Publications

Assessment of Nutrition-Sensitive Value Chains in the Feed the Future Zone of Influence in Tajikistan

This dataset contains household and farm survey data collected in 2018 in 12 districts (USAID's Zone of Influence) in southwest Khatlon, Tajikistan. The sample size for the household survey is 1,200 households. This household sample selection is based mostly on non-probability sampling techniques, and extensively uses the list of households who were beneficiaries of USAID Feed the Future Tajikistan Agriculture and Water Activity (TAWA). The sample is not intended to be representative of the ZOI. The questionnaire contains household-level modules, as well individual-level modules targeted at the main female decision maker in the household. These individual-level modules were to be conducted in private unless infeasible and contain key modules of the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI).

Synopsis: Women’s empowerment in Rwandan agriculture: A baseline assessment in the context of Rwanda’s gender and youth mainstreaming strategy and the fourth strategic plan for agricultural transformation

Rwanda is a recognized leader in the region and the world in terms of women’s empowerment. However, no country has yet achieved full gender equality, resulting in untapped potential for improvement. The findings from the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) baseline survey conducted in 2019 for the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) indicate that women and men in Rwanda have both relatively high levels of empowerment across different agricultural domains, while many women are as empowered as men in their households, some gender disparities remain.

Assessing multicountry programs through a “Reach, Benefit, Empower, Transform” lens

Can a gender-sensitive integrated poultry value chain and nutrition intervention increase women's empowerment among the rural poor in Burkina Faso?

Understanding the types of food systems interventions that foster women's empowerment and the types of women that are able to benefit from different interventions is important for development policy. SELEVER was a gender- and nutrition-sensitive poultry production intervention implemented in western Burkina Faso from 2017 to 2020 that aimed to empower women. We evaluated SELEVER using a mixed-methods cluster-randomized controlled trial, which included survey data from 1763 households at baseline and endline and a sub-sample for two interim lean season surveys. We used the multidimensional project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), which consists of 12 binary indicators, underlying count versions of 10 of these, an aggregate empowerment score (continuous) and a binary aggregate empowerment indicator, all for women and men. Women's and men's scores were compared to assess gender parity. We also assessed impacts on health and nutrition agency using the pro-WEAI health and nutrition module. We estimated program impact using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models and examined whether there were differential impacts by flock size or among those who participated in program activities (treatment on the treated). Program impacts on empowerment and gender parity were null, despite the program's multipronged and gender-sensitive approach. Meanwhile, results of the in-depth gender-focused qualitative work conducted near the project mid-point found there was greater awareness in the community of women's time burden and their economic contributions, but it did not seem that awareness led to increased empowerment of women. We reflect on possible explanations for the null findings. One notable explanation may be the lack of a productive asset transfer, which have previously been shown to be essential, but not sufficient, for the empowerment of women in agricultural development programs. We consider these findings in light of current debates on asset transfers. Unfortunately, null impacts on women's empowerment are not uncommon, and it is important to learn from such findings to strengthen future program design and delivery.

Replication Data for “Learning Together: Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Group-Based Nutrition Interventions in Rural Bihar"

This dataset contains baseline (2016) and endline (2018) data from a two-round panel dataset that focuses on 2246 rural women from 24 gram panchayats (GPs) in three blocks of the eastern Indian state of Bihar. The sampling of these women was based on two eligibility criteria: (1) they or someone in their household must be a member of a Self-Help Group (SHG), and (2) they must have a child aged 6 months to 2 years at the time of the baseline survey conducted in 2016. The 24 GPs were divided into treatment and control arms equally. Women in the treatment arm received the JEEViKA-MC interventions, while those in the control arm did not receive any specific interventions. The dataset includes information on various primary and secondary outcomes, individual, household, and village characteristics, as well as many other key variables related to the impact pathways being studied.

