with women contributing to food security through activities like urban farming amongst others. Floro and Swain [19] reported that women from urban low-income households were engaging in food enterprises and earn money income to be used as a direct source of food for consumption. The work of Schindler [52] discussed the use of credits by market women and reveals that oftentimes they invest more time to nature the relationship in order to secure access to credit once shocks occur.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Women in vulnerable households, for example, were found to likely engage in food enterprises, where choice of business is associated with household vulnerability to food insecurity [19]. Urban low-income households were reported to select enterprises that earn them money to get food for consumption as a strategy to mitigate the risk of food shortages [19].…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food coping strategies in northern Ghana. A socio-spatial analysis along the urban–rural continuum

et al. 2016

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Background: Food insecurity is a worrying challenge worldwide, with sub-Sahara Africa most affected. Literature reveals that in developing countries, food insecurity is a largely ''managed process'' , meaning people are active participants in responding to the risks they face in life. This paper focuses on how households cope with food shortages and how these food coping strategies vary along the urban-rural continuum. A transect approach was used to guide data collection in and around the city of Tamale in northern Ghana. A total of 19 Focus Group discussions, having eight participants each (four women, four men), were conducted between March and May 2014. Additionally, three qualitative in-depth interviews were also conducted, one each in the urban, periurban and rural area. Results:In periurban and rural areas, gathering of wild food and selling of charcoal was widely practised, while in urban areas, most households tended to reduce the number of meals as a more frequent coping strategy. The study identified five coping strategies along the urban-rural continuum as the most severe in times of food insecurity, namely skipping a whole day without food, borrowing, buying food on credit, consuming seed stock and restricting adult intake in favour of children. Hunting, consuming less preferred food, taking occasional jobs and engaging in small trading were considered as not severe. Conclusions:Study results reveal that food coping strategies vary from one spatial entity to another in terms of frequency, severity and coping strategy indices along the urban-rural continuum. This information is useful for indicators to predict crisis (early warning), to understand shortfalls in access to adequate food (assessment), to allocate resources (targeting) or to track the impact of interventions (monitoring and evaluation).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food coping strategies in northern Ghana. A socio-spatial analysis along the urban–rural continuum

et al. 2016

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“…Various agencies and individuals (Dutta, 2000;SAATH, 1995;SHARDA Trust, 1995-2001; SHARDA Trust & SAATH, 1999) have documented the impact of physical infrastructure for the Sanjaynagar settlement, which informed the current study. Women in vulnerable households are likely to be engaged in food enterprises, water collection, fuel wood collection and water disposal/cleaning activities (Floro & Swain, 2013;UNDP, 2006). Estimates by SEWA show that reducing water collection duration from two to one hour a day would enable women to earn an additional US$ 100/year (UNDP, 2006).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, there is institutionalised gender bias against the education of female children in India (Dercon & Singh, 2013). Women bear the brunt of inadequate infrastructure provision as they have to spend time on water collection, waste disposal and collection of fuel wood for energy provision (Floro & Swain, 2013;Parikh, Chaturvedi & George, 2012;UNDP, 2006). In Indian slums, girls spend time for water collection in lieu of attending school, resulting in gender imbalances in education levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrastructure Provision, Gender, and Poverty in Indian Slums

Parikh

Parikh³

et al. 2015

World Development

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We examine the relationship between infrastructure provision and poverty alleviation by analysing 500 interviews conducted in serviced and non-serviced slums in India. Using a mixed-method approach of qualitative analysis and regression modelling, we find that infrastructure was associated with a 66% increase in education among females. Service provision increased literacy by 62%, enhanced income by 36%, and reduced health costs by 26%. Evidence suggests that a gender-sensitive consideration of infrastructure is necessary and that a 'one size fits all' approach will not suffice. We provide evidence that infrastructure investment is critical for well-being of slum dwellers and women in particular.

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“…For example, landlockedness, farness from a large market, and low levels of human resources tend to be serious handicaps to growth, but are not elements of vulnerability because they are not unforeseen events, however they may influence the consequences of a given shock (Vial & Hanoteau, 2015). The researcher furthered the study and provided two main reasons for households to get involved in a micro-enterprise, which are to increase their income and consumption, in order to cope with economic vulnerability (Floro & Swain, 2013;Verrest, 2013). This reason enables a micro-enterprise to diversify a family's sources of income, and boost it for the purpose of saving as mentioned by Verrest (2013).…”

Section: Economic Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the effectiveness of micro-enterprise development programs in Malaysia

Zainol

Mamun

Hassan

et al. 2017

Journal of International Studies

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Abstract. Previous studies on socioeconomic development have examined the effect of development initiatives (i.e., access to finance and training) on several socioeconomic indicators (i.e., income, empowerment, asset, quality of life, employment). These studies have focused mostly on the outcomes of specific types of programs offered by specific development organizations. This study however focuses on informal women micro-entrepreneurs' participation in various development programs available to them and their influence on entrepreneurial competencies, human capital development, competitive advantages, economic vulnerability, supportive environment, and performance of micro-enterprises. This cross-sectional study adopted the purposive random sampling method and collected data from 384 informal women entrepreneurs from the local markets in different districts of Kelantan, Malaysia. The findings show that the development program participants have relatively higher levels of entrepreneurial competencies, human capital development, and higher levels of enterprise performance compared to non-participants. It is also noted that the level of economic vulnerability is relatively low among participants compared to non-participants. However, these findings contradict most of the earlier studies 293that show a significant positive impact of micro-credit on socio-economic wellbeing, as the difference in entrepreneurial competencies, human capital development, economic vulnerability, and performance of micro-enterprises among participants and non-participants in this study is not statistically significant. However, findings reported significantly higher levels of competitive advantages, and better supportive environment among the participants compared to the non-participants. Development organizations should therefore focus on expanding their outreach to spread the positive effects of their development programs towards uplifting the economic condition of low and middle-income households in Malaysia.

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Food Security, Gender, and Occupational Choice among Urban Low-Income Households

Cited by 64 publications

References 34 publications

Food coping strategies in northern Ghana. A socio-spatial analysis along the urban–rural continuum

Food coping strategies in northern Ghana. A socio-spatial analysis along the urban–rural continuum

Infrastructure Provision, Gender, and Poverty in Indian Slums

Examining the effectiveness of micro-enterprise development programs in Malaysia

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