The Role of Women in Providing and Improving Household Food Security in Sudan: Implications for Reducing Hunger and Malnutrition

Relevant and consistent with the recent growing interest to assess the contribution of women to economic activities in Sudan, this study seeks to assess women’s contribution to their household food supply and nutrition status in rural Sudan. As for the contribution of the research, the research is expected to contribute to improve the understanding of the important contribution of women to economic activities and in particular in providing and improving household food security in Sudan and thus valuing the potential role of women in reducing hunger and malnutrition. Agricultural production (farm and livestock products) with supplemental resources (processed and preserved food items) and substitute resources (forest trees and wild food products) represent the available resources for the household food consumption in rural Sudan. Income generating activities along with other possible income sources (cash crops, trees products, pension, assets, remittance from migrants, and savings sources) provide household with income to afford foods. The finding of this study implies that in most rural areas in Sudan women are more capable than men in terms of the ability to use and allocate the available resources for the purpose to improve food security for their families. For the purpose of this paper, improvement of the household food security refers to the expanding availability and accessibility of nutritional food on sustainable basis. In this regard this study has indicated that women in rural Sudan play a crucial role in improving their household food security, as they contribute to food production, enhance dietary quality and consumption diversity. Therefore, based on the findings in this paper, the major policy implication is that crucial role of women in this context can greatly be enhanced through adoption of supportive national and local development policy.