When we talk about women’s empowerment, it is difficult to grasp what we actually mean. Does it refer to women’s attitudes towards gender violence? Or does it mean women’s economic independence and decision-making power? Does it perhaps imply access to productive resources, education, and other opportunities? Or might it mean control over time? Or does it concern all these aspects? Fortunately, in recent years, IFPRI, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Human Development Initiative (OPHI) have collaborated to develop a concrete means to measure these factors, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI). The latest version of the index, the project-level WEAI (pro-WEAI), focuses on evaluating agricultural development projects. Users discussed its applications in a launch event Oct. 25.
When measuring the impacts of agricultural programs, we tend to focus on production and income (which, don’t get us wrong, is absolutely necessary!). However, sometimes we forget that agricultural projects can affect intrahousehold dynamics and improve (or worsen) the empowerment of individual household members. The index is a multi-dimensional indicator that considers five aspects of empowerment: Decisions about agricultural production; access and decision-making power over productive resources; control over use of income; leadership in the community; and time use.
In this post, Lina Salazar and Jossie Fahsbender of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) two specific examples - in Nicaragua and Bolivia - in which the IDB, with the support of IFPRI, used the WEAI to assess the impact of agricultural projects on women’s empowerment.
Read the full blog on the IDB's Sustainability and Climate Change blog (English, Spanish) or on IFPRI's Events blog.