**9. Comparing food security in two countries: Benin and Turkiye**

Benin is a country in sub-Saharan Africa that has regional recognition for its culture, democracy and prowess in cotton production [54]. But a lot remains to be done when it comes to food security (accessibility, affordability, quality, and safety). Attempts have been made at the national level in recent years. In particular, the multiplication of school canteens in schools to enable all pupils to have a decent and full meal throughout the country, but there is still a great deal to be done. According to the latest 2020 report on the global food security situation, the Global Food Security Index Ranking, the country has recently been in a moderate position

**Figure 2.**

*Comparing food security in two countries: Benin and Turkiye. Source: GFSI (2020) computation from https:// foodsecurityindex.eiu.com.*

*A View of Sub-Saharan Africa from the Perspective of Food Security and Gender DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106392*


#### **Table 5.**

*Comparing food security in two countries: Benin and Turkiye.*

[55]. Since 2019, the country's global food security situation in 2020 had slightly increased by 0.1 points compared with 2019, but its place in the ranking remains unchanged (as the values in the table illustrate). On the other hand, relative to Benin, Turkiye, a country ranked 54th in the most recent HDI 2020 study (Benin 158), suffered a 0.7 decline in overall food security. Despite this downturn, the nation is well ahead of Benin and other underdeveloped countries. Moreover, at the global level, the country's food security skills are above average (the global average score is 60.4) (**Figure 2** and **Table 5**).

This fantastic above-average performance was achieved through several initiatives in the food sector, particularly targeted towards women. Additionally, the initial programme was focused on education. Similarly, data from the World Bank show that 93% of Turkish women are literate, as compared with the world average of 82.65%, while in Benin only 31% of women have this level of literacy (see **Table 6** below). In general, the growth of literacy for Turkish women has been 1.16% per year [56]. Similarly, the school enrolment for women is reportedly at 99.61% [57].

Moreover, as [58] points out on the issue of food security, he revealed that special attention has been paid to the matter. Thus, sectoral policy reforms in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs have resulted. Therefore, these reforms have given a substantial boost to the public extension services in agriculture. Indeed, there have been many agricultural initiative programmes implemented in Turkiye, as well as programmes spearheaded by the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and associated institutions that aim to allow (especially for) women entrepreneurs to enter into agricultural activities [59]. Most importantly, these initiatives involve:



*Source: World Bank Group. Available from: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.FE.ZS?locations=TR-BJ-1W-KE-GH-BF-SO-DJ-BI-NE-CF.*

#### **Table 6.**

*Literacy rate, adult female (percent of females ages 15 and above).*


However, in less developed countries such as Benin, vocational training programmes can hardly help women who work in agriculture. The interests and welfare of the household take precedence over other responsibilities when a woman has a major decision-making role. This should indicate in underdeveloped countries that every well-educated woman has the power to prevent hunger. Therefore, in those countries, more women should be encouraged to start businesses (in agriculturerelated fields too) in urban and rural areas where malnutrition (particularly) is prevalent.