Development and validation of a health and nutrition module for the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI+HN)

Agricultural development projects increasingly aim to improve health and nutrition outcomes, often by engaging women. Although evidence shows such projects can improve women's and children's health and nutrition and empower women, little is known about their impacts on women's health- and nutrition-related agency and the extent to which impacts emerge through women's empowerment, largely due to a lack of instruments that measure the dimensions of women's agency that are directly relevant to health and nutrition outcomes. We developed an optional, complementary module for the project-level women's empowerment in agriculture index (pro-WEAI) to measure health- and nutrition-related agency (pro-WEAI + HN). Our method for developing related indicators used data collected from six agricultural development programmes implemented across Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Mali (pooled sample = 12,114) and applied psychometric analysis (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis) and the Alkire−Foster methodology. Results revealed seven indicators covering women's agency in the areas of her own health and diet; her health and diet during pregnancy; her child's diet; breastfeeding and weaning; purchasing food and health products; and acquiring food and health products. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis revealed measurement invariance across contexts and samples. Tests of association (Cramer's V) and redundancy suggest that the pro-WEAI + HN indicators measured aspects of agency that are distinct from the core pro-WEAI. The uptake of these indicators in studies of nutrition-sensitive agricultural development projects may strengthen the evidence on how such programming can enhance women's empowerment to improve health and nutrition outcomes for themselves and their children.

Empowering women in agriculture: The role of the WEAI in Bangladesh

Empowering women is crucial for a country's development because it leads to greater economic growth, increased productivity, and improved social outcomes. When women have access to education, economic opportunities, and decision-making power, they are better able to contribute to their families and communities. This can lead to increased income, improved health and education outcomes, and reduced poverty. In Bangladesh, women and girls still face considerable barriers to accessing education and economic opportunities, and are often subjected to traditional gender roles that may hinder them. Although women play a crucial role in agriculture, they experience many challenges that limit their productivity and economic potential, such as limited access to credit and training. They are also often marginalized and excluded from decision-making processes. As the complexity and importance of gender equity in development work has increased, so too has the need to measure empowerment and progress made toward improving empowerment and achieving gender parity. In Bangladesh, there has been growing momentum by the government and development partners to use evidence to inform gender-sensitive and -responsive policies and programs. The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) has emerged as a key tool to achieve this objective. This brief examines how WEAI data have informed and supported the design of policies and programs to promote women's empowerment in Bangladesh.

Ethiopia Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) Baseline Survey, 2014

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab on Small-Scale Irrigation (FTF-ILSSI) is a cooperative agreement funded by USAID under the Feed the Future program to undertake research aimed to increase food production, improve nutrition, accelerate economic development and contribute to the protection of the environment. The project seeks these objectives through identifying, testing and demonstrating technological options in small-scale irrigation and irrigated fodder, supported by a continual dialogue approach with stakeholders and capacity development toward sustained use of research approaches and evidence. Collaborators on this project include Texas A&M University, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT) and Texas A&M AgriLife Research (TAMUS). As part of this project, IFPRI is undertaking a study of irrigating and non-irrigating households in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana to investigate the connections between irrigation, gender, nutrition and health. The survey explores these linkages through an in-depth household questionnaire with questions on agricultural production, nutrition and health, a WEAI module and a community questionnaire.

This work forms part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE).

Tanzania Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) Baseline Survey, 2015

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab on Small-Scale Irrigation (FTF-ILSSI) is a cooperative agreement funded by USAID under the Feed the Future program to undertake research aimed to increase food production, improve nutrition, accelerate economic development and contribute to the protection of the environment. The project seeks these objectives through identifying, testing and demonstrating technological options in small-scale irrigation and irrigated fodder, supported by a continual dialogue approach with stakeholders and capacity development toward sustained use of research approaches and evidence. Collaborators on this project include Texas A&M University, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT) and Texas A&M AgriLife Research (TAMUS). As part of this project, IFPRI is undertaking a study of irrigating and non-irrigating households in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana to investigate the connections between irrigation, gender, nutrition and health. The survey explores these linkages through an in-depth household questionnaire with questions on agricultural production, nutrition and health, a WEAI module and a community questionnaire. This work forms part of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE).

