WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. government on May 20 will unveil its forward-looking implementation initiative to tackle global hunger and food security at the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security. The International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) Rekha Mehra, director, economic development, and David Kauck, senior gender and agriculture specialist, are available to comment on what this initiative could mean for low-income women farmers who rely on agriculture to meet their own and their family’s needs and for economic advancement. ICRW is a co-sponsor of the symposium.
Mehra leads ICRW’s research, program and policy work on agriculture, employment and enterprise development, and property rights. She has more than 25 years of international development programmatic and research experience in 15 developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and was a senior gender specialist in the World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Group. Mehra specializes in agriculture and food security; economic empowerment; employment and enterprise development; and assets and property rights.
Kauck is a social scientist, development practitioner and policy analyst with more than 25 years of international experience. His areas of expertise include agricultural development and social change in agrarian societies; food and livelihood security; assessment of the patterns and causes of rural poverty; and public policy and comparative politics.
Both Kauck and Mehra recently returned from consultations in Kenya where women farmers, the organizations that work with them and local technical experts discussed their needs and what worked to improve their agricultural productivity and marketability.
For more than 30 years, ICRW has explored how and why to involve women in agricultural development efforts as farmers, farm workers, agricultural businesswomen and entrepreneurs. Our research helps development organizations, policymakers and others find practical ways to enhance women’s roles in agricultural production and trade, thereby improving their incomes and livelihoods.
Notes to editors:
1. Investing in women farmers promises to yield a double dividend: better food security and greater economic growth. Watch ICRW’s short video “Small Farmers, Big Solutions” on how this can be done.
2. The Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security will be held in Washington, D.C., on May 20. All queries about attendance should be directed to Lindsay Iversen at the Chicago Council at liversen@thechicagocouncil.org