Women in the agricultural sector are victims of structural inequalities, as well as cultural, religious, and patriarchal norms that perpetuate gender-based violence. These factors contribute to their economic exploitation within the agricultural food system and lack of legal protections. The legacy of farm labour exploitation extends across generations, with women farmworkers experiencing precarious employment conditions and unique health hazards, including exposure to agrochemicals without adequate protection. Women in rural and farm communities face intersecting forms of discrimination based on gender, migration status, and race. They often lack access to basic services like healthcare, social services, water, and electricity, increasing their vulnerability to GBV. Post-apartheid policies have failed to adequately address the intersectional realities of women in rural agricultural systems. Interventions that are intersectional in addressing food insecurity and GBV, recognizing their deep interconnection in rural and farming communities, are needed. Implementation of policies that can protect or empower women in the agriculture sector is often lacking, leading to further exploitation with no recourse.

Peacebuilding, security and food insecurity are each deeply gendered. However, despite significant policy attention to all three dimensions, these policy processes tend to proceed on parallel tracks with limited overlap. This briefing summarises the findings of a larger study that maps these gaps, analysing if, when and where food (in)security features in the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. The study finds: 1) there is a general neglect of gendered dimensions of food insecurity and food rights in the WPS agenda overall; 2) food security is relatively neglected even in comparison to other domains of human security, broadly defined; and 3) food security is markedly neglected even in contexts of extreme food crisis. This policy brief summarises these findings and makes several recommendations for policy actors including Ireland, South Africa, wider UN member states, and UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Department of Peace Operations.

The correlation between food security and conflict is well-documented, with few studies highlighting that conflict-related food security is deeply gendered. Research on the integration of these issues in peace processes is limited. However, existing studies underscore that food-related discussions and their gender dimensions are often overlooked in peace processes. The Colombian peace process presents a significant exception. This study examines how and to what extent food-related policy in the Colombian peace agreement incorporates gender considerations, aiming to inform research and policy alike. Using qualitative analysis of the agreement text, three key findings emerge. First, the Colombian peace agreement consistently integrates gender in relation to (the right to) food, promoting equal rights, opportunities and participation for both men and women. Second, it acknowledges women’s critical roles in food production, distribution and their specific consumption needs. Third, special focus is placed on rural women, particularly female farmers and mothers. Despite these strengths, the agreement lacks an intersectional approach to gender and largely neglects urban food security. This study underscores the importance of including gender in food-related peace policy and calls for a more comprehensive approach that addresses diverse experiences of food insecurity in conflict settings. By doing so, it aims to guide policymakers toward replicable pathways for effective gender inclusion.

Both conflict and hunger are profoundly gendered, with gender norms,roles and inequalities shaping exposure to, and impacts of, insecurity and food crises alike. Against this backdrop, the extent to which policies aimed at preventing, addressing and supporting recovery from conflict-driven hunger take account of gender considerations is a pressing empirical question. It also raises important theoretical considerations in relation to the depth and extent of the integration of gender in global security policy and global policy agenda items more widely. This study maps the extent to which a specific policy corpus, the United Nations’ conflict and hunger agenda, has integrated gender considerations, and in what ways. Through content analysis of 59 UN documents, we find that although many documents in the conflict and hunger agenda reference gender, these references are relatively brief in most cases. A much smaller share engages more substantively with gendered dimensions ofconflict-driven hunger, and much of the framing in these longer treatments continues to emphasise women’s role as mothers, and their vulnerability (alongside children). In common with other studies on gender integration and mainstreaming, we find relatively few references to women as active agents in crisis, nor as key actors in crisis prevention.

