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Gender, women’s empowerment, and nutrition: A review, new evidence, and guidelines for nutrition-sensitive agricultural programming

  1. Gender and women’s empowerment in nutrition-sensitive agriculture: A review, new evidence, guidelines and implications for programming Agnes Quisumbing, Kathryn Sproule, Elena Martinez, Hazel Malapit International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) | h.malapit@cgiar.org L to R: E. Allison/ World Fish, F.Khan/IFPRI, A.Hoel/World Bank
  2. What dimensions of empowerment matter for maternal and child nutrition? • Data from 6 Feed the Future countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Nepal (Suaahara), Mozambique, Tanzania • Bangladesh is nationally-representative of rural areas • The rest representative of project areas and/or the ZOI • Estimate relationship between nutrition outcomes and women’s empowerment using quantitative (regression) analysis • The analysis also looked at differential effects on the nutrition of girls compared to boys • Associations only, NOT causality! • Accounts for individual (age, education), household (household size, wealth quintile) and community characteristics
  3. • WEAI is an aggregate index in two parts: • Five Domains of Empowerment (5DE) • Gender Parity Index (GPI) • Constructed using interviews of the primary male and primary female adults in the same household A woman’s empowerment score reflects her achievements in the five domains
  4. 0.04** 0.05* -0.06** -0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 HHS WDDS BMI HAZ WHZ WAZ EBF CDDS Standarddeviation Bangladesh Women’s 5DE score and nutritional outcomes -0.05** 0.10*** 0.05* -0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 HHS WDDS BMI HAZ WHZ WAZ EBF CDDS Nepal 0.48*** -0.5 -0.3 -0.1 0.1 0.3 0.5 HHS WDDS BMI HAZ WHZ WAZ EBF CDDS Cambodia -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 HHS WDDS BMI HAZ WHZ WAZ EBF CDDS Standarddeviation Ghana -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 HHS WDDS CDDS Mozambique -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 HHS WDDS BMI Tanzania Notes: Preliminary findings from A4NH report by Quisumbing et al (2017), “Gender and women’s empowerment in nutrition-sensitive agriculture: New evidence and implications for programming”. Charts report effect sizes, defined as the number of sample standard deviations in the household, maternal, and child nutrition variables that are associated with a 1.0-SD change in the empowerment measure. Stars indicate statistical significance at the 10% (*), 5% (**) and 1% (***) levels.
  5. -0.05*** -0.04* 0.09* -0.11*-0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 HHS WDDS BMI HAZ WHZ WAZ EBF CDDS Standarddeviation Bangladesh -0.09*** -0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 HHS WDDS BMI HAZ WHZ WAZ EBF CDDS Nepal -0.28* -0.5 -0.3 -0.1 0.1 0.3 0.5 HHS WDDS BMI HAZ WHZ WAZ EBF CDDS Cambodia Intrahousehold inequality score and nutritional outcomes -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 HHS WDDS BMI HAZ WHZ WAZ EBF CDDS Standarddeviation Ghana -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 HHS WDDS CDDS Mozambique -0.18* -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 HHS WDDS* BMI Tanzania Notes: Preliminary findings from A4NH report by Quisumbing et al (2017), “Gender and women’s empowerment in nutrition-sensitive agriculture: New evidence and implications for programming”. Charts report effect sizes, defined as the number of sample standard deviations in the household, maternal, and child nutrition variables that are associated with a 1.0-SD change in the empowerment measure. Stars indicate statistical significance at the 10% (*), 5% (**) and 1% (***) levels.
  6. Nepal - women’s nutritional outcomes -0.10*** -0.05** -0.07*** 0.06*** 0.10*** -0.06*** -0.04* 0.07*** -0.06** -0.06*** -0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 Ag decisions Autonomy in production Ag assets owned Ag assets w/ rights Credit decisions Income decisions Group membership Speaking in public Hours worked Leisure Standarddeviation WDDS BMI Notes: Preliminary findings from A4NH report by Quisumbing et al (2017), “Gender and women’s empowerment in nutrition-sensitive agriculture: New evidence and implications for programming”. Charts report effect sizes, defined as the number of sample standard deviations in the household, maternal, and child nutrition variables that are associated with a 1.0-SD change in the empowerment measure. Stars indicate statistical significance at the 10% (*), 5% (**) and 1% (***) levels.
  7. -0.10*** -0.06* -0.11*** -0.09** -0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 Ag decisions Autonomy in production Ag assets owned Ag assets w/ rights Credit decisions Income decisions Group membership Speaking in public Hours worked Leisure Standarddeviation HAZ WHZ WAZ Nepal - children’s anthropometric outcomes Notes: Preliminary findings from A4NH report by Quisumbing et al (2017), “Gender and women’s empowerment in nutrition-sensitive agriculture: New evidence and implications for programming”. Charts report effect sizes, defined as the number of sample standard deviations in the household, maternal, and child nutrition variables that are associated with a 1.0-SD change in the empowerment measure. Stars indicate statistical significance at the 10% (*), 5% (**) and 1% (***) levels.
  8. Lessons learned • Context matters - overall empowerment more important in the Asian samples (Bangladesh and Nepal) compared to the African ones • Greater equality within households is associated with positive nutritional outcomes, indicating importance of a household working together to generate good nutrition for the family • Tradeoffs exist between agriculture-nutrition pathways and women’s empowerment • In Nepal, control over assets is associated with lower hunger at the HH level but also poorer outcomes for women (WDDS, BMI) and children (HAZ) • Control over income matters for improving women’s diets, BUT if intensifying participation in agriculture increases workload, then both maternal and child nutrition could be at risk
  9. Lessons learned • WEAI can be used to identify policy and programming priorities by disaggregating the contribution of each indicator to women’s disempowerment • Results suggest that interventions targeting top contributors to disempowerment that could potentially improve a range of nutritional outcomes could be very cost-effective, BUT we need to be mindful of tradeoffs • Given results are based on associations, not impact evaluations, gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs that address the top contributors to women’s disempowerment would need to be rigorously evaluated both in terms of impact and cost-effectiveness to guide future programming
  10. Photo credit: Flickr/ Ollivier Girard, CIFOR Thank You!

