ENSURING EQUITABLE RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND GENDER SENSITIVE POLICIES IN
SUPPORTING FOOD PRODUCTION AND SECURITY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

ENSURING EQUITABLE RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND GENDER SENSITIVE POLICIES IN
SUPPORTING FOOD PRODUCTION AND SECURITY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

N. ASSAN

Gender disparities in resource allocation and non gender
responsive policies are important constraint to increasing food
production and security in Southern Africa. The discussion attempt to
explore the role of equitable resource allocation and development of
gender sensitive policies and their implications for improving food
production and security in Southern Africa. Gender responsive
policies are meant to catalyze a change process for ending gender
discrimination and securing women’s access to key productive
resources. It is believed that without specific attention to gender
issues in food production and security strategies, unknowingly policy
may reinforce inequalities between women and men, and may even
increase productive resources imbalances. It must be emphasized
that addressing gender resource allocation disparities and
development of gender sensitive policies is an integral part of
enabling women to guarantee their families’—and their own—well-
being. Little attention has been paid to the differential impacts of
resource allocation disparities and development of gender sensitive
policies on food production and security, or to which delivery
mechanisms may be more effective in addressing women needs and
concerns in food production and security. It is assumed that
traditional food production policies are not gender-responsive and
typically do not consult women who are the majority end-users,
improved varieties and technologies do not take into account women’s needs, preferences, and resources, as a result the high rate
of failure of intervention food production and security strategies.
However, policy makers should be aware that development and
implementation of gender responsive policies and equitable gender
resource allocation are likely to be mistaken for violation of social
norms or adversely affect gender relations within the household,
leading to less successful adoption and potential backlash against
women. Thus, interventions that seek to remove obstacles in gender
resource allocation need to consider the trade-offs inherent in
challenging and respecting gender norms.

Scientific Journal of Biological Sciences

2014