Here’s the thing—if we’re really serious about solving global hunger, it’s beyond time for us to make meaningful investments in women in food and agriculture. We do not have any more time to waste.

Currently, more than a quarter of a billion people face acute hunger, according to the 2023 Global Report on Food Crises, which is a collaborative effort of 16 organizations including the World Food Programme, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF, and others. And some 800 million people go to be hungry every night.

“That’s unconscionable,” Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres wrote in the foreword to the report. It “is a stain on our collective humanity,” said Emily Farr, Oxfam Global’s Food and Economic Security Lead.

Global hunger is difficult to solve, but we know what it’ll take: Investing in and supporting women and girls is essential to breaking the cycles of hunger, poverty, and gender discrimination. And we’re still falling short.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, many women lead food storage, handling, stocking, processing, and marketing in addition to other household tasks and childcare. Yet this labor is grossly undervalued, and they continue to lack the resources they need to produce food.

Just look at Tanzania. Bridging the gender gap there could lift 80,000 Tanzanians out of poverty every year and boost the country’s gross domestic product growth, too, per the 17th Tanzania Economic Update. Investing in women is simply good governance.

Read the full article about investing in women by Danielle Nierenberg at Food Tank.