In support of The Corporate Goat beliefs, below are just some of the facts and observations that help to inform project planning, prioritisation and evaluation.There are many others.
Women and children are disproportionately affected by hunger.
Gender discrimination and cultural traditions causes particular suffering and disadvantage for women.
The education and empowerment of women in the two thirds world has been shown to offer great development possibilities.
An estimated 130 million school-age children are not enrolled in school, often due to hunger and malnutrition.The majority of these children are girls.
In Asia, Africa and Latin America, 170 million children receive no food during school hours.In the thirty developing countries where the United Nations has run pilot schemes to provide school lunches, enrolments doubled within a year.
The nourishment and care of school-age and preschool-age children and pregnant and nursing mothers is a very effective way of underwriting education. If you feed children, they learn better.
Lack of education decreases productivity and vulnerability to hunger.Hunger and poverty are partners of illiteracy and a lack of education.
Illiterate girls have an average of six children each. Girls who go to school have an average of 2.9 and are better equipped to rear their children.
A farmer with only four years of elementary education produces 8.7% more food than a farmer with no education.
AIDS strips households of assets as families are forced to sell what little they have. Studies in Uganda show that people who complete primary school are only half as likely to contract HIV.Those who finish secondary school are only 15% as likely.
The grassroots involvement of local men and women in aid and development projects is at the heart of sustainability.Real change happens when poor people are empowered to shape their own destiny.
Land and water management are key to the victory over hunger. Everyone has a role and poor women smallholders have a particular role.Gender and class equality in decision making are essential.
Careful studies have shown that small landholders, small family type farming, produce more food per acre than do large landowners - in 39 out of 55 developing countries.Small landholders were found to be more careful and efficient, relying on their own labour.
