With increasing focus on the Russia/Ukraine war, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that women and girls, especially in rural communities, continue to face the brunt of the climate crisis that exacerbates pre-existing inequalities, jeopardizes their food security and feeds instability and migration.
Drawing attention to this to mark the International Women’s Day (IWD), yesterday, the WFP noted that women and girls often lacked appropriate access to disaster information, financial services and participation in community decision-making and resource allocation.
“Such inequalities undermine the ability of women to prepare for, cope with and recover from climate shocks and stresses,” it said in a statement.
The International Women’s Day 2022 focused on, “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow,” by recognizing the contribution of women and girls around the world who play a crucial role in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
WFP’s Assistant Executive Director, Valerie Guarnieri, was quoted a s saying: “Women are the bedrock of food security and yet are hardest hit by climate shocks and food insecurity.”
“A sustainable future is only possible when women and girls have what they need to adapt to the changing climate,” she added.
Resilience development
In Nigeria, WFP is said to have worked with UN Women and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), to implement a resilience development and livelihoods project funded by the European Union (EU).
The project supported some 140,000 conflict-affected households in Borno State, including over 53,000 female-headed households, with the skills and inputs to restart their agriculture-based livelihoods activities and enhance food security.
Women are the bedrock of food security and yet are hardest hit by climate shocks and food insecurity. A sustainable future is only possible when women and girls have what they need to adapt to the changing climate.
The key aims of the initiative are to boost food security and to empower the benefitting households with various inputs to restart agricultural production in the state.
Under the project, WFP provided cash transfers to the supported households to safeguard investments in agriculture and sustain the food consumption levels of the families.
Some of the cash was provided through bank accounts, thereby contributing to financial inclusion among the vulnerable populations.
Equally, the fresh food vouchers component of the project helped to link the local farmers to the consumers who are vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity.
In a year when humanitarian needs are on an upward trend and aid agencies are stretched thin, supporting communities vulnerable to the harsh realities of the climate crisis is the need of the hour.
The UN World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.
