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The project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index: How we are developing a new index
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This presentation was given by Elena Martinez (IFPRI/A4NH), 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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The project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index: How we are developing a new index
- The project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index How we are developing a new index Elena Martinez CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research Annual Scientific Conference Addis Ababa, Ethiopia September 25, 2018
- Starting point: Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) Survey-based index Developed by IFPRI, USAID, & OPHI Launched in 2012 Measures inclusion of women in the agricultural sector
- How is the index constructed? 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
- 50 countries, 75 organizations
- Pro-WEAI Core set of pro-WEAI empowerment modules Quantitative survey Qualitative protocols Standardized add-ons depending on project needs Nutrition and health Livestock-enhanced Comparable metrics for empowerment: +
- GAAP2 for pro-WEAI: A portfolio approach to measuring empowerment
- Shorter interview Adaptability to context Income from projects Livestock Domestic violence Intrahousehold relationships Mobility Qualitative
- IDENTIFYING DOMAINS OF EMPOWERMENT
- Original WEAI: 5 domains
- Agency AchievementsResources How WE(AI) define empowerment
- Power with (collective agency) Power to (instrumental agency) Power within (intrinsic agency) Three types of agency measured in all versions of the WEAI
- Power with (collective agency) Power to (instrumental agency) Power within (intrinsic agency) Three domains of empowerment
- DEVELOPING INDICATORS OF EMPOWERMENT
- Original WEAI: 10 indicators
- Draft indicators A-WEAI indicators Input in productive decisions Ownership of assets Access to and decisions on credit Control over use of income Group membership Workload
- Draft indicators A-WEAI indicators New indicators Input in productive decisions Access to information Ownership of assets Autonomy in production Access to and decisions on credit Autonomy in income Control over use of income Decision-making over land Group membership Responsibility for repayment Workload Access to a financial account Input in decisions about outputs Input in group decision-making Membership in influential groups Ability to visit important locations Respect among household members Attitudes about domestic violence
- Pilot data from the GAAP2 projects Project Country # of women # of men ANGeL Bangladesh 3,917 3,606 AVC Bangladesh 501 499 FAARM Bangladesh 287 284 Grameen Burkina Faso 380 380 Heifer Nepal 879 844 iDE Ghana 671 442 JP-RWEE Ethiopia 751 631 SE LEVER Burkina Faso 1,777 1,565 TRAIN Bangladesh 5,040 4,783 Trias Tanzania 790 228 WINGS India 1,837 1,368 WorldVeg Mali 714 694 TOTAL 17,544 15,324
- Choosing indicators and assessing indicator thresholds Compare several potential indicator thresholds using pilot data Check percentage of missing data for each indicator Look at correlations and redundancy between indicators Discuss dilemmas with GAAP2 team, projects, and partners REPEAT
- How much decision-making power about income gives someone adequate “control over use of income”? Should we include control over agricultural outputs? Ex: Control over use of income
- Ex: Control over use of income At least some input in decisions Income (%) Female Male Staple grain 82 95 Horticultural/high value crops 78 89 Large livestock 79 92 Small livestock 84 93 Poultry/small animals 87 84 Fishpond 64 89 Non-farm economic activities 88 96 Wage and salary employment 89 99
- Ex: Control over use of income At least some input in decisions Income (%) Output (%) Female Male Female Male Staple grain 82 95 86 98 Horticultural/high value crops 78 89 85 97 Large livestock 79 92 84 95 Small livestock 84 93 87 94 Poultry/small animals 87 84 91 87 Fishpond 64 89 79 97 Non-farm economic activities 88 96 N/A N/A Wage and salary employment 89 99 N/A N/A
- Ex: Control over use of income Potential indicator definitions % adequate Women Men At least some input in decisions about INCOME from at least ONE activity 91 99 At least some input in decisions about INCOME and OUTPUTS from at least ONE activity 91 99
- Ex: Control over use of income Potential indicator definitions % adequate Women Men At least some input in decisions about INCOME from at least ONE activity 91 99 At least some input in decisions about INCOME and OUTPUTS from at least ONE activity 91 99 At least some input in decisions about INCOME from at least TWO activities 72 86 At least some input in decisions about INCOME and OUTPUTS from at least TWO activities 71 86
