Gendered impacts of the 2007-2008 food price crisis: Evidence using panel data from rural Ethiopia

Article on the gendered impact of the 2007–2008 food price crisis using panel data on 1,400 households from rural Ethiopia that were initially surveyed before the onset of the crisis, in 1994–1995, 1997, and 2004, and after food prices spiked, in 2009. It investigated whether female-headed households were more likely to report experiencing a food price shock, and whether those experiencing a shock were more (or less) likely to adopt certain coping strategies, controlling for individual, household, and community characteristics. The findings suggested that female-headed households were more vulnerable to food price changes and more likely to have experienced a food price shock in 2007–08. Because female-headed households were also resource poor and had a larger food gap compared with male-headed ones, they coped by cutting back on the number of meals they provide their households during good months and eating less preferred foods in general. A combination of short-term measures to protect diet diversity and micronutrient consumption of vulnerable groups and longer-term measures to promote investment in sustainable agriculture, such as strengthening women’s property rights, may increase the ability of poor and vulnerable households to cope better with food price increases.