East African Journal of Social and Applied Sciences (EAJ-SAS) Vol.2, No.2 Publication Date: October. 20, 2020 ISSN: (Online) 2714-2051, (Print) 0856-9681 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at: http//www.mocu.ac.tz Cite this article as: Kalumanga, V. E., Swai, O. & Matunga, B. N. (2020). Gender and Household Food Insecurity Status among Agro-pastoral Communities of Chamwino and Chemba Districts, Tanzania , East African Journal of Social and Applied Sciences, 2(2), 297-315. GENDER AND HOUSEHOLD FOOD INSECURITY STATUS AMONG AGRO- PASTORAL COMMUNITIES OF CHAMWINO AND CHEMBA DISTRICTS, TANZANIA Venance E. Kalumanga PhD-Student –Institute of Development Studies The University of Dodoma Email: [email protected] Okuli Swai Institute of Development Studies The University of Dodoma Email: [email protected] Benta N. Matunga Institute of Development Studies The University of Dodoma Email:[email protected] ABSTRACT Food insecurity is progressively making Africa the uppermost region with pervasiveness of malnourishment. Men and women in Africa face different restraints and their food insecurity circumstances vary. This paper analyzed gender and household food insecurity status among agro-pastoral communities of Chamwino and Chemba Districts in Tanzania. Cross-sectional survey was used where data were collected from randomly selected 333 households in two districts. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale from Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance was adopted and modified to analyze the households experienced problems to access food for the last 30 days while considering gender issues. 79.8% of the households were food insecure. Categorically, 24.6%-men and 18.3%- women were mildly food insecure; 13.5%-men and 12.9%- women were moderately food insecure and 3.3%-men and 7.2%-women were severely food insecure. Food insecurity status between Chamwino District was 80.6% and that of Chemba District was 78.8%, the differences were not statistically significant (p>0.05). There were high gender disparities on food insecurity in Chamwino District in which 33.3% of men and 67.7% of women were food insecure while in Chemba District, gender disparity was 36.4% of men and 42.4% of women. Generally, in the two districts the differences between gender and food insecurity were statistically significant (p<0.02). Gender roles have created disparities on food insecurities in the study area. Therefore, special attention should be taken to address gender roles and achieving gender equality in all matters pertaining availability, accessibility, utilization and stability of food in the study area and similar areas in Africa. Key words: Food insecurity, Households, Gender, Agro-pastoral communities Paper type: Research paper Type of Review: Peer Review 1. INTRODUCTION Globally, there is more than enough food in the world to feed everybody (World Food Program (WFP), 2019; World Bank, 2017). However, it is estimated that 820 million people about 12% of the world population still suffer from chronic hunger (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO 2019). The majority of 297 Kalumanga, V. E., Swai, O. & Matunga, B.N. (2020). Gender and Household Food Insecurity Status among Agro-pastoral Communities of Chamwino and Chemba Districts, Tanzania. hungry people live in developing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern and Eastern Asia (FAO, 2014; WFP, 2016). While many people are affected by food insecurity, there is gender disparity in that phenomenon where women and girls experience more the impacts of food insecurity (WFP, 2017). In developing countries, 70-78% of all food is tendered by women however, they are still reported to make 60 percent of malnourished people (Kabeer, 2012; UN Economic and Social Council, 2007; UNDP, 2014; WFP, 2009). Africa is mentioned to have the largest number of people suffering from high levels of food insecurity, where more than 65% are women and girls (Ecker et al., 2011; European Union, 2013; World Bank and International Food Policy Research Institute, 2012). The Global Hunger Index report (2013) of the International Food Policy Research Institute ranks countries from Sub- Saharan Africa such as Burundi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Tanzania as those with the highest proportion of undernourished people. Food insecurity impacts women and men differently. Women are reported to be highly impacted due to the roles they perform as the product of cultural norms (Kalumanga et al., 2014; Mbwambwo et al., 2013). Addressing food insecurity issues requires understanding of gender particularly norms guiding men and women. This is because gender norms have been reported to show gender inequalities in most of the communities (UNDP, 2014; WFP, 2012). In Tanzania, women are recognized as main supporters of food security at the household and societal levels because they engage more on food production, preparations and cooking but remain to have poor food security status as compared to men (FAO, 2010). Customarily, subsistence crops grown for personal consumption fall in women's realm, while commercial