Food Insecurity, Peace and Women : A quantitative study on how female signatories in peace processes affect the likelihood of food (in)security

Abstract: The correlation between food insecurity and conflict has previously been studied and established in multiple studies. Furthermore, additional research has found linkages allying increased levels of female political participation and the de-escalation of conflict. Despite these facts, there are to date no studies examining whether female inclusion in peace processes has an effect on hunger. Thus, this dissertation addresses the relationship between female signatories’ presence in peace processes and food insecurity. Food insecurity is operationalized as prevalence of undernourishment, and female inclusion in peace negotiations is measured by the presence of female signatories in such processes. The study’s main conceptual claim is based on gaps found in previous literature, and argues that a higher level of female participants in peace processes leads to a lower level of food insecurity. The claim is evaluated in a quantitative statistical analysis, using data on food insecurity from the FAOSTAT Data for Food Security Indicators​, and incorporating statistics on female inclusion in peace negotiations from the ​Replication Data for Women’s Participation in Peace Negotiations and the Durability of Peace​. The analysis illustrates food insecurity’s dissemination in post-conflict societies and gender dispersals within peace negotiations, in order to demonstrate an existing correlation. Built on results from an ordinary least squares regression, the study confirms that higher presence of female signatories in peace processes decreases the likelihood of food insecurity in post-conflict societies.