Edutainment, gender and intra-household decision-making in agriculture: A field experiment in Kenya

Oftentimes, a man’s opinion is valued over a woman’s, with women expected to take a back seat when decisions are made in their households and in society (Kawarazuka et al., 2019). Such social norms create unequal participation between female and male smallholder farmers in African agriculture. Additionally, it puts women in positions where they can be abused (and tolerate abuse), especially by their spouses. This is a threat to women’s empowerment, increasing gender gaps in society and within families. It is therefore imperative to address societal norms that do not allow a level playing ground for both sexes in agriculture.

Can a gender-sensitive integrated poultry value chain and nutrition intervention among the rural poor increase women’s empowerment in Burkina Faso?

Understanding the types of food systems interventions that foster women’s empowerment and the types of women that are able to benefit from different interventions is important for development policy. SELEVER was a gender- and nutrition-sensitive poultry production intervention implemented in western Burkina Faso from 2017 to 2020 that aimed to empower women. We evaluated SELEVER using a mixed-methods cluster-randomized controlled trial, which included survey data from 1763 households at baseline and endline and a sub-sample for two interim lean season surveys. We used the multidimensional project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), which consists of 12 binary indicators, underlying count versions of 10 of these, an aggregate empowerment score (continuous) and a binary aggregate empowerment indicator, all for women and men. Women’s and men’s scores were compared to assess gender parity. We also assessed impacts on health and nutrition agency using the pro-WEAI health and nutrition module. We estimated program impact using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models and examined whether there were differential impacts by flock size or among those who participated in program activities. Program impacts on empowerment and gender parity were null, despite the program’s careful approach to developing a gender-sensitive intervention. Meanwhile, results of the in-depth gender-focused qualitative work conducted near the project mid-point found there was greater awareness in the community of women’s time burden and their economic contributions, but it did not seem that awareness led to increased empowerment of women. We reflect on possible explanations for the null findings. One notable explanation may be the lack of a productive asset transfer, which have previously been shown to be essential, but not sufficient, for the empowerment of women in agricultural development programs. We consider these findings in light of current debates on asset transfers. Unfortunately, null impacts on women’s empowerment are not uncommon, and it is important to learn from such findings to strengthen future program design and delivery.

Can agricultural development projects empower women? A synthesis of mixed methods evaluations using pro-WEAI in the gender, agriculture, and assets project (phase 2) portfolio

Agricultural development projects increasingly include women’s empowerment and gender equality among their objectives, but efforts to evaluate their impact have been stymied by the lack of comparable measures. Moreover, the context-specificity of empowerment implies that a quantitative measure alone will be inadequate to capture the nuances of the empowerment process. The Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, Phase 2 (GAAP2), a portfolio of 13 agricultural development projects in nine countries in South Asia and Africa, developed the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) and qualitative protocols for impact evaluations. Pro-WEAI covers three major types of agencies: instrumental, intrinsic, and collective. This paper synthesizes the results of 11 mixed-methods evaluations to assess these projects’ empowerment impacts. The projects implemented the pro-WEAI and its associated qualitative protocols in their impact evaluations. Our synthesis finds mixed, and mostly null impacts on aggregate indicators of women’s empowerment, with positive impacts more likely in the South Asian, rather than African, cases. There were more significant impacts on instrumental agency indicators and collective agency indicators, reflecting the group-based approaches used. We found few significant impacts on intrinsic agency indicators, except for those projects that intentionally addressed gender norms. Quantitative analysis does not show an association between the types of strategies that projects implemented and their impacts, except for capacity building strategies. This finding reveals the limitations of quantitative analysis, given the small number of projects involved. The qualitative studies provide more nuance and insight: some base level of empowerment and forms of agency may be necessary for women to participate in project activities, to benefit or further increase their empowerment. Our results highlight the need for projects to focus specifically on empowerment, rather than assume that projects aiming to reach and benefit women automatically empower them. Our study also shows the value of both a common metric to compare empowerment impacts across projects and contexts and qualitative work to understand and contextualize these impacts.