- Ex: Control over use of income Potential indicator definitions % adequate Women Men At least some input in decisions about INCOME from at least ONE activity 91 99 At least some input in decisions about INCOME and OUTPUTS from at least ONE activity 91 99 At least some input in decisions about INCOME from at least TWO activities 72 86 At least some input in decisions about INCOME and OUTPUTS from at least TWO activities 71 86 At least some input in decisions about income from ALL ACTIVITIES in which they participate 72 82
- [Updated] draft indicators A-WEAI indicators New indicators Input in productive decisions Access to information Ownership of assets Autonomy in production Access to and decisions on credit financial services Autonomy in income Control over use of income Decision-making over land Group membership Responsibility for repayment Workload balance Access to a financial account Input in decisions about outputs Input in group decision-making Membership in influential groups Ability to visit important locations Respect among household members Attitudes about domestic violence Self-efficacy
- 12 indicators of empowerment
- SELECTING CUTOFFS AND WEIGHTS
- Original WEAI: Equal weights by domain, 80% empowerment cutoff
- Pro-WEAI: Equal weights (1/12), 75% empowerment cutoff
- Rank robustness testing Three domains of empowerment score (3DE) at each empowerment cutoff Project 75% 70% 65% 60% 55% 50% WorldVeg/Female 0.50 0.50 0.53 0.53 0.61 0.71 AVC/Female 0.52 0.52 0.56 0.56 0.64 0.71 SE LEVER/Female 0.53 0.53 0.56 0.56 0.64 0.76 TRAIN/Female 0.60 0.60 0.66 0.66 0.73 0.81 ANGeL/Female 0.65 0.65 0.72 0.72 0.80 0.88 AVC/Male 0.70 0.70 0.78 0.78 0.87 0.93 SE LEVER/Male 0.74 0.74 0.82 0.82 0.89 0.95 TRAIN/Male 0.75 0.75 0.84 0.84 0.92 0.97 ANGeL/Male 0.76 0.76 0.85 0.85 0.93 0.97 WorldVeg/Male 0.83 0.83 0.91 0.91 0.97 0.99
- Rank robustness testing Rank of projects’ 3DE score at each empowerment cutoff Project 75% 70% 65% 60% 55% 50% WorldVeg/Female 1 1 1 1 1 1 AVC/Female 2 2 2 2 2 2 SE LEVER/Female 3 3 3 3 3 3 TRAIN/Female 4 4 4 4 4 4 ANGeL/Female 5 5 5 5 5 5 AVC/Male 6 6 6 6 6 6 SE LEVER/Male 7 7 7 7 7 7 TRAIN/Male 8 8 8 8 8 8 ANGeL/Male 9 9 9 9 9 9 WorldVeg/Male 10 10 10 10 10 10
- A WORK IN PROGRESS
- What is next for the index? IMPROVING THE DRAFT INDICATORS Cognitive testing New Survey items SHORTENING THE SURVEY Psychometric analysis TESTING PRO-WEAI FOR IMPACT EVALUATION
- Mobility Current indicator: Visits a family members, markets, or urban areas at least once per week OR visited health centers or community meetings at least once per month Frequency of movement Empowerment in mobility New survey items Qualitative work
- Thank you! gaap.ifpri.info ● weai.ifpri.info ● a4nh.cgiar.org GAAP2 collaborators: International Food Policy Research Institute Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative 13 agricultural development projects in the GAAP2 portfolio GAAP2 funders: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation United States Agency for International Development CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health The GAAP2 team: Hazel Malapit (PI), Ruth Meinzen-Dick (PI), Agnes Quisumbing (PI), Ara Go, Jessica Heckert, Elena Martinez, Emily Myers, Audrey Pereira, Greg Seymour, Cheryl Doss, Deborah Rubin, Ana Vaz, Kathryn Yount, and others CONTACT: ELENA MARTINEZ, E.MARTINEZ@CGIAR.ORG
Editor's Notes
- If you were looking at a range of ag development projects—some that taught women how to prepare nutritious foods for their children, another that trained milk traders, another that organized women into self-help groups, and another that also trained men to be caregivers to their children and supported women in their caregiving roles—how would you know which one worked best in terms of empowering women? It would be very difficult. Therefore we need a measure that enables us to capture women’s voices, but also to be able to compare them across a variety of settings
- The WEAI was developed by IFPRI, USAID, and OPHI in 2012 to measure the greater inclusion of women in the agricultural sector as a result of US Government’s Feed the Future (FTF) Initiative It is a survey-based index constructed using interviews of the primary male and primary female adults in the same household Key aspect of index construction: similar to family of multi-dimensional poverty indices (Alkire and Foster 2011, J of Public Econ) and the Foster-Greere-Thorbeck (FGT) indices Details on index construction in Alkire et al. (2013), World Development
- WEAI was going viral – it was piloted in 3 countries, then rolled out to 19 FTF countries, and it has now been used by over 75 organizations in 50 countries. Projects were adopting and adapting it, but we had no handle on comparability. WEAI was developed as a population-based index, but many organizations were using it at the project level. At the same time, projects wanted a more streamlined measure that could measure areas of empowerment that are important for many projects – such as nutrition and health, mobility, intrahousehold harmony, domestic violence.
