The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) is financing local women’s civil society organizations contributing to improved food security in fragile settings around the world.
Call for Proposals on Food Security FOOD SECURITY FUNDING APPEALAccording to World Food Programme (WFP) estimates, 345.2 million people are projected to be food insecure in 2023. That’s more than double the number in 2020, with women and girls bearing the brunt of the global hunger crisis. In 2021, there were 150 million more women than men who were food insecure worldwide — a vast increase from the 18 million gender gap in 2018.
Around the world, food insecurity and its impact on livelihoods are creating ripple effects for women and girls, including health and safety risks, increased sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and decreasing access to education. Women are forced to bear the double burden of employment and household responsibilities, having to become breadwinners as their husbands migrate in search of alternative means of subsistence.
Supporting Women Leading the Response to the Global Food Crisis
Women’s rights organizations play critical roles in contributing to improved food security, not only because women are custodians of food and food preparation in their households, but because of their roles as advocates for more gender-responsive food systems and equal land rights. It is essential that women civil society leaders and their local, grassroots organizations take on leadership roles in humanitarian food assistance to ensure inclusive and gender-responsive policies, planning and response to the hunger crisis. They must be enabled to promote and support women’s access to all productive resources and to apply a gender lens to the impacts of conflicts on food security.
WPHF civil society partners are implementing activities contributing to food security in crisis contexts, such as enabling access to knowledge on modern gardening techniques and resilient crops, resulting in stable income for women, or providing startup grants for farmers to scale their agricultural activities.
Priority Countries
Among the WPHF list of active and reserve list countries, 15 countries in four regions have very high, high, or moderate levels of concern for acute food insecurity, making them priority areas for funding.
- Ethiopia
- South Sudan
- Somalia
- Yemen
- Nigeria
- Afghanistan
- Sudan
- Burundi
- Niger
- Uganda
- Malawi
- Haiti
- Mali
- Central African Republic
- Democratic Republic of Congo