This document was referred to by Ranjitha Puskur (IRRI), as part of the Annual Gender Scientific Conference hosted by the CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research. The event took place on 25-27 September 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hosted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and co-organized with KIT Royal Tropical Institute. Read more: http://gender.cgiar.org/gender_events/annual-conference-2018/

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MEMO
TO: CRP IDO Design Group
FROM: CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network
RE: Common Gender & Empowerment IDO
DATE: May 27, 2014
Background
Gender research experts in the CGIAR Gender and Agricultural Research Network, representing 15 CRPs,
met in Cali, Colombia May 19-20th
to make recommendations for a set of indicators and their
measurement for the common Gender and Empowerment IDO, defined by the CRP-IDO working group
as Increased control over resources and participation in decision-making by women and other
marginalized groups. The CRP IDO Design Group previously invited and requested the Network to make
recommendations for indicators for the Common Gender and Empowerment IDO. The workshop agenda
did not include setting targets which first need to be defined by individual CRPs. Once all CRP targets are
defined, the Network will recommend common targets.
The workshop developed the Network’s recommendations for indicators for the common gender IDO
and their measurement, presented in detail below. In addition the Network recommends CRP gender
researchers to use these indicators to monitor progress towards change in women’s empowerment in
major CRP target areas. Workshop participants agreed to collaborate in cross-CRP gender research and
joint monitoring and evaluation to validate the indicators and assess the responsiveness of women’s
empowerment to CGIAR innovations.1
This joint work also aims to focus CRP research agendas and
communication about gender research on their progress in enhancing women’s empowerment in
agriculture.
Theory of change for the Common Gender & Empowerment IDO
The new knowledge, technologies, practices, institutions and policies developed by the CGIAR and
partners change the social and economic returns to key productive resources for agriculture (e.g.
biodiversity, land, water, forests, livestock and fish, seeds, fertilizers, and machinery). These changes in
the returns to productive resources alter the balance of power in gender relations causing change in the
ways men and women control these resources and how they benefit from their use. Shifts in control
over resources and their benefits contribute to and interact with changes in the accepted gender norms,
rules and customs that regulate cooperation, conflict and the balance of power among men and women
in farm households, communities and other institutions. Positive change women’s empowerment will
help all the other IDOs reach their objectives: changes in empowerment can affect whether men or
women want to adopt CGIAR innovations and how they share the resultant increases in production,
food or income. Conversely, technological and institutional innovations that do not take into account
their potential influence on gender norms and differences between men’s and women’s control over
resources and benefits can lead to unanticipated harmful outcomes
Recommended Indicators for the Gender and Empowerment IDO
Indicator 1: Women’s control over resources.
(a) Rationale: Control over productive resources such as land, water is crucial for agricultural
production and NRM and for the wellbeing of individuals and households in rural areas, enabling people
1
The Network will commission a review paper to synthesize existing evidence on gendered changes in control over
agricultural resources in the published and grey literature to ground the index and metrics in the latest research on
this topic.

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to pursue preferred livelihood strategies, manage risks, and cope with shocks. Control over resources is
a central concept for the measurement of empowerment: control requires participation in decision-
making; it depends on the balance of power among the parties to key resource-management decisions;
and it is governed by social norms as well as formal institutional policies, procedures and the laws of a
society. Control over a resource is distinct from access or rights to a resource which may confer the
potential for control but do not indicate whether the producer or group is exercising access or rights to
act in decisions about resource-allocation and use for farming and NRM.
(b) Measurement: This indicator should be measured with an Index designed to compare men’s and
women’s control over selected key agricultural resources: land, livestock water, forests, common
property, seeds, fertilizers, machinery, financial assets and the income from sales of crop, livestock or
forest products. The Index should be composed of information that manifests who has control over how
the resource in question is used (as distinct from mere access): for example, ownership or secure tenure
associated with control over land-use; ownership and control over livestock (large stock, small stock,
poultry, and fish); control over water; control over forests; rights to use common property; control over
use of inputs such as see, fertilizers and machinery; control over financial assets such as savings, loans
and income from sales The index should be applied to samples of men and women (not households) in
order to measure and evaluate gender gaps in control over resources.
Indicator 2: Women’s Participation in Decision Making
(a) Rationale: Decision-making refers to decision-making by individuals about their management of
agriculture and natural resources and related life choices (e.g. whether or not to leave agriculture). It
also refers to decision-making within households about farming and NRM, involving negotiation and
exchange among household members. As well, decision-making refers to collective decisions that may
be made in made in informal groups, formal organizations such as farm cooperatives or political bodies
at various scales from local to national. Increased participation in decision-making includes both a
greater degree of participation in specific decisions that relate to women’s own wellbeing and that of
their households and an expansion of the range of decisions and available choices in which women (and
their families and communities) can participate.
(b) Measurement: This indicator is based on participation in three areas of decision-making.
(1) Decisions over own labor – This indicator should show whether women’s decision-making over their
own labor has increased, decreased, or remained constant, and whether men’s decision-making
over women’s labor has increased, decreased or remained constant: it refers to the degree of
participation of women compared to men in decisions over how women’s own labor is used, when
it is used, and on what activities; whether the decisions available to either over women’s labor have
expanded, reduced or remained static over the previous five years.
(2) Decisions over own income – This indicator should show whether women’s decision-making over
income they generate has increased, decreased, or remained constant, and whether men’s decision-
making over income women generate has increased, decreased or remained constant: it refers
to the degree of participation of women compared to men in decisions on how income women
generate from farming or NRM it is used and on what purchases; whether the decisions available to
men as compared to women over woman-generated income have expanded, reduced or remained
static over the previous five years. Note that this question specifically addresses decision-making
over women’s “own income” as distinct from (a) control over the aggregate, household income
from farm product sales measured in Indicator 1 or (b) the Common Income IDO measurement of
how farm household income is distributed between men and women.

