More Food for More People Key Issues in the Food Security Debate An integrated approach is needed to stabilize world population growth while at the same time increasing the supply and availability of food. Lifestyles, incomes and social organization determine individual levels of demand for food. Population is the multiplier that fixes the total demand. The technologies in use, the extent to which human activities damage or sustain the environment, and the amount of waste associated with different levels of consumption determine production capacity. Inequality enters as a factor for example when production capacity is highest in one area and demand is highest in another. Poverty is the final factor, preventing access to better technologies to increase food production, and putting available food supplies out of reach of consumers. Population is always part of this equation. For any given level of individual demand, for any given level of technology, environmental impact or waste, for any given level of poverty or inequality, the more people there are, the greater is the collective demand. Despite adequate food supplies on a global level, food is neither produced nor consumed equitably. Food production capacity is very uneven across the globe. Market forces have not so far been able to meet global food needs, despite large surpluses in some countries and large deficits in others. In food deficit countries, the needs and potential of poor subsistence farmers, many of whom are women, are often overlooked or ignored. Within families, women and girl children often do not have equal access with men and boys to nourishing food. Without increasing access to food supplies for the most vulnerable, there is no prospect of long-term global food security. "Demand" and "need" are not the same thing. Countries may be described as self-sufficient in food when there is still significant malnourishment, because poverty does not permit need to be translated into demand in the market. Coherent strategies for food sufficiency must address need as well as demand--and they must include population. The main cause of malnutrition is poverty. Chronic poverty means chronic malnourishment. Although the percentage of hungry people has dropped over the past 20 years, their numbers have increased because of population growth. A large proportion of the hungriest people are women and children. Most of the world's chronically malnourished are found in the poorest countries, in Africa and south Asia; but even more prosperous countries, such as the "tiger" economies of east Asia, have not solved the problem of hunger. Progress on any of these issues is unlikely without strong support for women, in both productive and reproductive roles. Women fulfil a very wide variety of functions in most societies, yet their status is often determined by their roles as wife and mother; and even in these roles they are given scant support. As a first step women's reproductive rights must be recognized: they need reproductive health care in all its aspects, as a basis for choice in all areas of life. As food producers and providers, women need equal access to education and training, extension services, technologies and credit, and equal rights to land tenure and inheritance. In achieving this they need the full support of men. Men must accept their responsibility in parenthood and the family, and recognize women's roles in the wider community. Equity and equality for women provide one of the keys to food security.   Women must be integrated into the decision-making process in all areas of development. Reinforcing the goals spelled out in the Cairo Programme of Action, the Beijing Declaration and other international fora, women should be partners in development, not simply beneficiaries. Empowering women with decision-making authority should be one of the goals of development policies in the 21st Century. top