Tunis, Tunisia, August 13, 1995

The fact that women are left poor and illiterate in so many societies is a matter of politics and power. Changing that fact is purely a matter of justice.

If women are to make progress toward equality, our governments – our political power structures and we women ourselves -- must make that progress a priority. The goal of empowering women should be one we all share.

Time and again, studies have confirmed that women who have even just a few years of formal education are likely to marry later, have smaller and healthier families, and earn more.

We must, by necessity, emphasize the role of women when we discuss food distribution. In almost every society, women are the people who gather the food, cook the food, and feed the children. And women are most invested in their families' growth.

Focusing on women is not without its costs. There is often intense opposition. Some see women as second class citizens at best, little more than servants at worst.

Seven out of 10 of the world's poor are women and girls -- nearly a billion all told. The feminization of poverty and other burdens women bear will never end until women are treated as equals -- until we have the same access to the mainstream of political and economic life that men do.

Beijing, China, September 6, 1995

Women eat last. In almost every society in the world, women gather the food, prepare the food, serve the food. Yet most of the time, women eat last. A woman feeds her husband, then her children, and, finally -- with whatever is left -- she feeds herself. Even pregnant women and breast feeding women often eat last when, of all times, they should eat first.

The World Food Programme, the food aid arm of the United Nations, touches the lives of more than 30 million women.

For each woman the World Food Programme now reaches, there are 20 more hungry women who need our help.

Yes, women are victims in the most fundamental ways, but there is a point -- and we have reached it -- where we have to stop using so much energy describing the plight of women and move on to strategies and solutions. For all our policy papers and guidelines on women, we have made only a small dent in the problem. We hear all too many excuses on how projects to empower women will not work. It is time to trade excuses for action. It is time to stop writing guidelines and get to work.

We can't easily change the underlying beliefs and prejudices that do so much damage to women worldwide. We cannot quickly change attitudes, but we can change behaviour.

We trade a 5 litre can of oil for 30 days of school attendance by a young girl. Yes, it's bribery. We don't apologize for that. We are changing behaviour, we are giving hope and opportunity to young girls -- and that is all that counts. Each small change in behaviour will one day pay off in a change in attitude.

Women are the sole breadwinners in one household in three worldwide. They produce 80 percent of the food in Africa, 60 percent in Asia and 40 percent in Latin America. Women hold together our families, our communities, our societies. What could be more right, more just than for us to create a world in which women don't eat last?

Sponsored by the International Fund for

Agricultural Development

Brussels, Belgium, November 21, 1995

Women are the glue that holds families together - and many fragile economies in the developing world as well.

Strategic investments in women today are some of the best ways to invest in the future.

Almost by definition, women and mothers are the foundation of a civil society.

The words "poverty" and "women" have become synonymous in nearly every quarter of the globe. So when we focus on women we are, by definition, focusing on the poorest of the poor.

The chance that a poor woman in the developing world will die while giving birth is one in 25 to 40, compared to one in several thousand in a developed country.

When we target women with food aid we inevitably build household food security. In almost all societies, women control the flow of food within households. Let us build on that role and use it to feed children and to create or strengthen economic development.

Over and over again, studies have shown that as basic literacy rates rise among women, there are accompanying improvements in basic health and nutrition in families and drops in fertility rates.

To help strengthen education among women, at WFP we are now requiring all school feeding projects to have girls as at least 50 percent of the beneficiaries. This has been a recurring problem -- too many governments are happy to feed boys in school but not as interested in feeding girls.

Food aid is an excellent device for attracting women to literacy, health, and nutrition instruction in rural areas where the need is often greatest.

Women and their young children are the first to suffer when the crops fail or a nation is seized with violence. But women are the keys to maintaining family and community stability through unstable situations.

Let us invest in women.

Rome, February 17, 1999

If our purpose is to end hunger, whether it is through loans or through food aid or through technical agricultural assistance … then we have to reach the person in the family who is most invested in ending hunger for that family and that is the woman. Because it is the woman primarily who is going to make sure that her children have food. It is the woman who is going to find that food. She may grow it, she may raise it, she may shop for it. She finds it, she finds the water. She may spend hours finding the water. She cooks the food, she serves the food.

If we can reach that woman, if we can get food aid to her in order to cut down on her other burdens during the day, if we can get loans to her in order to be able to help her to improve her agriculture, her family environment, if we can get technical assistance to her and cooperative extension to her and we can help her to increase her agricultural production, then we are improving the nutritional life and, ultimately, not only the food security but the economic security of her entire family.

January 29,1999

Focussing more resources on women also helps insure that our limited aid resources actually reach the intended beneficiaries. WFP’s experience with food aid … has shown that women are more likely to use both loans and food aid to help their families. So a pound devoted to aid for poor women is far more likely to reach its mark.

Rome, March 8, 1995

I am proud to say that WFP is the largest source of grant aid in the United Nations for assistance involving and benefiting women. More and more, we are turning to women to design our food aid projects, to spearhead emergency relief, to act as food aid monitors.

McGill University

Canada, October 17, 1995

Over and over again, studies have shown that as basic literacy rates rise among women, there are accompanying improvements in basic health and nutrition in families and drops in fertility rates. At the same time, these women tend to become more active and productive economically.…

In some of our most successful food aid projects, we literally pay families who do not believe in educating their daughters to send those girls to school. A little free cooking oil can go a long way. We trade a 5-litre can of oil for 10 days of school attendance by a young girl. Yes, it’s bribery. We don’t apologize for that. We are changing behavior, we are giving hope and opportunity to young girls – and that is all that counts.

New York, March 22, 1999

We increasingly engage men in dialogue to avoid backlash and to put our commitments to women in the context of a broader agenda. While we want to empower women we know that in many cases that will only happen when men acknowledge that there are advantages to them and their families when women’s status improves.

New York, July 3, 1998

At the beginning of 1992, there were no D level (executive management) women employees at all in WFP – not one. Today, women now hold one out of four (25 percent) of these posts. Our female recruitment in 1992 was 18 percent of candidates hired. Today it is 43 percent…. Progress, but still not enough.