South Africa’s agricultural food system is engulfed with systematicinequalities, where gender-based violence (GBV) intersects withsystematic poverty and food insecurity. Despite post-apartheid reforms,women in rural agricultural contexts face heightened vulnerabilitiesshaped by intergenerational labor exploitation, gendered occupationalhazards, and the exclusion from state response and resources includingbut not limited to land and resource ownership. Drawing from qualitativedata from the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, this study exploreswomen's lived experiences within these agricultural food systems. Threekey themes emerge: intergenerational exploitation, gendered health risksand socioeconomic isolation. Using the intersectional lens, this papercritically evaluates the gaps between policy aspirations andimplementation, and the intersectional relationship between violence,gender and food insecurity, proposing actionable pathways to reform.

While food security is closely tied to conflict, to date, food security’s inclusion in peace agreements has been relatively understudied. This gap exists even though food security is relevant to peace processes for several reasons, including the potential for conflict-related food insecurity to contribute to injustices that could drive future conflict. This study addresses this gap, by first, mapping the presence of food security-related provisions in contemporary peace agreements, and second, testing the effect of their inclusion on subsequent peace process progress and durability of peace. Analysing peace agreements from thePA-X dataset, we find that food-related references are relatively rare, and often brief. However, when we examine their inclusion in agreements infood-insecure environments, we find strong evidence that they are positively associated with advances in peace processes, and more qualified evidence that they are associated with a lower likelihood of subsequent violence. Through these findings, we contribute to research on peace agreements highlighting the value of addressing salient conflict issues beyond ‘hard’ security conditions alone. We also contribute to closing a gap in research on the conflict-hunger nexus which has, to date, largely neglected the role of food in peacebuilding.

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Research on masculinity and conflict has primarily focused on the role of gender norms in the perpetuation of militarisation, insecurity, and violence. While such research remains vital, the lack of emphasis on male insecurities in conflict has the effect of rendering masculinity incompatible with vulnerability. This is problematic from a number of angles, not least, the unfortunate effect this has on reifying harmful gender binaries. The literature on hunger and livelihood insecurity is a research field where a focus on masculinity is particularly absent. This paper engages this oversight from the two perspectives. First, from a position that recognises masculine expectations as contributing to the perpetuation of food insecurity experienced by others. Second, from the angle of food insecurity experienced by men in contexts emerging from violent conflict. On the latter, the paper examines how food insecurity interacts with masculine expectations of social and family roles, leading to disillusionment, migration, or the creation of conditions for recruitment into armed groups. The paper argues that recognising men and masculinities within hunger and peacebuilding literature is a crucial, but hitherto missing piece in policy and practice focused on sustaining peace.

Peace, conflict and food security are each deeply gendered, with important differences in experiences and impacts. However, there is relatively limited attention to their intersection – namely, the way gendered dimensions of food and hunger feature in peace and security. Moreover, despite significant policy attention to all three dimensions in global, regional and national bodies, policy processes related to peace and security, and those related to food security, tend to proceed on parallel tracks with limited overlap. This study sets out to map these lacunae, analysing if, when and where food security features in the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) policy agenda, specifically. We arrive at three key findings by drawing on a combination of content analysis across a large corpus of WPS policy material and in-depth qualitative discussion of select cases. First, there is an absolute neglect of gendered dimensions of food insecurity and food rights in the WPS agenda overall; second, food security is relatively neglected even in comparison to other domains of human security, broadly defined; and third, food security is markedly neglected even in contexts of extreme food crisis. We discuss these gaps and their implications for gender equality, inclusive peace and effective policy.

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Advances in our understanding of the sex and gender dimensions of humanitarian crises have highlighted the different ways in which gender shapes, inter alia, experiences of violent conflict, peacebuilding efforts, and food crises. While each of these phenomena are deeply gendered in and of themselves, our understanding of their intersections – specifically, the ways in which gender influences experiences of food insecurity in conflict – remains limited. This scoping review maps the available evidence on the gendered dimensions of hunger in conflict in recent research to present a review of the state of the art in this field. Drawing on a combination of quantitative content analysis, and qualitative review of the literature, we highlight key research themes and gaps that should inform future humanitarian scholarship and policy. 

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