INTRODUCTION

This bibliography of selected literature was prepared in connection with the report "Women's Role in Food Chain Activities and the Implications for Nutrition", requested by the UN ACC/Subcommittee on Nutrition and financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Development Cooperation (NORAD). The report includes an analysis of available literature on the topic and discussions and recommendations of practical concern for development work.

The selection of the literature included in this bibliography was based on the main problem areas to be discussed in the report. These are related to women's role and tasks in the "food chain", which includes all activities related to food, such as food production, food processing and food distribution, and the implications for household nutrition as well as women's own status and quality of life.

In the work of this bibliography efforts were made to cover literature which includes both women's food chain activities and women's role in nutrition, particularly those which include attempts to link these two aspects.

Due to limitations in time and resources we have concentrated on two geographical areas: Africa and Asia. Africa was chosen because of women's central role in food production in this part of the world. The inclusion of selections from Asia provided a fuller picture of the multifaceted aspects of women's food-related responsibilities and the nutritional consequences.

Table 1
Types of studies and geographical location
Number of studies

	Africa	Asia	Global
Total number of studies	58	18	39
Field studies	40	14	0
Theoretical or review articles	13	2	27
Project-related articles	14	6	23

The bibliography entails 111 documents. As seen in table 1, 58 of these studies pertain to the African situation, whereas 18 concern the situation in Asia. This reflects the emerging interest in women's role as food producers in Africa. In addition, 39 studies of more global interest have been included. The table illustrates the number of documents which deal with field studies, theoretical or review articles and documents of interest in relation to development projects, according to geographical area. It should be noted that one document may contain several of the aspects indicated in table 1 as well as in table 2.

Table 2 shows the number of documents in the bibliography, which have treated specific aspects of women's food-related work and nutrition. The largest number (88) concerns women's work in food production. These have been selected from a large body of literature on this topic. Women's work in other parts of the food chain is less extensively covered in the bibliography, 50 entries reflecting the scarcity of literature on this subject. None of the studies cover women's work in the entire food chain.

In a number of studies women's food chain activities have been related to women's workload, women's income in food and cash and nutritional conditions, such as food consumption and nutritional status of household members (see table 2).

Table 2
Aspects of women's work and nutrition
Number of studies

	Women's work in food production	Women's work in other parts of food production
Total number of studies	88	50
Women's workload	34	17
Income in food or cash, earned by women	19	17
Nutrition	32	18
Women's health and education	5	6

In a few studies other aspects of women's situation, such as health and education are taken up.

Even though considerable efforts were made to include in the bibliography all the literature available, which has attempted to link women's food chain activities with nutritional conditions of the household, only 31 of the entries met these criteria (table 2). Only a few empirical studies relate data on nutritional status or food consumption to women's agricultural work. Such studies are even more scarce in regard to women's work in fishing or fish processing, where only a few entries are made in this bibliography.