Schooling impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program in Mali

In rural West Africa, the rate of out-of-school children is high and delayed entry to primary school is common, particularly for girls. Using the randomized roll-out of an unconditional cash transfer program (Jigisemejiri) in Mali, we examine its impact on child schooling by age and sex. The program leads to significant improvements in schooling outcomes for girls, but not boys. Improvements among girls are especially salient among younger (ages 6–9) and older (ages 15–18) girls. Pathway analysis reveals that the program reduces the time younger girls spend in agricultural work at home and the time older girls spend in domestic work as well as self-employment. Households in the program also spend more on education for older girls in terms of school fees, materials, and transport.

Understanding the pathways to women’s empowerment in Northern Ghana and the relationship with small-scale irrigation

Women’s empowerment is often an important goal of development interventions. This paper explores local perceptions of empowerment in the Upper East Region of Ghana and the pathways through which small-scale irrigation intervention targeted to men and women farmers contributes to women’s empowerment. Using qualitative data collected with 144 farmers and traders through 28 individual interviews and 16 focus group discussions, this paper innovates a framework to integrate the linkages between small-scale irrigation and three dimensions of women’s empowerment: resources, agency, and achievements. The relationship between the components of empowerment and small-scale irrigation are placed within a larger context of social change underlying these relationships. This shows that many women face serious constraints to participating in and benefitting from small-scale irrigation, including difficulties accessing land and water and gender norms that limit women’s ability to control farm assets. Despite these constraints, many women do benefit from participating in irrigated farming activities leading to an increase in their agency and well-being achievements. For some women, these benefits are indirect—these women allocate their time to more preferred activities when the household gains access to modern irrigation technology. The result is a new approach to understanding women’s empowerment in relation to irrigation technology.

Does the UN Joint Program for Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JP RWEE) deliver on its empowerment objectives?

This paper compares the empowerment impacts of the UN Joint Program for Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JP RWEE) in Ethiopia, Niger, Nepal, and Kyrgyzstan using the Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI). We assess the extent of empowerment and gender parity, and decompose the sources of disempowerment, separately for men and women and for beneficiary and control groups. We then estimate program impacts on A-WEAI and its component indicators and assess whether estimated impacts are consistent with the activities implemented by the program. We interpret the quantitative results in the light of the qualitative studies undertaken as part of the impact evaluation. Despite the diversity in country and cultural contexts, in all four countries, women are more disempowered than men, although large proportions of men are themselves disempowered. Excessive workload is the most common major contributor to disempowerment, and so is lack of group membership. The program had positive impacts on aggregate empowerment measures for program participants in Niger, Nepal, and Kyrgyzstan. Nevertheless, gender parity improved only in Nepal. The group-based approach was a clear contributor to women’s empowerment in Ethiopia, Nepal, and Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyzstan, the GALS/BALI approach contributed to impacts across almost all indicators of empowerment. The positive impact of GALS and GALS/BALI on men and women alike in Kyrgyzstan is consistent with emerging evidence that involving both men and women in gender transformative approaches, rather than focusing on women alone, may be key to effective and sustainable programs. Although impacts on time use were insignificant in the quantitative study, the qualitative work pointed out negative impacts, emphasizing the unintended consequences of increased workload for women who participate in livelihood interventions.

Women's empowerment, extended families and male migration in Nepal: Insights from mixed methods analysis

Highlights •Combining qualitative and quantitative methods sheds new light on women's empowerment processes. •Upper caste Nepali women are disempowered by patriarchy; lower caste women by poverty and patriarchy. •Non-migrant husbands mediate the disempowering effects of living with in-laws. •Control over time, not just hours worked, is an important component of empowerment.

