Food security and sustainable development with special reference to women and vulnerable groups in post-conflict countries in West Africa: Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone

Abstract

For most of the 1990s, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and in 1998 and 1999, Guinea Bissalh were classified by the FAO among countries facing exceptional food emergencies as a sequel of ci 'I conflicts. This report reviews the status of food security and sustainable development at the national and household levels in recent years in these countries; determines the extent of food insecurity as the result of the wars; identifies and analyzes the roles of women in enhancing food security and sustainable development and constraints they encounter. The review of the status of food security in the conflict periods showed that cereal production experienced declining trends, while cereal commercial imports and food aid posted increasing trends especially in Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the war periods were much longer. The report revealed that women farmers and entrepreneurs in the food industry because of cultural, political and economic imperatives encounter more problems than their male counterparts do with respect to accessing resources: e.g. land, labor, capital, technology, credit and extension services.