'I am hungry Mum!': gender, urban food security and coping strategies

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Periodical article

Title:	'I am hungry Mum!': gender, urban food security and coping strategies
Author:	Matshalaga, Neddy
Year:	1996
Periodical:	SAFERE: Southern African Feminist Review (ISSN 1024-9451)
Volume:	2
Issue:	1
Pages:	58-77
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Zimbabwe Southern Africa
Subjects:	food security urban areas women Cultural Roles agriculture Sex Roles urbanization sociology Women's role poverty Resource allocation
Abstract:	Rapid urbanization and growing concern about urban poverty have drawn attention to urban food security. This article examines the gender dimensions of urban food 'security', focusing in particular on the strategies embarked upon by women in Zimbabwe in order to address the food insecurity crisis. The article first outlines Zimbabwe's economic structural adjustment programme (SAP), launched in 1991, and its effects on household consumption patterns and food prices. Then it describes three major coping strategies used by women: the adjustment of consumption patterns; urban agriculture as an alternative source of food, and urban food 'safety nets', implemented by the government to assist poor and vulnerable households. The author concludes that in order to reverse the unfair distribution of resources between the genders, 'gender distributive policies' have to be created. Such policies must incorporate issues of equity, disaggregated research initiatives, and legislative and enforcement measures aimed at redressing gender imbalances. Bibliogr.