Women’s empowerment and COVID-19: A case study from Kenya

Research shows that the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic varied greatly by country, class, race and gender (Pangborn & Rea, 2020). In this study we aim to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected empowered and disempowered individuals differently. This policy note summarizes how income was affected by the pandemic, followed by an assessment of coping mechanisms with the crisis and their interactions with women’s empowerment.

The impacts of rural outmigration on women’s empowerment: Evidence from Nepal, Senegal, and Tajikistan

Using primary survey data collected in Tajikistan, Nepal and Senegal, three countries with high male outmigration rates, this study analyzes the impacts of migration on the empowerment of women who remain in rural areas. The study uses indicators from the Abbreviate Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI) to measure women’s empowerment in five domains (decision-making autonomy around agricultural production, resources, control over income, group membership and workload) and instrumental variable approaches to address the endogeneity between the migration of a family member and women’s empowerment. It finds that male outmigration leads to women’s empowerment in agriculture in some domains and disempowerment in others. In Tajikistan, where women start with low levels of empowerment, women in households with a migrant are more likely to be involved in decisions in productive activities on the household farm, control income, own assets and achieve workload balance than women in non-migrant households. In Nepal and Senegal, women start at higher levels of empowerment and we see fewer differences in their empowerment based on whether they live in a migrant-sending household. The impacts of migration on empowerment depend on the context, whether the household receives remittances or owns land, and women’s position within the household.

Women's empowerment in agriculture: What role for food security in Bangladesh?

While Bangladesh has experienced steady advances in food production through the adoption of agricultural technologies, chronic food insecurity remains a challenge. Similar to other countries in South Asia, there is a strong gender dimension to food insecurity and malnutrition in Bangladesh. In South Asia, the low status of women and gender gaps in health and education contribute to chronic child malnutrition (Smith et al. 2003) and food insecurity (von Grebmer et al. 2009), even as other determinants of food security, such as per capita incomes, have improved. Renewed interest in agriculture as an engine of inclusive growth and specifically in women’s empowerment has highlighted the need to develop indicators for measuring women’s empowerment, to examine its relationship to various food security outcomes, and to monitor the impact of interventions to empower women.

Assessing women’s empowerment initiatives collaboratively can create positive change

Empowerment (https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00125) is the process by which people gain the ability to make strategic choices in their lives and to act upon them, when they previously could not. It is a complex, intangible, political, context-specic and multidimensional concept that entails changes at multiple (individual, relational, environmental) levels. Even if assessments of empowerment are imperfect, they can contribute to stronger and more accountable programs and policies. Qualitative and quantitative methods can both yield valuable information for assessing empowerment; combining them can yield comprehensive information that cannot be acquired by using any method alone. Understanding empowerment requires research to embrace and address complexity, to unearth the structural barriers that cause inequality. Our review of 15 tools for measuring women’s empowerment shows that all tools explore agency, but most neglect structural causes of disempowerment. Future research on women’s empowerment should seek to better understand the links between empowerment and agriculture, decision-making processes and situations where positive changes in some dimensions of women’s empowerment can cause setbacks in others.

Signs of change: Evidence on women’s time use, identity, and subjective well-being in rural Bangladesh

We develop an analytical framework based on the work of Akerlof and Kranton (2000) and use it to examine how identity – proxied by agreement with statements reflecting patriarchal notions of gender roles – affects the trade-off between the time women spend on household and care work and their subjective well-being. Analyzing household survey data from rural Bangladesh, we find that longer hours spent on household work are associated with lower levels of subjective well-being among women who hold egalitarian notions of gender roles, while the reverse is true for women who hold patriarchal notions of gender roles. Importantly, this pattern holds only when women strongly identify with patriarchal or egalitarian notions of gender roles. These findings provide insights into how social expectations govern gender roles and, specifically, how gender inequalities persist, at least in part, due to men’s and women’s internalization of traditional gender norms.

