Can gender-equitable access to and control over resources improve rural household food security? Case study in West Africa

Gender has been broadly acknowledged to play an essential role in a household's food security. However, most of the existing studies have assessed the potential contribution of gender to food security based on sex disaggregation only (women vs. men). We revisit the relationship between gender and food security by focusing simultaneously on two core elements of gender: access to and control over productive resources. We use primary data collected from 295 households randomly selected in two districts in Benin to fit a generalized structural equation model. Our results showed four types of households: households without women's access and control of resources, households with women's access to capital only, households with women access to all resources and households with access and control over resources. Households with access and control over resources are the majority of the sample of households surveyed, while households without women's access and control of resources occupied 5.9% of the households surveyed. Households, where women have full access to and control over resources, are less exposed to food insecurity. This result holds true in households where women contribute to food expenditures. The expenditures are on products with high nutritional value. Women who control resources with no expenditure on food, like men, did not influence household food insecurity. We recommend particular attention to women's empowerment within their households to reduce food insecurity in developing countries.