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(3) Decisions made in groups or collective organization – This indicator should show whether men and
women have the same opportunities to participate in group decisions: it should measure the degree
of participation of women compared to men in decisions made in important groups and the extent
to which their voice is valued when participating; whether the type of collective decision available to
either men or women have expanded, reduced or remained static over the previous five years.
Group decisions selected for measurement should clearly influence the share of benefits of men and
women capture from CGIAR outcomes, such as increases in income, productivity, food security and
sustainability.
Considerations related to measurement and scale
(a) Measurement for monitoring the common IDO at large (national) scale
At the large-scale, Common IDO level of measurement, the Network recommends for Indicator 1
Women’s Control Over Resources, that CGIAR explores with other organizations administrating existing
surveys (e.g. LSMS), the possibility of inserting into the survey, specific questions for the proposed Index
with the understanding that the CGIAR will commit to using them for monitoring and performance
assessment.
For Indicator 2 Women’s Participation in Decision Making, the Network recommends use of items
already included in existing secondary data sources (e.g. DHS, LSMS2
, World Values Survey, and WEAI)
that already include appropriate questions.
(b) Measurement for testing the common IDO’s Theory of Change at small (sub-national) scale
The Network recommends that CRPs conduct strategic gender research at a range of scales and using
complementary quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches and methods3
to analyze how
the cause-effect relationships laid out in the theory of change for the Gender and Empowerment IDO
play out in practice. This research should investigate:
 Actual levels of gender-differentiated control over key productive resources for agriculture
 Participation in decisions
 Factors that change men’s and women’s control over resources and participation in decisions
 Changes in perceptions of appropriate gender roles and relations of relevant actors, including
institutions.4
Changes in gender attitudes indicate progress in improving the enabling
environment for women’s empowerment)
 Effects of agricultural research and development interventions on men’s and women’s control
and participation.
 How changes in control of resources affect the outcome of household decisions in particular the
adoption and sustained use of CGIAR technologies and management practices.
The Network plans to facilitate collaborative research across Programs to this end. The theory of change
will enable meta-analysis and synthesis across CRP target regions, cultures, crops, types of natural
resources and innovations.
2
The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) (http://iresearch.worldbank.org/lsms/lsmssurveyFinder.htm)
was created to explore ways of improving the type and quality of household data collected by statistical offices in
developing countries. The goal is to foster increased use of household data as a basis for policy decision-making.
3
The Network and PIM will issue a paper on Recommended Minimum Standards for Gender Analysis and Sex-
Disaggregated Data Collection (forthcoming in 2014).
4
Various scales and indices already exist to measure gender equality attitudes; these have been developed in the
field of health and in surveys such as CARE’s Pathways baseline. AAS has commissioned a literature review to
document and assess available scales.

4. New knowledge,
technologies,
practices,
institutions and
policies emitted
by the CGIAR and
partners
Change in social
and economic
returns to key
productive
resources for
agriculture
Change in the
balance of power
in gender relations
affecting decision-
making about
resource use
Change in the ways men
and women control
resources and how they
benefit from their use.
Change in gender norms, rules and customs that
regulate cooperation, conflict and the balance of
power among men and women in farm
households, communities and other institutions
Positive change in women’s
empowerment can increase their
adoption and sustained use of CGIAR
innovations and more gender equitable
distribution of resultant increases in
production, food or income.
Negative change in women’s
empowerment can decrease their
adoption and sustained use of CGIAR
innovations decreasing gender equity in
the distribution of benefits to production,
food security or income.
Figure 1 . Common Gender IDO Theory of Change
IDO: Increased control
over resources and
participation in
decision-making by
women
Decreased or no change in
control over resources and
participation in decision-
making by women