Quisumbing, Agnes R.

Malapit, Hazel J.

Myers, Emily

Heckert, Jessica

Seymour, Greg

Doss, Cheryl

Faas, Simone

Paz, Florencia

Yount, Kathryn M.

Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.

Sinharoy, Sheela S.

Cheong, Yuk Fai

Hassan, Md. Zahidul

Hassan, Md. Imrul

Sharma, Sudhindra

Pokhrel, Pankaj

Sagastume, Mónica Dardón

Kanyanda, Shelton S. E.

Vundru, Wilbert D.

Moylan, Heather

Monitoring progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5—achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls—remains challenging unless we incorporate women’s empowerment metrics into nationally representative and multi-topic surveys. To address this data gap, we designed the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS) as a streamlined empowerment module suitable for the 50x2030 Initiative, a global partnership that aims to build capacity and close the agricultural data gap in 50 countries by 2030, as well as other large multi-topic surveys. WEMNS measures women’s and men’s empowerment and is applicable to urban and rural areas and a variety of livelihood strategies (farming, self-employment, wage labor) across countries in different stages of structural transformation. WEMNS is a counting-based, multidimensional index composed of four domains: intrinsic agency, instrumental agency, collective agency, and agency-enabling resources. Each domain is measured with binary indicators derived from question sets in the WEMNS module. In this paper, we describe the development and testing of WEMNS and its components, including: (1) WEMNS's distinctiveness from other empowerment metrics; (2) the iterative approach used to develop and pilot the WEMNS module in Bangladesh, Guatemala, Malawi, and Nepal, using cognitive interviewing, phone surveys, and face-to-face surveys; (3) analysis of quantitative pilot data; and (4) a summary of the findings from the cognitive interviewing. The paper concludes with a discussion of lessons learned and possibilities for further development of WEMNS and other empowerment metrics.

Measuring women's empowerment in national surveys: Development of the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)

Ragasa, Catherine

Rubin, Deborah

Pereira, Audrey

Mzungu, Diston

Kalagho, Kenan

Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela

Eissler, Sarah

Tauseef, Salauddin

Adegbola, Patrice Ygué

Crinot, Geraud Fabrice

Gantoli, Geoffroy

Martinez, Elena

Mswero, Grace

Pinkstaff, Crossley

GAAP2 Market Inclusion Study Team

Many development agencies design and implement interventions that aim to reach, benefit, and empower rural women across the value chain in activities ranging from production, to processing, to marketing. Determining whether and how such interventions empower women, as well as the constraints faced by different value chain actors, requires quantitative and qualitative tools. We describe how we adapted the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI), a mixed-methods tool for studying empowerment in development projects, to include aspects of agency relevant for multiple types of value chain actors. The resulting pro-WEAI for market inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI) includes quantitative and qualitative instruments developed over the course of four studies. Studies in the Philippines (2017), Bangladesh (2017), and Malawi (2019) were intended to diagnose areas of disempowerment to inform programming, whereas the Benin (2019) study was an impact assessment of an agricultural training program. The pro-WEAI+MI includes all indicators included in pro-WEAI, plus a dashboard of complementary indicators and recommended qualitative instruments. These tools investigate the empowerment of women in different value chains and nodes and identify barriers to market access and inclusion that may restrict empowerment for different value chain actors. Our findings highlight three lessons. First, the sampling strategy needs to be designed to capture the key actors in a value chain. Second, the market inclusion indicators cannot stand alone; they must be interpreted alongside the core pro-WEAI indicators. Third, not all market inclusion indicators will be relevant for all value chains and contexts. Users should research the experiences of women and men in the target value chains in the context of the programto select priority market inclusion indicators.

Measuring empowerment across the value chain: The evolution of the project-level Women’s Empowerment Index for Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI)

Raghunathan, Kalyani

We conduct a synthetic review of the literature examining relationships between domains of women’s empowerment and food system outcomes. Many studies report significant positive associations between women’s empowerment and intrahousehold gender equality with child dietary and nutrition outcomes, household food security, and agricultural production, but which aspect of empowerment matters for a particular outcome varies across contexts. Others document significant but mixed associations between empowerment indicators and women’s dietary diversity scores. The findings suggest women’s empowerment contributes to improved diets and nutritional status, especially for children, but that household wealth, gender norms and country-specific institutions remain important. Most papers reviewed were based on observational studies and therefore estimated associations; future research using experimental and quasi-experimental methods would add significantly to the evidence base.

Is women’s empowerment bearing fruit? Mapping women’s empowerment in agriculture index (WEAI) results using the gender and food systems framework

Elias, Marlène

Mulema, Annet Abenakyo

There is growing recognition of the importance of women’s empowerment in its own right and for a range of development outcomes, but less understanding of what empowerment means to rural women and men. The challenge of measuring empowerment, particularly across cultures and contexts, is also garnering attention. This paper synthesizes qualitative research conducted conjointly with quantitative surveys, working with eight agricultural development projects in eight countries, to develop a project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI). The qualitative research sought to identify emic meanings of “empowerment,” validate the domains and indicators of the quantitative index, provide greater understanding of the context of each project and of strategies for facilitating empowerment, and test a methodology for integrating emic perspectives of empowerment with standardized etic measures that allow for comparability across contexts.

