“What I find most frustrating about solving gender inequality, is when people frame it as a ‘women’s’ issue.” This opening line from Kawinzi Muiu, the Director for the Gender Office of the World Food Programme, summarises one of the biggest challenges she and her team face in fighting gender inequality and food insecurity. Repeated news stories show that men becoming involved in gender equality issues are not the norm and yet the World Food Programme (WFP) and Muiu continually demonstrate the mutual benefits of reducing gender inequality, particularly in the context of the WFP’s work. With women consistently less employed, paid less, and restricted in access to credit, there is much work to be done.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right; furthermore, the economic argument for gender equality is a difficult one to ignore, as Muiu points out. The World Bank estimated that the Gender Pay Gap costs global economy $160tn, and equal pay, equal hours and equal participation in the workforce could lead to a global wealth jump of $23,620 a person. However, it’s importance to the WFP also lies in the difference supporting women makes to entire communities. Research suggests that when women in poorer communities earn more money, that money is re-invested into their children’s education, family’s nutrition, health insurance, and other community projects lead by women. Therefore, encouraging gender equality and women empowerment through the WFP is as much about helping women in such communities as it is supporting their husbands, sons and daughters. The WFP’s goal is to provide equal access to food and nutrition for all; women, men, girls and boys.

These objectives, and particularly those of Muiu’s office, are further driven by two key Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that underly the World Food Program’s work; Goal 2: zero hunger, and Goal 5: gender equality (and empower all women and girls); and of course, these two goals cannot be achieved without SDG17 - working with partners. UN data shows that poor nutrition causes nearly half (45 per cent) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year – and yet they estimate if women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million. Therefore, the conclusion of the WFP is that a world with zero hunger can be achieved only when everyone has equal opportunities, equal access to resources, and equal voice in the decisions that shape their households, communities and societies. Yet, not one single country is set to achieve gender equality by 2030. With only a decade until 2030 and the next deadline for the SDGs, Muiu emphasises the importance of keeping the momentum of gender equality and women empowerment high.

However, to manage these two goals is not always straight forward. As Muiu highlights, the WFP must also ensure that their food assistance policies do not have negative consequences for women empowerment, specifically that their programmes must create conditions that facilitate, and do not undermine, the possibilities for women’s empowerment. As a result, the WFP’s Gender Policy 2015-2020 is driven by four objectives: food assistance adapted to different needs, equal participation, decision-making by women and girls, and gender protection. Across many areas of the world, despite Muiu’s work, gender equality is still seen as a women’s issue and many men she has engaged with believe gender equality can only come with a societal cost for men. Yet, irrespective of the nutritional benefit discussed earlier, gender equality is highly beneficial for the mental health of both men and women through improving emotional relationships and breaking up oppressive internalised gender stereotypes. Muiu recounted stories of the men she has worked with who endorse this experience, touting stronger relationships with their children and the community and better living standards as a result of their wives’ empowerment. The work left for the WFP and Muiu’s team is to spread this experience across the world.

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hosted by Professor Jacqueline Mazza


Kawinzi Muiu is World Food Programme's Director for the Gender office, spearheading the implementation of their new Gender Policy (2015-2021).

The policy aims to integrate gender equality and women's empowerment into all WFP's work and activities, and to ensure that the diverse food security and nutrition needs of women, men, girls and boys are addressed.

Muiu joined WFP in 1994 as a budget officer, after working as a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and as a project analyst with the African Development Bank. In addition to handling a wide range of issues on WFP's budget, Muiu has worked on child hunger, Walk the World, school feeding and knowledge management projects. Throughout her career Muiu has advocated for gender equality and resources to support gender-related activities. She has advocated for national women staff to become international professionals and continues to advocate for gender equality through various forums, including universities, embassies and women's networks.

Muiu holds a BA and MBA from George Washington University, Washington DC.