Women and girls are among the first victims of malnutrition in the world. Today, more than a billion of them suffer from malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and anemia. Despite these facts, current efforts are insufficient to achieve the targets set by the international community for 2025.
Too often, women’s rights are still being relegated to second place in the global fight against malnutrition, when they should in fact be a central pillar. We know though that gender inequalities have a direct impact on the ability of women and girls to access resources and services, preventing them from accessing food that meets their needs and keeping them in a vicious circle of malnutrition and poverty. Reversing this trend requires a comprehensive, gender-focused approach that places women’s rights at the heart of every strategy. It is by putting women’s rights at the heart of the conversation that it will be possible to put an end to the cycle of malnutrition that affects not only women, but also future generations.
With just a few months to go before the next Nutrition 4 Growth summit, to be held in Paris in March 2025, Global Health Advocates wish to highlight the great vulnerability of women and girls worldwide to the various forms of malnutrition and to examine the existing synergies between the fight against malnutrition and the fight in favor of women’s rights. The N4G summit represents a unique opportunity to take a gender lens in the fight against malnutrition and to encourage all stakeholders – governments, donors, companies and civil society – to commit to the nutrition of women and girls, the assertion of their rights and the reduction of gender inequalities.
Three experts in nutrition and gender issues agreed to answer our questions on the impact of gender inequalities on the nutrition of women and girls, and on the commitments needed from the international community during the next N4G Summit:
- Vilma Tyler, UNICEF Senior Nutrition Advisor
- Hélène Gnionsahe, President of the Civil Society Alliance of the SUN network in Côte d’Ivoire
- Abena Thomas-Mambwe, Gender Advisor, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN)
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