Women’s empowerment and gender equality in agricultural value chains: Evidence from four countries in Asia and Africa

Women play important roles at different nodes of both agricultural and off-farm value chains, but in many countries their contributions are either underestimated or limited by prevailing societal norms or gender-specific barriers. We use primary data collected in Asia (Bangladesh, Philippines) and Africa (Benin, Malawi) to examine the relationships between women’s empowerment, gender equality, and participation in a variety of local agricultural value chains that comprise the food system. We find that the value chain and the specific node of engagement matter, as do other individual and household characteristics, but in different ways depending on country context. Entrepreneurship—often engaged in by wealthier households with greater ability to take risks—is not necessarily empowering for women; nor is household wealth, as proxied by their asset ownership. Increased involvement in the market is not necessarily correlated with greater gender equality. Education is positively correlated with higher empowerment of both men and women, but the strength of this association varies. Training and extension services are generally positively associated with empowerment but could also exacerbate the inequality in empowerment between men and women in the same household. All in all, culture and context determine whether participation in value chains—and which node of the value chain—is empowering. In designing food systems interventions, care should be taken to consider the social and cultural contexts in which these food systems operate, so that interventions do not exacerbate existing gender inequalities.

Did a microfinance ‘plus’ programme empower female farmers and pastoralists and improve intrahousehold equality in rural Ethiopia? Evidence from an impact evaluation using a Project-Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI) survey tool

Using the project-Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI) survey tool developed by GAAP2, this study aims to estimate the impact of a microfinance ‘plus’ programme on women’s economic empowerment in communities in Oromia and Afar, Ethiopia. The programme incorporates multiple interventions, which are implemented through women-run rural savings and credit cooperatives (RUSACCOs), with the intention of improving beneficiary women’s decision-making over productive assets, control over income, and leadership in rural institutions. A major component of the programme is aimed at rural women’s greater access to credit, but interventions also include agricultural livestock and technology transfers, business training, as well as a community gender awareness component. A difference-in-difference estimator with Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) is used to evaluate the impact of the programme on women’s empowerment in Oromia. Because of conflict in the area, baseline data collection was delayed and data was collected after some interventions had already begun in Oromia. As such, nearly all beneficiaries already had access to credit through the RUSACCOs at baseline, and both women and men were already empowered in a number of dimensions at baseline. Among households with beneficiaries who continued in good standing between baseline and midline, the programme positively contributed to both women’s and men’s empowerment with regards to respect among household members. It did not lead to additional impacts in terms of overall empowerment and gender parity within the household or across the other pro-WEAI indicators. However, it appears that, by maintaining good standing in the RUSACCOs, female participants were able to maintain high levels of empowerment across the other indicators. A second group of beneficiary women, who either chose to leave the RUSACCO or did not maintain good standing as a member, were also highly empowered across many dimensions at baseline but experienced large average decreases in empowerment across a number of indicators by midline. In Afar, using the midline data only, a single-difference estimator with Inverse Probability Weighting is used to evaluate the impact of the programme. In Afar, the programme had a significant impact on women’s overall empowerment. As we expected, given the nature of the programme, there were significant positive results in terms of access to and decisions on financial services, group membership, and membership in influential groups. There were also positive impacts on control over the use of income, suggesting that the programme contributed to greater control over the use of the output from agricultural activities and control over income from agricultural and non-agricultural activities. On the other hand, the programme also appears to have resulted in reduced empowerment on average with regards to autonomy in income.

Exploring women’s empowerment using a mixed methods approach

Interest in the meaning and measurement of women’s empowerment has become a stated goal of many programs in international development. This paper explores a collaborative process of studying women’s empowerment in agricultural research for development using both quantitative and qualitative methods. It draws on three bodies of research around empowerment, growing interest in qualitative methods, and measurement research, especially the conceptualization and adaptations of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index. Employing mixed methods over more than a decade of cooperation among researchers from the Global South and the Global North has challenged the methods and findings of each approach. The work has led to new insights about gender differences in what empowerment means to women and to men, the importance of context, interrelationships among dimensions of empowerment, and the need for greater precision in terms and measures, particularly around decision-making, asset ownership, and time use. Such collaborative research benefits from a long timeframe to build trust and shared understandings across disciplines. The paper concludes with suggestions for the next phase of research.

