CARE on Gender Inequality

Dr. Cesar Escalante and Ph.D. Student, Bishal Gaire teams up with CARE on gender inequality

Cesar Escalante, UGA Professor, and Bishal Gaire, UGA Ph.D. Student, are currently working on a project with CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere), a major international humanitarian agency, exploring how investments to minimize gender inequality in agriculture can reduce global food insecurity. Their project addresses the effects of two major economic shocks associated with the pandemic and the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war that caused disruptions in global agricultural production, trade relationships, and commodity flows.

Under the impending Russia-Ukraine conflict, even if Russia respects the agreement with Ukraine to allow grain to be shipped to the places that need it most, the global hunger crisis is still extreme. CARE estimates that the implications of fertilizer price increase alone could put 1.2 billion additional people at risk of hunger next year because of drops in agricultural production. This figure is more than the entire number of people who have progressed out of poverty since 1990 and is 10 times more severe than the 2008 food crisis that inspired Feed the Future.

This study posits the argument that minimizing gender inequality can help alleviate the world hunger crisis – just as the microfinance paradigm in South Asia has proven. Investing in smallholder farmers—especially those operated by women—and long-term changes in the global food system can not only prevent famine now, but also build a system more resilient to shocks in the future. Investing in equality in food systems will result in more food, more agile systems, and more resilience for everyone. This project seeks to produce empirical evidence on how investing in women—especially women’s rights—contributes to broader economic growth and helps resolve the world hunger problem. This UGA-CARE collaboration commenced this spring and is expected to conclude next spring.