The GENTU Project

Gender Equitable Nutrition in Tanzania and Uganda (GENTU)

In certain rural areas of Tanzania and Uganda, undernutrition and malnutrition levels remain high. While the situation has been slowly improving in other parts of the country, the combination of systemic and community-based challenges rooted in gender inequality and discriminatory gender norms has been a blocking factor on progress of nutrition for women and adolescent girls. The discriminatory attitudes of health providers, inadequate crop management, poor agricultural and hygiene practices, and household food insecurity are the factors have significantly contributed to poor nutrition outcomes.

Action Against Hunger, through this 5-year project funded by Global Affairs Canada, is therefore aiming at improving and sustaining nutrition outcomes for the poorest and most marginalized women, adolescent girls, and children in these districts through comprehensive and integrated strategies targeting multiple stakeholders at the local and central level. This project adopts a gender-transformative approach at every stage, addressing gender-based power imbalances, challenging harmful gender norms and practices, and empowering women and adolescent girls to control the factors that influence their own, and their children’s nutrition, with the support and partnership of male power holders and government decision-makers.

Why is a gender transformative approach is needed to fight undernutrition and malnutrition among women and girls?

As of now, no region in the world is on track to meet the 2030 global targets to “reduce anemia in adolescent girls and women by half and low birthweight in newborns by 30%”^[1]. The current global food and nutrition crisis has made any progress even slower.  Among the factors blocking progress on nutrition for women and girls, harmful social and gender norms and practices are some of the most impactful ones. By restricting adolescent girls and women autonomy to take decisions and constraining their access to education, employment, land, financing and social networks, their access to nutrition services and support is considerably limited.

A gender transformative approach is defined as program approach or activities that actively seek to build equitable social norms and structures in addition to individual gender-equitable behaviour. As a gender equality-specific and targeted project and through WASH interventions, climate smart agriculture initiatives and health system strengthening, GENTU aims at reducing gender gaps, contributes to gender equality and empowers women and adolescent girls both as a primary objective, and as a critical strategy for achieving the project’s health and nutrition goals.

Gender inequalities in Tanzania and Uganda

In Tanzania, it is estimated that women make up 80% of labour force and produce 60% of food (URT 2012). In Uganda, women contribute 70% of their labour to agriculture and over 80% of their time to food production (EASSI, 2002). Despite these critical contributions, women and adolescent girls are still subject to severe gender inequalities affecting their daily lives and access to future opportunities.

In the rural districts of Bahi and Itigi in Tanzania and Moroto, Nakapiripirit, and Nabilatuk in Uganda, women spend on average 30% more time on housework than men, and 70% on childcare. This high work burden limit their access to education and training, as well as their ability to effectively participate in community life. Males dominate decision making, both at household and community level and are, in most cases, favoured over female members of the family. In some communities, it is for example common that adolescent girls receive less nutritious food than men. In parallel, access to health facilities is more restricted to women and adolescent girls, due to local harmful gender norms and practices, and SGBVs remain at high levels in these districts.

^{[1] UNICEF, “Undernourished and overlooked, A Global Nutrition Crisis in Adolescent Girls and Women (Executive Summary)”, March 2023, p.8}

Objectives:

1. Improved gender-transformative nutrition practices among pregnant and lactating women, children under 5 and adolescent girls in target districts.
2. Strengthened delivery and utilization of quality gender-equitable integrated nutrition and health services for the poorest and most marginalized, especially women, adolescent girls, and children in target districts.
3. Improved coordination and effectiveness of gender-focused NGOs and government stakeholders to provide community-based, nutrition-specific initiatives for women, adolescent girls, and children in target districts.

This project is carried out in partnership with: