Date :

24 June 2011

Time :

10:00 – 12:30

Agenda Feminist Media in partnership with Economic Performance and Development (EPD), Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) would be honoured to secure your attendance when we launch Agenda Issue 86: Gender, food and nutrition security in the context of the global economic crisis, guest edited by Shirin Motala of EPD.

In 2009, on the heels of a global food price crisis and in the midst of worldwide recession, the number of undernourished people surpassed 1 billion. Although recent estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggest that number this number dropped to 925 million in 2010, it is evident that globally we are far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people who go hungry by 2015.

The special edition of AGENDA Issue 86 provides a chilling reminder of the vulnerability of large parts of sub-Saharan Africa to hunger and under-nutrition. The study by Jacobs, based on official surveys, suggests that household food insecurity increased from 12% in 2007 to 20% in 2009 – driven primarily by the food price crisis and job losses due to the economic downturn. Ruiters and Wildschutt highlight the reality that women and children are hardest hit by the global crisis, drawing on ILO estimates that 22 million women would have lost their jobs in 2009 due to the economic crisis. Their food insecurity mapping across district municipalities in South Africa provides a spatial dimension to the distribution of food insecurity. Altman and Ngandu found that in 2010, only 47% of women between the ages of 15 and 65 participate in the labour market, and 27% are unemployed while in comparison 61,2% of men in the 15-65 age group participate in the labour market and 23% were unemployed. Hart celebrates the contribution that women, particularly rural women are making in addressing food security of their families and communities. The stories of Mma Tshepo, Mavis Mathabatha and Sister June Jantjies all give testimony to the innovation and courageous leadership that these women display in finding ways to improve the lives of those in their community.

Kindly RSVP BY 22 June to Denise Booysen  Tel : +27 (0) 12 302 2454, Fax : 012 349 9502, email: dbooysen@hsrc.ac.za

Venues

Cape Town: HSRC, 12th Floor, Plein Park Building, Plein Street , Cape Town

Durban:  First floor HSRC board room, 750 Francois Road, Ntuthuko Junction, PODS 5 and 6, Cato Manor

Pretoria: HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria