Justice For Women Should Start With Nutrition – GAIN Country Director

As the world marks International Women’s Day, the Country Director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Nigeria, Dr. Michael Ojo, has called for nutrition to be placed at the centre of women’s rights, justice, and development, warning that true equality is impossible without food security.

Drawing on the famous maxim attributed to Hippocrates — “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” — Ojo said millions of women and girls around the world remain trapped in cycles of inequality because they lack access to nutritious diets

Dr. Ojo is an experienced development professional who joined Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition from WaterAid, where he served as Country Director for Nigeria. Trained initially as a Veterinary Surgeon, he later transitioned into public health, sustainability and environmental policy, transport, and back to public health with a focus on WASH and nutrition. This diverse career pathway, he said, has shaped his leadership approach and strengthened his focus on continuous improvement and systems-driven solutions.

As Country Director, Dr. Ojo leads GAIN’s work in Nigeria aimed at transforming food systems to make healthier and more sustainable food choices affordable, available and desirable. His work includes scaling business investments in nutritious food value chains, reducing post-harvest losses, improving diets for children and advancing food fortification at scale. He has also developed a strong interest in business-led and market-based approaches to development challenges, which he described as a key motivation for joining GAIN

In a policy-focused article titled “Justice for women should start with nutrition,” Dr. Ojo emphasized that access to nutritious food is fundamental to women’s dignity, agency, and economic empowerment, particularly in developing economies where women dominate food systems but remain disproportionately food insecure.

He highlighted that global gender inequality trends indicate it would take 286 years to close gaps in legal protections for women, a situation that remains unacceptable, especially when women are central to food production yet are denied its benefits. Women account for 36 per cent of agrifood system workers globally, a figure that rises to 66 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa, yet they remain more vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition.

Dr. Ojo noted that women farmers face higher risks of food insecurity, micronutrient deficiencies, and limited access to land and finance. Data from UNICEF shows that structural inequalities continue to limit women’s control over productive resources, while findings by the Food and Agriculture Organization indicate that women farmers have significantly less access to land, quality inputs, irrigation, extension services, and credit than men.

He further explained that discriminatory laws and deeply rooted social norms often limit women’s ability to control their earnings and assets. The economic cost of these disparities extends beyond women themselves, as FAO estimates suggest that giving women equal access to productive resources could increase farm yields by 20 to 30 per cent, potentially reducing global hunger by up to 17 per cent, or 150 million fewer undernourished people.

Dr. Ojo argued that food insecurity should not be viewed solely as a production problem but as a multifaceted issue including access gaps, finance gaps, infrastructure gaps, and power gaps, which can prevent women from fully benefiting from economic gains in farming.

He outlined that this approach underpins GAIN’s work in strengthening both the supply and demand for nutritious foods while creating enabling environments for women within food systems. In Nigeria, the CASCADE project implemented by GAIN in partnership with CARE International across Bauchi, Jigawa, Kebbi, and Nasarawa states is investing directly in women’s economic power and access to nutritious foods by digitizing savings groups, supporting climate-smart agriculture, and enabling thousands to produce, consume, and market nutrient-rich foods.

Beyond targeted programmes, Dr. Ojo stressed that reversing decades of inequality requires sustained engagement with social norms and power structures at the community level. Community dialogues and women’s leadership platforms under the programme are helping families and traditional leaders reflect on power relations and promote fairer decision-making.

He warned that as climate shocks and rising food prices continue to threaten progress, gender inclusion risks becoming performative if it does not translate into real income, leadership, and decision-making power for women. On International Women’s Day, Dr. Ojo urged governments to enact and enforce gender-responsive land, finance, and food policies, invest in infrastructure linking women producers to markets, and called on financial institutions to provide patient capital for women-led nutritious food businesses.