Editor's Notes

  1. Key point: Associational, not causal, analysis
  2. In these graphs we see the results, showing the significance of the association between the 5 dimensions of empowerment and nutritional outcomes at household, maternal and child level as measured by specific indicators (as shown on the horizontal axis). Results in these graphs and following use effect sizes to assess the relative effectiveness (or associations) between alternative women’s empowerment outcomes on various indicators of household, maternal, and child nutrition. Larger bars indicate a greater association between empowerment and the nutritional outcome. Key points: There is not a clear relationship between women’s empowerment and nutritional outcomes; however, context emerges as important in as it relates to the significance of women’s empowerment scores and nutritional outcomes. For instance, overall 5DE scores are much more important as they relate to nutritional outcomes in the Asian countries (especially Bangladesh and Nepal) in our sample compared to the African ones. Other more technical info – 5DE definition Weighted average of achievements in the 10 indicators if the female respondent is disempowered, = 1 if she is empowered. Censored empowerment scores used. The effect size is defined as the number of sample standard deviations in the household, maternal, and child nutrition variables that are associated with a 1.0-SD change in the empowerment variable.
  3. Intrahousehold inequality score - Difference in the male and female empowerment scores, = 0 if the female respondent is empowered. Again, intrahousehold inequality scores are much more important as they relate to nutritional outcomes in the Asian countries (especially Bangladesh) in our sample compared to the African ones Key point: Where significant, greater equality within households is almost always associated with positive nutritional outcomes. This suggests that nutritional programs that also aim at improving intrahousehold inequality could have greater impacts than those that do not. The finding that greater gender equality within households is associated with better nutritional outcomes indicates the importance of a household working together to generate good nutrition for the family.
  4. There are many associations between women’s empowerment and women’s nutritional outcomes, both positive and negative. Hours worked has a negative effect on women’s BMI (expend more calories) while satisfaction with leisure has a positive effect on women’s dietary diversity (consume X food group more)
  5. Highlight ag assets owned and ag assets with rights both have negative effect on HAZ scores Number of hours worked per day has negative effect for HAZ and WAZ scores In summary, finding ways to decrease women’s workload emerges as a potential entry point for interventions to improve nutrition outcomes for women and children in Nepal while a consistent negative association with group membership further illustrates the need to better understand the competing demands on women’s time and other resources.
  6. Tradeoffs In Nepal, control over assets is associated with lower hunger at the HH level but also poorer outcomes for women (WDDS, BMI) and children (HAZ) Control over income matters for improving women’s diets, but if intensifying participation in agriculture increases workload, then both maternal and child nutrition could be at risk
  7. WEAI application to policy/programming: Previous analyses using the WEAI identified the top two or three contributors to disempowerment and recommended that programs be designed to support empowerment in these specific areas. The present analysis finds that looking at the top two or three contributors to women’s disempowerment provides little, if not potentially misguided, direction for improving nutritional outcomes. Focusing on the top two contributors to disempowerment would be misleading because different empowerment indicators matter for different nutritional outcomes and the results are largely country specific. The model with all 10 indicators provides a much fuller picture of which indicators matter for which nutritional outcomes in a given context. It also suggests prime areas for policy and program work whenever overlap exists between a top contributor to disempowerment and a strong association between an indicator and positive nutritional outcomes.
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