Can leveraging women’s social capital increase food security?
Dr Melinda R. S. Moata is interested in how women use their social capital to achieve food security during crises. She wants to develop a model for optimising women’s social capital to enhance food system resilience in the Nusa Tenggara Timur province in southern Indonesia.
Aware that the COVID-19 pandemic had highlighted knowledge gaps everywhere, Dr Moata was happily surprised when her research project was amongst 40 to receive funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) via their Alumni Support Research Facility (ARSF). The project is titled “Women and Their Social Capital Role on Food System Resilience during Crisis: A Case Study on Covid-19 Pandemic in Nusa Tenggara Timur-Indonesia“.
Melinda told us that
“Interestingly, women tend to have a much wider and more diverse social capital compared to men and, therefore, could have a key role in circumventing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic within their households, including establishing a more resilient food supply system. Therefore, if we can provide a reliable model to strengthen such networks and empower local community livelihoods it would provide a sustainable crises management strategy.”
Uncertainty created by the pandemic has meant that many of the funding programs that Dr Moata and her team had relied upon in the past have been canceled or paused. Dr Moata is effusive in her gratitude towards ACIAR, saying that the opportunity to work with them is “like standing on the shoulders of a giant”.
The project will focus on four key locations where reported COVID-19 infections have been high and will employ a suite of data collection methods including semi-structured interviews and secondary data analysis. Dr Moata is working with a team of three colleagues from her base at the State Agricultural Polytechnic of Kupang and is being supervised by Professor Robyn Alders of the Australian National University.
Speaking about the importance of the research, Dr Moata said “Covid-19 is like a ghost, it affects everyone regardless of how big or rich they might be. Everyone has been impacted and it affects our basic human need for food security. ACIAR’s idea to empower their alumni to overcome the global disaster by funding research is a bold and genius decision. I was encouraged to take action and make a difference alongside my fellow alumni.”
Dr Moata is a member of the inaugural group of twenty women in agricultural sciences to become a Meryl Williams Fellow, an executive leadership program fully funded by ACIAR. Since undertaking the fellowship, Melinda has spearheaded programs at her institute to deliver food aid to local hospitals and taken on new duties following her promotion to the role of Vice Director in Public Relations, Promotion and Collaboration. In preparing this research proposal Dr Moata relied upon the project management techniques she learned during the fellowship and the supportive network that she has gained by being a part of it.
Of the Meryl Williams Fellowship, Dr Moata says
“the program has enabled me to influence people and to create positive change. It has deeply impacted me and helped me to become an effective leader. I wear my ACIAR pin everyday to remind me to keep the spirit of the program in my heart.”