“Equality for Women is Progress for All”

Celebrating International Women’s Day 2014

Photo © HKI/ Bartay

SETTNG THE CONTEXT

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•Bangladesh has made significant advances towards gender equality√ More girls than boys attend high school

√ Significant reductions in maternal and child mortality rates

√ Millions of women employed in formal, paid sector

GENDER EQUALITY IN BANGLADESH

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•Gender norms are sociocultural artifacts

•Members of a culture share knowledge – Men AND Women

•Knowledge and attitudes influence decision-making and behavior at macro and micro level

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER

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Men who have more gender equitable attitudes are less likely to engage in or condone domestic and sexual violence

HOWEVER

• 60% of urban and 62% of rural men believe that a woman deserves to be beaten at times

• 50% of urban and 65% of rural men believe women should tolerate violence to keep her family together

• 87% of women in Bangladesh have experienced domestic violence

GENDER EQUITABLE ATTITUDES

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Photo © HKI

NUTRITION SITUATION

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• Responsible for 45% of deaths for children under 5 years of age

• Fetal growth restriction increases risk of stunting by 24 months of age

• Estimated to reduce a nation’s economic advancement by at least 8%

– Direct productivity losses

– Losses via poorer cognition

– Losses via reduced schooling

UNDERNUTRITION

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• 60% of women (19-49) consume diets inadequate in macro and micronutrients

• 30% of adolescent girls (10-18) short for their age

• 40% of adolescent girls (10-18) underweight

FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION SURVEILLANCE PROJECT 2012

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Over 27,000 women and girls interviewed and measured

Undernutrition Cycle in Bangladesh

45% of adolescent girls (15-19) are married and cohabitating

24% of married adolescent girls and

women are undernourished and

13% are of short stature

54% of married adolescent girls have

at least one child

Short stature, undernourishment, and adolescence are all risk factors for fetal growth restriction, low birth weight babies, and other adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes.

Nutrition Situation in Bangladesh for Children under Five

36% Underweight

41% Stunted

16% Wasted

• Women’s diets lack diversity, resulting in low micronutrient intake and malnourishment.

• Babies are born to undernourished mothers.

• Many of those mothers are adolescents and babies are born with low birth weight.

• Babies born with low birth weight are more susceptible to the effects of malnutrition and at higher risk of morbidity.

• Those babies grow up to be undernourished.

• Females have an almost 50% chance of being married with one baby before they reach the age of 20.

• Low decision-making power in the household.

INTERGENERATIONAL CYCLE OF MALNUTRITION AND GENDER

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• FSNSP 2012 found more adult women to be overweight (35%) than underweight (20%)

• Nutritional status of ever-married women from FSNSP 2007-2012 revealed a trend toward the “double burden of malnutrition”

DOUBLE BURDEN OF MALNUTRITION

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33%32%

30%29%

27%26%

25% 23%

20%

18% 19%20%

22%24%

26%28%

30%

35%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

BDHS BDHS FSNSP FSNSP

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Women's CED (BMI < 18.5) Women's overweight (BMI > 23.0)

NUTRITION ACTIVITIES MAPPING

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0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

GM

P

SA

M/

MA

M

MN

AN

IYC

F

PC

A

PC

D

NC

SC

PC

VA

D

PC

CD

MM

S

PC

IDD FF

NE

P

EP

RN

EC

D

NC

D

FQ

/F

S

WA

SH

FS

LC

P

ISP

Oth

er

Number of Project per Nutrition Intervention

Photo © HKI

AGRICULTURE INTERVENTIONS AND NUTRITION

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Six pathways through which agriculture interventions

can affect nutrition (Ruel and Alderman 2013):

1) Agriculture as a source of food for own consumption

2) Agriculture as a source of income

3) Impact of agriculture policies on price of food and nonfood crops

4) Effect of women’s social status and empowerment on their access to

and control over resources

5) Impact of women’s participation in agriculture on their time allocation

6) Impact of women’s participation in agriculture on their health and

nutrition status

KEY FACTOR: Whether agriculture intervention enhances women’s

control over assets

SECTION 3: SOLUTION

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Photo © HKI/ Bartay

INTEGRATNG GENDER

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• GENDER IS INTEGRATED!

• How do we, as partners in development, work with the existing gender structure to ensure impact and sustainability?

• “Gender mainstreaming does not entail developing separate women’s projects within work programmes, or even women’s components within existing activities in the work programmes. It requires that attention is given to gender perspectives as an integral part of all activities across all programmes. This involves making gender perspectives – what women and men do and the resources and decision-making processes they have access to –more central to all policy development, research, advocacy, development, implementation and monitoring of norms and standards, and planning, implementation and monitoring of projects.” – United Nations

INTEGRATING GENDER?

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• Gender is a key dimension to linking agriculture programs to improved nutrition and health

• Invest in investigating at the beginning, during project design

• Gender is not just targeting women or targeting men, focus on the system and on that determines gender roles and responsibilities, access to and control over resources, and decision-making potentials

RECAP

In Summary

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Transforming gender norms is

transforming society.

THANK YOU.“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it.”

-Helen Keller

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