Gender considerations in COVID-19 Emergency Food and Nutrition Systems Workforce Nutrition Programming in Kenya, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan: A Report Prepared for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)’s Keeping Food Markets Working (KFMW) Grant Open Access

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 continues to have massive immediate and long-term impacts on the food sector. The agri-food sector is critical because it produces products that are necessary for everyday life. Protecting employee health is one of the major concerns of agri-food companies during this time. Within the existing vulnerability of agri-food workers, women face great health disparities. Nutrition and gender are intricately linked, as twice as many women than men experience malnutrition. COVID-19 responses have had less focus on the agri-food sectors, with policy trackers showing no gender sensitivity focus in agri-food responses. Gender-sensitive nutrition programming interventions have great potential in improving gender equitable nutrition outcomes.

The Project: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) developed a program of targeted support to help sustain core food systems, workers, and markets. Known as Keeping Food Markets Working (KFMW), this program provided small grants to the private sector and other organizations primarily in the agriculture and food sector (agri-food sector). Grants were to be used to provide food and nutrition security support to essential frontline workers in the agri-food system in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Methods: The evaluation applied a mixed-methods case study series approach to evaluating the GAIN KFMW emergency food security grants program in the four countries.

Report: The final product of this special studies project is a gender report highlighting how gender was considered in the implementation of the KFMW grant that will be utilized to further inform GAIN Global and their partners.

Conclusion: The evaluation of the KFMW grant revealed many key takeaways on gender in the context of program design and implementation. First, the agri-food sector companies in many of the countries evaluated were largely male-dominated, which limited implementation of specific gender-specific guidelines. Second, while gender was a key consideration of the KFMW grant, both within and across countries, selection for beneficiaries was not standardized regarding gender. Lastly, when defining vulnerability, gender was not a primary consideration for many companies. Gender transformative programming should be utilized in future nutrition workforce programming.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1

Gender as Defined by GAIN Global ........................................................................................... 3

Cross-cultural Variation in Gender Status-Global Gender Gap Report 2021.................................. 4

Kenya .................................................................................................................................... 4

Pakistan ................................................................................................................................ 4

Bangladesh ............................................................................................................................ 5 India...................................................................................................................................... 5

Cross-cultural Variations......................................................................................................... 6

List of Definitions and Abbreviations:................................................................................... ....6

Chapter 2: Comprehensive Literature Review............................................................................ 7

Exploring Nutrition Disparities Among Women ........................................................................ 7

Defining Gender ..................................................................................................................... 7

Malnutrition and Gender ........................................................................................................ 8

Food Security and Gender....................................................................................................... 10

Women’s Roles in Nutrition .................................................................................................... 11

Work and Nutrition ................................................................................................................ 12

Domestic Violence and Nutrition............................................................................................. 13

Addressing Childhood Health Outcomes.................................................................................. 14

COVID-19's Impact on Nutrition.............................................................................................. 15

Addressing Nutrition Disparities.............................................................................................. 16

Gender Sensitivity .................................................................................................................. 16

Empowerment and Promoting Nutrition .................................................................................. 17

Agricultural Work Interventions .............................................................................................. 18

Definition and Benefits of Workforce Nutrition Programming .................................................... 18

Why Workplaces as a Setting for Nutrition Programming ........................................................... 19

Current Literature on Nutrition Workforce Programming........................................................... 20

Economic Benefits of Workforce Nutrition Programming ........................................................... 23

School Feeding Programs......................................................................................................... 24

Nutrition School Feeding Programs.......................................................................................... 24

GAIN-KFMW .......................................................................................................................... 27

Chapter 3: Methods................................................................................................................. 30

Evaluation Approach............................................................................................................... 30

Company Sampling for Evaluation ........................................................................................... 31

Data Collection on Gender ...................................................................................................... 32

Data Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 32

Chapter 4: Results ................................................................................................................... 33

Gender Considerations in Kenya............................................................................................... 33

Gender Considerations in Pakistan ........................................................................................... 41

Gender Considerations in Bangladesh ...................................................................................... 48

Gender Considerations in India................................................................................................. 55

Chapter 5: Discussion & Recommendations .............................................................................. 64

Limitations ............................................................................................................................. 72 Recommendations.................................................................................................................... 72

Chapter 6: Appendices.............................................................................................................. 81

Appendix A: ............................................................................................................................ 81

Appendix B: Cross-cultural variation in gender considerations ................................................... 83 

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Hubert Department of Global Health
Degree	M.P.H.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Gender Studies Health Sciences, Public Health
Keyword	Workforce nutrition programming Nutrition Gender
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Amy Webb Girard, PhD, Emory University Lenette Golding, PhD, MPH, Save the Children
Partnering Agencies	International Non-governmental organization (e.g., CARE, Inc.)

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