Evaluation of the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, Phase 2 gender and empowerment frameworks and tools

Two key outputs of the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, Phase 2 (GAAP2) are the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) and the Reach, Benefit, Empower (RBE) framework. An e-survey was used to get a sense of awareness and use of the pro-WEAI and the RBE framework among a target population of potential users (A4NH program stakeholders). More than 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted with funders, implementers, and evaluators, mainly but not exclusively associated with GAAP2, to understand how tools were used at different stages of the program/project cycle, from influencing program objectives and outcomes to program/project design to impact evaluation. The evaluation found that even though the pro-WEAI and the RBE framework are relatively new and their use is not yet widespread, their use in projects is growing and they have contributed to changes in project priorities and in how projects seeking to empower women are designed and evaluated.

Understanding female and male empowerment in Burkina Faso using the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI): A longitudinal study

Background: Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is a major global priority. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Building the Resilience of Vulnerable Communities in Burkina Faso (BRB) project, an agricultural development program, improved women’s empowerment, as measured by the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI). Methods: This study used a longitudinal, quasi-experimental study design. Participants included both treatment and comparison groups (total N = 751) comprising female members of savings groups and their husbands or main male household member in Burkina Faso. All participants completed the pro-WEAI questionnaire at both baseline and endline. The treatment group received a comprehensive intervention package consisting of agriculture loans and services, microenterprise loans, and education, nutrition education, and women’s empowerment programs including gender-based discussions designed to facilitate personalized changes in gender relations. Results: The proportion of the treatment group achieving empowerment did not change from baseline for women, but improved substantially for men. Women from the comparison group saw an increase in empowerment at endline while men saw a substantial decrease. Gender parity was high for women in both groups at baseline and increased slightly at endline. Women were more likely to have adequate empowerment in input in productive decisions, group membership, and membership in influential groups than men while men were more likely to have adequate empowerment in attitudes about domestic violence, control over use of income, and work balance than women. Participants from the treatment group reported an increase in the average number of empowerment indicators that they were adequate in while the comparison group saw a decrease in average adequacy over time (p = 0.002) after controlling for age, sex, and level of education. Conclusion: Despite starting at an empowerment disadvantage, the treatment group experienced gains in individual indicators of empowerment while the comparison group men and women experienced mixed results, with the women gaining, and the men losing empowerment. This research suggests that the BRB intervention may have provided some protection for the treatment group when they faced an economic down-turn prior to the endline, indicative of household resilience. Future research should consider and strengthen relationships between resilience and empowerment.

Migration, labor and women’s empowerment: Evidence from an agricultural value chain in Bangladesh

As a substantial portion of the rural labor force migrates to urban areas, it is commonly assumed that women could take over traditionally male tasks in agricultural production, with potentially empowering outcomes for women. We study how changes in the supply of labor may influence female labor participation and empowerment outcomes. Using a detailed panel dataset on jute producers in the delta region of Bangladesh, we test whether out-migration of household members and perceived labor shortages are associated with the share of household and hired labor performed by women, and women’s empowerment. When a household experiences reduced household or hired labor supply, we observe a relatively larger use of female household labor, but a reduced share of female hired labor. We also find that reduced labor supply is not associated with significant reductions in gender wage gaps, or enhanced women’s empowerment. These findings suggest that given existing gender norms, male and female labor are not perfect substitutes for one another, and as a result, male outmigration is not associated with improved outcomes for women in cash crop production in the short run. Our results demonstrate a need for better understanding of the role of gender in rural labor markets, particularly in contexts of rapid urbanization.

