Briefing Papers Number 22, September 2013 | Page 6

and non-renewable resources such as fertilizer and energy
are used to produce, process, handle, and transport food that
no one consumes. In most low-income countries, particularly
in Africa, post-harvest losses in cereal quantity and quality
lead to lower earnings at the market and less nutritious
family meals.
The annual cost of grain losses to African countries
is estimated at $4 billion. This is far more than the continent receives in food aid—in fact, $4 billion is a significant
percentage of the food aid sub-Saharan Africa received in
the entire decade 1998-2008 (an estimated $6.1 billion). Its
cost is in the same range as the annual value of sub-Saharan
Africa’s total cereal imports (which ranged between $3 billion and $7 billion over the period 2000-2007). Perhaps most
importantly, $4 billion would provide sufficient food every
day for a year for at least 48 million people.18
Building capacity to support the food supply chain will
help reduce grain losses as well as improve food quality and
safety, generate more income, and contribute to food and
nutritional security.19 As the amounts of traditional development assistance decline relative to other financial flows, international finance institutions and the private sector should
join donor countries in assisting countries in strengthening
their capacity to prevent post-harvest losses.

Women: The Missing Link in Ending Hunger

UN Photo/Martine Perret

Around the world, socially disadvantaged populations
bear the brunt of low agricultural productivity. One of these
groups is at the nexus of agriculture and nutrition: women.
In many developing countries, women not only prepare food
but are also the main agricultural producers. In Southeast
Asia, women supply up to 90 percent of the labor required
for rice cultivation. In sub-Saharan Africa, women produce
up to 70 percent of the food for their households and the

Economic growth in urban sectors will not help the majority of poor people,
who live in rural households such as this farm in Timor Leste.

6  Briefing Paper, September 2013

market.20 Evidence shows that reducing gender inequality
increases agricultural productivity. Greater gender equality
leads to improved crop yields, higher economic productivity,
faster growth, and improvements in the quality of life—
including less malnutrition and fewer infant deaths. Startling
research findings show that, in fact, almost 55 percent of the
reduction in hunger from 1970 to 1995 can be attributed to
improvements in women’s status in society—more than agricultural or technological advances contributed.
The specific indicators of gender equality include: both
women and men are able to participate fully as economic
actors, they are motivated by sharing in the benefits of their
work, they have equal input into decision-making, and the
back-breaking repetitive ta ͭ́