Food Insecurity And Gender Inequality – A Panel Data Analysis For Sub-Saharanafrica

This paper focuses on the two key global issues of food insecurity and gender inequality. The paper tries to study the impact of various forms of gender inequality on magnitude of food insecurity in the developing region of Sub-Saharan Africa. FAO’s food security indicators are combined with gender gap indexes of Global Gender Gap Reports and World Bank, for undertaking a panel data analysis for a set of 20 Sub-Saharan countries over two separate time period of 6 years and 22 years, respectively.The econometric analyses undertaken clearly provide support to the underlying hypothesis. A decrease in gender gap in employment and economic participation has a significantly positive impact on the level of food security, both in the short run and in the long run. Results relating to the gender gap in wage/salariesalso provide support to our argument. In the long run, reproductive rights of women become equally important for ensuring food security of the growing population. Hence, the paper concludes by asserting that any policy or legislation which lacks gender dimension will be ineffective in controlling the growing magnitude of hunger in the conflict prone region of Sub-Saharan Africa.