Do tradeoffs among dimensions of women’s empowerment and nutrition outcomes exist? Evidence from six countries in Africa and Asia

Although women’s empowerment and gender equality are often linked with better maternal and child nutrition outcomes, recent systematic reviews find inconclusive evidence. This paper applies a comparable methodology to data on the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), an internationally-validated measure based on interviews of women and men within the same household, from six countries in Africa and Asia to identify which dimensions of women’s empowerment are related to household-, woman-, and child-level dietary and nutrition outcomes. We examine relationships between women’s empowerment and household-level dietary diversity; women’s dietary diversity and BMI; and child-related outcomes, controlling for woman, child, and household characteristics. We also test for differential associations of women’s empowerment with nutrition outcomes for boys and girls. We find few significant associations between the aggregate empowerment scores and nutritional outcomes. The women’s empowerment score is positively associated only with child HAZ, while lower intrahousehold inequality is associated with a higher likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding and higher HAZ but with lower BMI. However, analysis of the subdomain indicators finds more significant associations, suggesting that tradeoffs exist among different dimensions of empowerment. Women’s empowerment accounts for a small share of the variance in nutritional outcomes, with household wealth and country-level factors accounting for the largest share of the variation in household and women’s dietary diversity. In contrast, most of the variation in child outcomes comes from child age. Improving nutritional outcomes requires addressing the underlying determinants of poor nutrition in addition to empowering women and improving gender equality.

“It takes two”: Women’s empowerment in agricultural value chains

This brief summarizes the recent assessment of the implementation of the Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training for Women Program (ATVET4Women) that aims to support women and their families with vocational training and market linkages in priority agricultural value chains (VCs). The ATVET4Women program has two main components: formal training and nonformal training. Formal training consists of a 2- or 3-year vocational and technical course at an agricultural training center (ATC) where students gain skills (and a diploma) for employment or entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector. Nonformal training provides farmers with 1 to 3 weeks of training on good production and business management practices.

A qualitative assessment of a gender-sensitive agricultural training program in Benin: Findings on program experience and women’s empowerment across key agricultural value chains

This study presents qualitative findings from an assessment conducted by the International Food Research Institute and Cultural Practice, LLC of the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) Agricultural Technical Vocational Education and Training program for women (ATVET4Women) in Benin, supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). ATVET4Women in Benin targets women working in value chains for four target commodities (soy, rice, chicken, and compost) to support capacity building in their respective nodes (production, processing, and marketing). The contributions of this study are multifold. First, it assesses program experiences and impacts. Second, it examines the gender dimensions of production, processing, and marketing activities in four specific value chains. Third, this research is a component of a broader study to adapt and validate the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index for market inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI) on key agricultural value chains in Benin and Malawi for ATVET4Women. This study employed multiple qualitative methods to assess beneficiaries’ program experiences and impacts. Fifteen key informant interviews were conducted with various actors along the value chain and agro-processing center managers involved in ATVET4Women. Thirty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with women beneficiaries of ATVET4Women, husbands of beneficiaries, women that were involved in the value chain but did not participate in ATVET4Women, and ATVET4Women trainers. Structured observations were conducted of five ATVET4Women training centers. In general, women beneficiaries and their husbands shared positive reviews of ATVET4Women in that the program increased women’s confidence in their abilities and taught women best practices for producing and selling higher quality products, generating higher incomes for women. Women noted several challenges and barriers to participate in ATVET4Women, including limited availability to travel to or partake in the trainings due to competing demands and priorities on their time, requiring their husbands’ permission to attend, and limited means to support travel to and from trainings. Related to findings around empowerment, results suggest that an empowered woman is closely tied to her ability to generate income, regardless of her decision-making autonomy, whereas an empowered man is one who generates higher incomes and is autonomous in his decision-making. A woman is expected to be submissive to her husband and defer to his decision-making, which holds implications for her ability to participate in activities outside of the household, including but not limited to ATVET4Women and similar programs. This study concludes with specific recommendations for ATVET4Women and similar programs to consider in future iterations of further programming to increase women’s empowerment in Benin.