The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index – What have we learned?

1. Working together to create and improve the WEAI

2. Efforts to improve data quality and availability for gender analysis • Doss, Cheryl; Kieran, Caitlin; Kilic, Talip. 2017. Measuring ownership, control, and use of assets. Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 8146. World Bank Group. • Seymour, Greg; Malapit, Hazel Jean; Quisumbing, Agnes R. 2017. Measuring time use in development settings. Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 8147. World Bank Group. • Donald, Aletheia Amalia; Koolwal, Gayatri B.; Annan, Jeannie Ruth; Falb, Kathryn; Goldstein, Markus P. 2017. Measuring women's agency. Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 8148. World Bank Group. The Gender Asset Gap Project WEAI Resource Center - http://www.ifpri.org/book-9075/ourwork/program/weai-resource-center

3. Where in the world is WEAI? 47 countries and counting

4. WEAI Basics Overview and evolution of the Index

5. What is the WEAI? • Measures inclusion of women in the agricultural sector • Survey-based index - interviews men and women in the same household • Methodology: – Similar to multi-dimensional poverty indices (Alkire and Foster 2011) and the Foster-Greere- Thorbeck (FGT) indices – Details on index construction in Alkire et al. (2013)

6. 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

7. Why so many WEAIs? Different strokes for different folks! Original WEAI Abbreviated WEAI (A-WEAI) Project WEAI (Pro-WEAI) WEAI for Value Chains (WEAI4VC)

8. Pro-WEAI • Project-level WEAI under development in Phase 2 of the Gender, Agriculture & Assets Project (GAAP2) • Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, and A4NH • A-WEAI as starting point – Adds intervention-specific modules/questions – Comparable to other projects/activities working on similar interventions Core set of pro-WEAI empowerment modules • Quantitative survey • Qualitative protocols Standardized add-ons depending on project needs: • Nutrition and health • Livestock-enhanced +

9. WEAI4VC • Expands empowerment measure to cover multiple stages, different types of actors in the value chain • Pro-WEAI quantitative and qualitative protocols as starting point • Expands production module to livelihoods, including entrepreneurship and wage work Bangladesh WEAI4VC Pilot • Supported by USAID • Assess empowerment and gender parity of women as producers, entrepreneurs, wage workers across entire agricultural value chain • Pilot survey on 1200 households in FTF ZOI (400/group) Philippines WEAI4VC Pilot • Supported by MCC • Assess empowerment and gender parity of women across 4 priority value chains (abaca, coconut, seaweed, swine) • Pilot survey with 1600 households in 4 provinces (Sorsogon, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte)

10. Photo via VisualHunt

11. What have we learned? Cross-country trends

12. Cross-country baseline findings: credit, workload and group membership are constraints across countries 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 DisempowermentIndex(1-5DE) Leisure Workload Speaking in public Group member Control over use of income Access to and decisions on credit Purchase, sale, or transfer of assets Ownership of assets Autonomy in production Input in productive decisions Source: Malapit et al. (2014)

13. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Change in % of primary female decision-makers with adequacy in Access to and control over credit Source: USAID/BFS MEL Team INDICATOR INCREASED OR DECREASED BETWEEN BASELINE AND INTERIM

14. Source: USAID/BFS MEL Team 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Change in % of primary female decision-makers with adequacy in Workload INDICATOR INCREASED OR DECREASED BETWEEN BASELINE AND INTERIM

15. What have we learned? Dimensions of empowerment and maternal and child nutrition

16. What dimensions of empowerment matter for maternal and child nutrition? • Data from 6 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 Agnes Quisumbing, Kathryn Sproule, Elena Martinez, Hazel Malapit (2017)

17. 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.

18. -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.

19. 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.

20. Lessons learned • Overall empowerment appears to be more important in the Asian countries (especially Bangladesh and Nepal) in our sample compared to the African ones • Greater equality within households is almost always 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

21. Lessons learned • The WEAI can be used to identify policy and programming priorities by disaggregating the contribution of each indicator to women’s disempowerment • Our 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

22. What have we learned? Preliminary findings from Philippines WEAI4VC pilot

23. Workload and group membership contribute most to disempowerment 0.000 0.020 0.040 0.060 0.080 0.100 0.120 0.140 Women Men Women Men Women Men Women Men AbacaCoconutSeaweedSwine Disempowerment score (1-5DE) Input in productive decisions Autonomy in production Ownership of assets Purchase, sale, or transfer of assets Access to and decisions on credit Control over use of income Group member Workload

24. Gender gaps in average achievements by sub-indicator Legend: Colors represent whether gaps favor FEMALES, MALES, or NEITHER. Rankings 1, 2, 3 indicate the sub-indicators with the largest achievement gaps between women and men within each value chain. Value chain Sub-indicators Abaca Coconut Seaweed Swine Input in productive decisions Input in decisions about VC activities Participation in decisions about VC activities Autonomy in production 3 Access to information about agricultural activities Access to information important for VC activities Autonomy in working conditions Autonomy in wage work Ownership of assets Rights over assets 2 Access to and decisions on credit 1 Access to financial account 1 1 Control over use of income Control over use of agricultural income Control over use of non-agricultural income 1 Control over household purchases Input in decisions about income from VC activities Input in decisions about consumption of output Autonomy in income 2 2 Group membership Workload 3 1 Mutual respect among household members 2 Attitudes about domestic violence from husband Attitudes about domestic violence from employer Access to community programs 3 Access to extension services Livelihoods Resources Income Leadership Time Intrahousehold relationships Access to information & extension

27. Philippines WEAI4VC Pilot: Preliminary findings • (Original) WEAI scores are relatively high • Some consistent findings across value chains • Top constraints: Workload and group membership • Very low achievements in autonomy in wage work and working conditions • Some sub-indicators favor men, some favor women • Implications for program design • Explore ways to reduce time burdens • Groups may not be an effective delivery platform for interventions • To reduce gender gaps, specific interventions targeted to men or women • Points to what constraints to pay attention to, but now how to overcome them – Need qualitative work to dig deeper (stay tuned!)

28. What have we learned? Using the WEAI to inform programming

29. Example: The Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) project in Bangladesh • Bangladesh had the lowest women’s empowerment scores out of 19 Feed the Future Countries at baseline (2012) • The Ministry of Agriculture worked with IFPRI to design, implement, and evaluate a pilot program to see what worked best to empower women • Agricultural extension directed to men and women farmers (Reach) • Behavior change communication to improve nutrition knowledge (Benefit) • Gender sensitization of men and communities to support women in their productive and reproductive roles (Empower) • The project is now being piloted; endline results will be available next year (and we will know which approach works best to improve food security).

30. What’s next for WEAI?

31. WEAI in other organizations • Implemented in 47 countries – all types of WEAIs • Exploring integration of WEAI into national surveys • Ongoing discussions with FAO, WB, BMGF

32. What’s next? • Additional analyses: How is empowerment related to everything else that we care about? • How do we understand women’s empowerment in the context of households, families, and communities? • How can empowerment questions and modules best be incorporated into national surveys?

33. WEAI Resource Center http://www.ifpri.org/book-9075/ourwork/program/weai-resource-center Pro-WEAI updates http://gaap.ifpri.info/ Questions? Contact: Hazel Malapit | h.malapit@cgiar.org Photo credit: USAID/Riccardo Gangale