- So we set off to develop a project-level WEAI. In this presentation, I will focus on development of the core pro-WEAI quantitative indicators and index.
- Through the GAAP2 project, we are working to develop a project-level WEAI, or pro-WEAI. GAAP2 is a collaboration between IFPRI, OPHI, USAID, and 13 agricultural development projects that are piloting and providing input on the new index. The 13 projects are crop and/or livestock that have nutrition (and some income) outcomes. The 13 GAAP2 projects take place in 9 different countries in Africa and South Asia and use a variety of strategies to empower women. GAAP2 is a truly collaborative and consultative process. The research teams, implementation teams, impact evaluators, and more from the 13 projects have been engaged from the start in developing the survey modules, piloting the modules, providing input and expertise on what should be in the index. This process will help us to develop a standardized tool that has been tested in the project setting and is comparable across contexts. Each of the projects is piloting both quantitative and qualitative pro-WEAI protocols. I will not have time to delve into the qualitative work today, but it gives us insight into local definitions of empowerment and a more nuanced understanding of gender roles.
- What should a project-level WEAI look like? At the inception workshop, project representatives brainstormed what they would to include and what characteristics the index should have. They came up with many ideas… Using this input, along with the A-WEAI and other existing household surveys, the GAAP2 team compiled draft quantitative and qualitative tools.
- There are many ways of defining empowerment. In the WEAI, we use the definition from Naila Kabeer. She conceptualizes empowerment as a process of change made up of three interrelated dimensions: resources, agency and achievements. Resources include the various material, human, and social resources that serve to enhance people’s ability to exercise choice. Agency refers to defining one’s goals and acting upon them. Achievements refers to the achievement of these goals. In the WEAI, we focus on Agency: the ability of an individual to make strategic choices, especially in those contexts where this was denied. This focus on agency runs through all the WEAIs. Kabeer, Naila. 1999. Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment. Development and Change. 30(3): 435-464.
- The last type of power is the power with (or collective agency). This refers to power drawn from acting in concert with others. An easy way to think of this is in terms of the old adage: “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Before we move on, it’s worth noting that there’s a fourth type of power that isn’t reflected in any version of the WEAI. Power over. The reason is the that power over is more ambiguous than the other types of power. While power over can be positive—for example, the act of resisting oppression or manipulation—more often it is associated with negative expressions of power, like coercion or control.
- The last type of power is the power with (or collective agency). This refers to power drawn from acting in concert with others. An easy way to think of this is in terms of the old adage: “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Before we move on, it’s worth noting that there’s a fourth type of power that isn’t reflected in any version of the WEAI. Power over. The reason is the that power over is more ambiguous than the other types of power. While power over can be positive—for example, the act of resisting oppression or manipulation—more often it is associated with negative expressions of power, like coercion or control.
- Original WEAI is made up of 10 indicators of empowerment. For pro-WEAI, we wanted to refine these indicators and add other indicators that are relevant to empowerment at the project level.
- We started with the abbreviated WEAI survey modules, which measure six indicators of empowerment. Based on the ideas generated at the inception workshop, we developed survey items to measure several new indicators. But this is way too many indicators! So we needed to figure out which indicators are more important for measuring women’s empowerment. And, each WEAI indicator is binary, so we also needed to define a cutoff point for each indicator. For example, a respondent is considered adequate in group membership if s/he is an active member of at least one community group.