crops fall into men's domain who also bear command on selling them (European Union, 2013). This situation has been making women to feel inferior and remain powerless in terms of decision making as they lack sense of resource ownership in most of communities in developing countries. Gender norms has been cited as the root causes of traditional amenities, it has also reported to perpetuate different domains existing among men and women in most of the communities especially in developing countries. Women produce more than 70 percent of the food in most of the developing countries including Tanzania (WFP, 2019). Regardless of their high food production rate yet, they are still reported to have high food insecurity as compared to men (WFP, 2014). Different scholars including (Jaka et al., 2018 and Rao et al., 2018) have reported that, in most of the developing countries women are the ones who become the last to eat after all family members at the household. They do that because of the key responsibilities and roles they possess as mothers in making sure that all members eat first. Women remain to be considered as home producers or assistants on the farm, and not as farmers and economic agents on their own value. This is due to gender roles assigned to them which resulting inequalities within most communities in the country (UNACTAD, 2010). Despite the limited access to either local or global markets, women manage their families' nutritional needs. They achieve this despite rooted discernment gender roles raised by cultural norms. The use of women's time in agriculture is often constrained by responsibilities such as household chores including fetching water and wood, preparing meals for their families, cleaning, and attending to children and livestock. Women in agro-pastoral communities do use most of their energy on load-carrying activities involving transport of fuel-wood, water, and grain for grinding (Kalumanga, 2015; Tsuruta, 2016; Urassa et al., 2019). They work as primary care takers of the livestock including selling of milk and responsible to make sure that all family members who are responsible to look after livestock eat food on time before taking cattle for grassing (WFP, 2016). Thus, their role is important especially in making sure that, they prepare food for all family members and making sure that, all domestic activities are done regardless of being involved more on food production and other livestock’s related activities. Based on the important roles played by women this paper aimed to analyze gender and household food insecurity status among agro-pastoral communities of Chamwino and Chemba Districts in Tanzania. The analysis focuses on the status of household food insecurity particularly on occurrence and its frequency gender wise. The East African Journal of Social and Applied Sciences [EAJ-SAS] Vol. 2, Issue 2, 2020 298 Kalumanga, V. E., Swai, O. & Matunga, B.N. (2020). Gender and Household Food Insecurity Status among Agro-pastoral Communities of Chamwino and Chemba Districts, Tanzania. 2. METHODOLOGY The study was conducted in Chamwino and Chemba Districts in Dodoma Region. These Districts were selected because their status of chronic food insecurity records for the previous six years (2012-18) respectively, was high (DAICO, Chamwino and Chemba Districts, Personal Communication, (2019). Gender inequalities in both social and economic amenities were also reported to be high in both districts (Galiè et al., 2015; URT, 2015). A cross-sectional research design was employed because it can compare different population groups at a single point in time, it is also cheap, easy, quick to administer and less vulnerable to drop outs of respondents (Kothari, 2009). The study analyzed the relationship between gender and households food insecurity status among agro pastoral communities in Chamwino and Chemba Districts. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. Quantitative approach was used because it is used to quantify attitudes and opinions and other variables related to gender and food insecurity hence makes generalizations from a large population (Cohen et al., 2007; Punch, 2008). In order to get the realistic number of agro-pastoral household heads from each village the sampling proportion formula was used. The villages from Fufu ward in Chamwino District were Fufu and Suli while in the ward of Makorongo in Chemba District were Makorongo and Khubunko. Nh n nh N ……………………………………………………………………….. (1) Where: nh = Proportional sample for each village Nh = Total agro-pastoral households of each village N=Total number of targeted agro-pastorals households n= Calculated total sample size for the study which is 333 Fufu ward: Fufu village nh=595*333/2000 = 99 and Suli village nh=613*333/2000 = 102 Makorongo ward: Mkorongo village nh= 421*333/2000=70 and Khubunko village nh= 371*333/2000 = 61.77 62 The questions from HFIAS were adopted and modified. Qualitative approach employed the focus group discussion (FGD), with the aid of checklist to collect information from selected participants and semi structured interview guide to collect information from key informants.