Integrating gender and HIV/AIDS into food security initiatives Policy making ‘from the ground up’

Abstract

In this article we consider how an orientation towards “policy making ‘from the ground up’” that draws on participatory visual methodologies can have an impact on how issues of food security are addressed, particularly in relation to the incorporation of gender and HIV/AIDS awareness in higher education. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), we argue, especially those working in the area of agriculture and food security, could take the lead in adopting strategies that help to ensure the mainstreaming of gender and HIV/AIDS in curriculum and pedagogy, and improve the general climate for teaching and learning for both male and female students. To date, few food security initiatives have looked directly at who is learning, what is being learned and how is it being learned in Faculties of Agriculture. In a country like Ethiopia, however, where agriculture is at the centre of development and where close to 80 per cent of the  population live and work in rural areas, HEIs have a key role to play.