Women’s empowerment in agriculture: Lessons from qualitative research

Baek, Yuna

Ramani, Gayathri V.

Given the lack of consensus around how to measure empowerment in WASH, mapping existing indicators to two frameworks frequently used in the empowerment literature illustrates knowledge gaps. We identified 290 gender-sensitive indicators across nine WASH themes that were mapped to the Reach-Benefit-Empower and Resources-Agency-Achievements frameworks. Most indicators measure “Benefit” and/or “Resources.” Existing gender-sensitive indicators capturing empowerment and agency in WASH are lacking; only 10.3% of indicators capture “Empower” and 24.8% of indicators capture “Agency.”

Not just a drop in the bucket: Measuring women’s empowerment in water, sanitation, and hygiene

Sanou, Armande

Nignan, Safiatou

Thio, Elisabeth

Pitropia, Lucienne Amélie

Ganaba, Rasmané

Pedehombga, Abdoulaye

Gelli, Aulo

The SELEVER study is a five-year impact evaluation designed to address key knowledge gaps on the impact of a poultry value chain intervention on the diets, health, and nutritional status of women and children in Burkina Faso. This report qualitatively examines the SELEVER program’s impact on women’s empowerment and intra-household gender dynamics in relation to food production and allocation, as well as control and use over poultry resources in the study areas. Six villages across five provinces were purposively selected for this study. Data were collected using multiple qualitative methods. In each village, we conducted four sex-disaggregated focus group discussions, and semi-structured individual interviews were held with a man and a woman from two different households. Sex-disaggregated seasonal calendars were created for half of the villages. Interviews were also conducted with project service providers in each community, including group leaders (n=13), voluntary vaccinators (n=10), and poultry traders (n=6). A mix of inductive and deductive thematic coding guided the analysis of the data. Men and women participants described an empowered woman in terms of her confidence, how she spent her time, financial capacity, and freedom of movement. SELEVER beneficiaries illuminated how gender norms were shifting related to household activities and women’s empowerment, such that young boys are now washing dishes and women earn additional incomes from raising her own poultry. Yet results suggest that women’s empowerment may threaten men and their masculinity, an important tension of which SELEVER and other projects should be cognizant. Participants perceived that while SELEVER has increased women’s access to the necessary resources and capacity to raise quality poultry, and their incomes, women still lack full latitude to make decisions around when to sell or kill their bird. Instead they must rely on their husbands’ permission. Beneficiaries are more aware of the benefits of consuming poultry products, yet barriers persist for actual consumption. This report further details the intersectional nature of these findings, which will be important to consider. The differences in women’s role in monogamous versus polygynous households is especially important to consider in interpreting the program impacts and further strengthening the program delivery activities. The SELEVER program has improved outcomes for women across the village sites in terms of empowerment, awareness raising, and behavior change. Yet barriers and challenges, often rooted in social norms, persist for women’s involvement in poultry production, their empowerment, and the potential for the SELEVER program to improve diets of household members.

Gender dynamics, women’s empowerment, and diets: Qualitative findings from an impact evaluation of a nutrition-sensitive poultry value chain intervention in Burkina Faso

Martinez, Elena M.

Kazembe, Cynthia

Thunde, Jack

Mswelo, Grace

Inclusive agricultural value chains (VCs) are potential drivers for poverty reduction, food security, and women’s empowerment. This report assesses the implementation of the Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training for Women Program (ATVET4Women) that aims to support women with vocational training and market linkages in priority agricultural value chains. This report focuses on Malawi, one of the six pilot countries of the ATVET4Women; and focuses on vegetable value chains in which some non-formal training sessions have been conducted as of October 2019. This report presents (1) program experience of stakeholders; (2) evidence of program benefits and challenges among ATVET4Women non-formal training graduates; and (3) baseline data on value chain and empowerment indicators, using a pilot household survey-based instrument for measuring women’s empowerment in agricultural value chains (pro-WEAI for market inclusion) and supplementary qualitative research. Results show graduates’ satisfaction and appreciation of the training provided, and some graduates reported having access to more lucrative markets as a result of the training. However, positive changes in several outcome indicators were reported by only some graduates: 30 percent of graduates reported increased production and sales. There is no significant difference in the reported changes and levels of vegetable production and income between graduates and non-graduates. Qualitative findings suggest that constraints to accessing agricultural inputs and funds to upgrade their production may be why there are no measured differences. Results on empowerment status reveal that 73 percent of women and 85 percent of men in the sample are empowered, and 73 percent of the sample households achieved gender parity. The main contributor of disempowerment among women and men is lack of work balance and autonomy in income. Fewer women achieved adequacy in work balance than men. Adequacies in attitudes about domestic violence, respect among household members, input in productive decisions, and asset ownership are generally high for both women and men, but significantly lower for women. While this report is mainly descriptive and further analysis is ongoing, it offers some lessons and practical implications for improving ATVET4Women program implementation and its outcomes on women’s market access, incomes, and empowerment.

"It takes two": Women’s empowerment in agricultural value chains in Malawi

Myers, Emily

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