- We started with the abbreviated WEAI survey modules, which measure six indicators of empowerment. Based on the ideas generated at the inception workshop, we developed survey items to measure several new indicators. But this is way too many indicators! So we needed to figure out which indicators are more important for measuring women’s empowerment. And, each WEAI indicator is binary, so we also needed to define a cutoff point for each indicator. For example, a respondent is considered adequate in group membership if s/he is an active member of at least one community group.
- As of September 2018, 12 of the 13 GAAP2 projects have piloted the pro-WEAI quantitative survey modules. In total, we have data from over 32,000 repondents.
- We considered many options for each indicator thresholds using pilot data and normative discussions among the GAAP2 team and partners.
- How much decision-making power about income gives someone adequate “control over use of income”? Should this indicator also include control over whether to sell or consume outputs from agriculture? We looked at the pilot data for each sub-indicator. Here we see the percentage of respondents who had at least some input in decisions about each activity (of those who participated in the activity). For poultry, a higher percentage of women than men reported having control over outputs, so maybe outputs are important for women’s empowerment.
- How much decision-making power about income gives someone adequate “control over use of income”? Should this indicator also include control over whether to sell or consume outputs from agriculture? We looked at the pilot data for each sub-indicator. Here we see the percentage of respondents who had at least some input in decisions about each activity (of those who participated in the activity). For poultry, a higher percentage of women than men reported having control over outputs, so maybe outputs are important for women’s empowerment.
- How much decision-making power about income gives someone adequate “control over use of income”? Should this indicator also include control over whether to sell or consume outputs from agriculture? We looked at the pilot data for each sub-indicator. Here we see the percentage of respondents who had at least some input in decisions about each activity (of those who participated in the activity). For poultry, a higher percentage of women than men reported having control over outputs, so maybe outputs are important for women’s empowerment.
- A-WEAI contained an indicator on control over use of income. Since many projects focus on generating agricultural output (like animals and eggs) that households may either consumer or sell, we wanted to consider adding an indicator on control over output from agricultural activities.
- A-WEAI contained an indicator on control over use of income. Since many projects focus on generating agricultural output (like animals and eggs) that households may either consumer or sell, we wanted to consider adding an indicator on control over output from agricultural activities.
- A-WEAI contained an indicator on control over use of income. Since many projects focus on generating agricultural output (like animals and eggs) that households may either consumer or sell, we wanted to consider adding an indicator on control over output from agricultural activities.
- It is difficult to know for sure which weighting and cutoff parameters are correct. In real life, these 12 indicators will never have exactly equal importance, and no empowerment cutoff can cleanly divide between “empowered” and “disempowered” people.
- Do the pro-WEAI results change if we use different empowerment cutoffs or weighting schemes? One way to look at this is to check if the comparisons between projects’ results change with different parameters. Here, we rank the 3DE scores by project and gender for different empowerment cutoffs between 50% and 75%. We see that the ranking of projects does not change when the empowerment cutoff changes.
- Do the pro-WEAI results change if we use different empowerment cutoffs or weighting schemes? One way to look at this is to check if the comparisons between projects’ results change with different parameters. Here, we rank the 5DE scores by project and gender for different empowerment cutoffs between 50% and 75%. We see that the ranking of projects does not change when the empowerment cutoff changes. Rank 5DE score by project and gender for different empowerment cutoffs
- Aggregated pilot baseline results from 6 of the GAAP2 projects 3DE – women’s and men’s achievement across the 12 indicators and the depth of disempowerment % achieving empowerment - % who were adequate in 9/12 or more indicators Mean 3DE for not yet empowered – intensity of disempowerment Gender Parity Index – how empowered women are in comparison to the men in their household % achieving gender parity - % of women who are as empowered as the man in their household Empowerment gap – difference in empowerment between the man and woman in the same household *Based on baseline data from ANGeL, AVC, SE LEVER, TRAIN, and WorldVeg
- We can also look at which indicators contribute the most to disempowerment. In this figure, the depth of the bars shows men’s and women’s disempowerment scores. Women are considerably more disempowered than men. The size of the different colored bars shows how much each indicator contributes to disempowerment. Here, the 2 indicators of group membership are the largest contributors to disempowerment for both women and men. Visiting important locations and respect among household members are large contributors to disempowerment for women but not for men. This suggests that interventions to empower women might focus on improving mobility and relationships in the household. These indicators are both new to pro-WEAI; the original WEAI would have missed these important aspects of empowerment.
- Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/under-construction-construction-sign-2408061/
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