Paper short abstract:

This paper develops a gender analysis of food insecurity in northern Mozambique. It finds that different gendered forms of deprivation, such as lack of secure employment and multiple labour demands, interact with each other and contribute the production of vicious cycles of food insecurity.

Paper long abstract:

This paper develops a gender analysis of food insecurity in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, by looking at women's earned incomes, time use patterns and agricultural work, in relation to food security. Given the vast body of literature that sees women as critical agents to the achievement of food security, this study sets out to address the relevance of these arguments in the context of informalisation of female employment and multiple occupations. The paper draws on primary research conducted with the use of mixed methods, including participant observation, life histories and a household survey, in rural and urban areas of Cabo Delgado. The study finds that different forms of deprivation, such as lack of secure employment and multiple labour demands, interact with each other and lie at the basis of the production of vicious cycles of food insecurity. Vulnerability to food insecurity develops through gendered dynamics and processes of social differentiation that make poorer, food-deficit households and those where women are the main earners more exposed to the risk of food insecurity. The implications are that women-focused and snapshot-based assessments of food security need to be replaced with gender analyses and dynamic approaches to food security.