MAY 2021 Single female headed household’s participation in food distribution in Rakhine State, Myanmar In 2018–2019, the World Food Programme (WFP) facilitated a women’s empowerment initiative. Around 300 women were hired as labourers in WFP food distributions, all of whom were single heads of households, and almost all were stateless and of Rohingya ethnicity. In Rakhine State in Myanmar, religious norms and cultural practices are a key barrier for women’s participation in the labour force and other public activities. This has significant impacts on single female-headed households (SFHHs), where care and income responsibilities fall on one woman’s shoulders. Rakhine State is home to some 150,000 people displaced by conflict and discrimination, living in 48 camps and camp-like settings. Restrictions on freedom of movement and conflict-related insecurity limit the livelihood options for many internally displace people and their reliance on humanitarian assistance for survival is indicative of their highly vulnerable situation. Additionally, there are over 450,000 non-displaced stateless Rohingya living in villages without the freedom of movement and other enabling circumstances for regular access to livelihoods. Of these, 470,000 are identified as people in need in the Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2021. WFP is presently serving some 285,000 people in Rakhine State, the large majority of whom are stateless and are receiving cash-based assistance, or a combination of rice and cash. In 2018, WFP was providing 22,000 households with in-kind food assistance, including rice, pulses, oil and salt. As part of the distributions, commodities must be measured to ensure households of different sizes received their correct entitlements based on the number of family members. As part of its gender policy implementation, WFP wanted to increase women’s participation in Rakhine State. A national Programme Policy Officer (Gender and Protection) from the Country Office went together with the Gender and Protection Focal Point in Sittwe Field Office to consult with leaders, who initially rejected the notion of women’s participation in public food distributions on the basis of social, religious and cultural norms which limit women’s place to the home and women’s work to caring for the household, and dictate that women should not be in public undertaking labour or paid work. 9