Nourishing the Nexus: A Feminist Analysis of Gender, Nutrition and Agri-food Development Policies and Practices

Abstract

This article applies feminist critiques to investigate how agri-food and nutritional development policy and interventions address gender inequality. Based on the analysis presented of global policies and examples of project experiences from Haiti, Benin, Ghana, and Tanzania, we find that the widespread emphasis on gender equality in policy and practice generally ascribes to a gender narrative that includes static, homogenized conceptualizations of food provisioning and marketing. These narratives tend to translate to interventions that instrumentalize women’s labor by funding their income generating activities and care responsibilities for other benefits like household food and nutrition security without addressing underlying structures that cause their vulnerability, such as disproportionate work burdens, land access challenges, among many others. We argue that policy and interventions must prioritize locally contextualized social norms and environmental conditions, and consider further the way wider policies and development assistance shape social dynamics to address the structural causes of gender and intersecting inequalities.

Nutrition security and traditional food markets in Africa: gender insights

“…Recent literature concerning a gendered perspective on addressing nutrition has provided insight into how the framing of gender is important. Gender is typically used as a static, homogenous concept which can be good as an entry point into understanding its influences, but could be further expanded to a more intersectional lens in order to more fully encapsulate the experience in markets and food production (Kanenberg et al, 2019;Tavenner et al, 2022;Vercillo et al, 2023). This could offer a useful way with which to explore both male and female experiences regarding market food practices and nutrition, especially as the literature showed how interactions between men and women influences their experiences at the market (Mudege et al, 2017;Moreau and Garaway, 2021;Bokelmann et al, 2022).…”

Transformative organizational and programmatic change? Civil society responses to the Canadian Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP)

“…Cultural framings of masculinity in different contexts revealed underlying drivers of inequities between men, women, and gender-diverse people (Cornwall, 2015;Parpart, 2010). Several scholars emphasized the value in feminist data collection in peacekeeping and security efforts (Tiessen & Grantham, 2021;Woroniuk et al, 2021), while others critiqued gendered norms (Campeau et al, 2021); and gendered roles and labour investments in agrifood systems (Vercillo et al, 2023). These specific contributions to feminist theory in development demonstrate the diversity and breadth of knowledge available that could inform the implementation of FIAP and feminist assistance policy more broadly.…”