Why not Women?

Educating women is the key to eradicating poverty and hunger, said Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the UN's World Food Programme and Under-Secretary General of the UN. It would break the vicious circle of malnourished and mal-educated women giving birth to malnourished children.

The first woman to head the World Food Programme, Bertini said that 830 million people went to bed hungry every night, and lived on less than a dollar a day. In sub-Saharan Africa, 80 per cent of farmers were women, though men owned 90 per cent of the farming land. Her agency was currently feeding 80 million. 'In our communities throughout the world, not in poor communities alone, there are never enough people with energy, values and commitment who are willing to take leadership roles. Why not women?' she asked.