Although women produce 70% - 75% of the country’s food output, the lack of control over productive household resources by women remains one of the root causes of gender poverty. This is because their capacity to access credit for productivity enhancing inputs is severely limited. Furthermore their lack of decision making power over land, income from crops their labour produces, livestock and other family assets is a direct cause of poor nutrition and health is leaving rural women vulnerable and disadvantaged.

At the macro level, the majority of women are locked out and fail to utilize their entrepreneurial talents, first of all because of their lack of collateral and limited access to start up capital but also because of time and poverty which hinders their capacity to benefit from poverty reducing programs such as agricultural support services, market information, credit and educational activities.

Women spend on average 9 hours per day on care labor activities, leaving them with very limited time for economic activities. On the other hand, their male counterpart spends only one hour on care activities.