African Women 
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| Title: | Women: The Providers of Food Security in Lesotho |
| Author: | Patel, Krishna A. |
| Year: | 1990 |
| Periodical: | African Urban Quarterly (ISSN 0747-6108) |
| Volume: | 5 |
| Issue: | 3-4 |
| Period: | August-November |
| Pages: | 292-295 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Lesotho Southern Africa |
| Subjects: | female-headed households food Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Labor and Employment Cultural Roles agriculture Development and Technology economics organizations Sex Roles Agriculture, Agronomy, Forestry food security Women's role rural development |
| Abstract: | With roughly one third of Lesotho's households headed by women and another third female-controlled in the absence of men, who migrate to work in South African mines, it is obvious that the responsibility for food production, education, household management and childcare falls on the shoulders of women. And yet, in spite of women's crucial role, their economic position is considered low and secondary. Food is normally acquired, controlled and distributed by women, and traditional African food strategies have built-in ways of establishing patterns of social security. All across Africa there are various types of food security programmes. The new concept of food security has aimed to help individuals have equal access to income-earning opportunities. Unfortunately, simply having money in the household does not assure that it will be spent on food, particularly since the budgets and priorities of men and women are often quite distinct. Access to some cash income for both rural and urban women is therefore important, not only for meeting basic food needs, but also to enable women to make additional productive investments and thereby increase their autonomy in the allocation of funds. Above all, food security questions should be considered from the perspective of women, who feed virtually all of the families in Africa. A first step could be to concentrate efforts on increasing awareness at the policymaking level of women's actual roles and responsibilities for food production. Bibliogr., sum. |