Gender, Nutrition and Health: Achievements and key insights
Gender, Nutrition and Health: Achievements and
key insights
Village Dynamics Studies in South Asia
Presented by R Padmaja
On behalf of
SAT India team : Cynthia Bantilan, K Kavitha, GV Anil Kumar, P Padmaja, Y Mohan Rao
16 Female Field Investigators and 11 Male Field Investigators (ICRISAT)
East India team: Usha Rani Ahuja and team (NIAP)
Bangladesh team: Humnath Bhandari, Alamgir Chowdhury and team (IRRI, SocioConsult)
Session 5, VDSA ARM 6, April 2-3, 2015, ICRISAT-Patancheru
Analyticsusing the data generated in the past and
2013-2014
VDSA is a blunt instrument, but is like
a Swiss army knife
Individual indicators (for eg. on
empowerment and nutrition) are
revealing !
These indicators add up to the
computation of empowerment and
rural transformation
They may not always add up in the
same direction
Social and gender norms and context
specific insights are important ;
understanding the processes
Power of VDSA – ground level, context specific
knowledge that can be translated into actions and
outcomes
Source of Picture and
concept: Hazel Malapit,
2014
Feminization of agriculture – a myth or a
reality ?
Two contrasting and bipolar findings:
Macro data trends project defeminisation of agriculture
Micro-level evidences however point to a progressive
feminisation of agriculture
Feminization of agriculture
Definite approaches to
understand processes
taking place
Institutional dimensions to
be also looked into
Agrarian distress Vs.
agriculture distress
Dynamics of structural
transformation to be
understood
Dynamics of rural labor
markets – aspirations of
people
Assets – men and women
Network map of women involved in
land and labor transactions
VLS data can explain why income
appears to be a small factor in
conditioning nutritional status –
calorie and micro-nutrient intake
Why to people in India continue to defecate in the open…
Minimum nutrition metrics for agriculture
Tool validation: MNDA Vs VDSA Intensive rounds
- WDDS
Source: TCi-ICRISAT Collaborative research
Way forward
Integrate nutrition modules into VDSA Phase 2 in all the
locations/sites
MNDA - quarterly
Periodic intensive nutrition surveys
Analytics – in collaboration with ARIs eg. DSE, Cornell
University, Penn State
Way forward
Provide answers for action outcomes …
Why income increases not translate into nutritional improvements?
Sanitation – a blind spot on nutrition ?
How can we make the communities more resilient to shocks – eg.
climatic shocks, health shocks, etc
Feminization of agriculture – a good thing or bad thing?
Translating the results into
outcomes/ actions – BCC;
policy options; programs
Markets – driving
force for
transformation :
IMOD lens for VDSA
Integration of gender issues into the VDSA – already integrated
VLS was one of the few databases that already had a gender component since the 1975
Nutrition is being now integrated into the surveys
A food secure, prosperous , healthy women, children and men,
How does the VDSA contribute to this –
Through the data, making their voices heard…for evidence based policy and programs
Mention gender is well integrated.. We are all using a gender lens In all our analysis and understanding of the processes
Demography involves the statistical study of human populations. As a very general science, it can analyze any kind of dynamic living population, i.e., one that changes over time or space (see population dynamics). It encompasses the study of the size, structure, and distribution of these populations, and spatial and/or temporal changes in them in response to time, birth, migration, aging, and death.
Demographic analysis can cover whole societies, or groups defined by criteria such as education, nationality, religion and ethnicity.
Acknowledge JV Meenakshi…. Nutrition integration
To understand the women’s empowerment pathway for improving nutrition through agriculture, the unified framework we have adopted brings about synergies and convergence among the different quadrant strategies, the various research activities of CRP PIM as well as the other CRPS which ICRISAT is leading – CRP Dryland Cereals and Grain Legumes. These strategies are also potential research and intervention themes.
One of the IDOs especially the one related to nutrition and gender is enhance maternal health and reduced childhood stunting. These indicators help us to measure the SLOs namely improved food security and improved health and nutrition
The different strategies are:
Income growth
Food based solutions
Along with the food affordability, access and availability, two strategies gaining importance for which we are also collecting data are
Behavior change
Nutrient absorption and availability
The challenge is to get all these strategies to work together in one place. Likewise, macro data may not capture all these indicators.
Refer to the paper by Dr Ramesh Chand and Srivastava – 75 % of ag labor force is female; but their share in total work force is 35 %.... Female withdrawal from ag work
Micro-level
Once we divide the regions into agriculturally distressed and non-distressed regions then
the patterns of employment tend to change substantially from the overall picture. In the
non-distressed region share of male workers in farm sector was 64 percent, but in the
distressed regions the share declined drastically to 56 percent (Table 4). Correspondingly,
the share of women workers increased from 36 percent to 45 percent. Even in the nonfarm
sector the share of males declined slightly from, 78 percent to 76 percent, while that
of females increased from 22 percent to 24 percent. In total employment, the share of
males declined from 70 percent to 63 percent , while the share of females increased from
30 percent to 37 percent, when one moves from non-distress region to distress region.
This essentially suggests feminization of work in the farm in regions experiencing
agricultural distress. The incidence of this feminization seems to be much higher in farm sector rather than non-farm sector. One probable reason is the distress related male
migration to other regions.
Production: decisions about agricultural production, including sole or joint decisionmaking power over food or cash-crop farming, livestock, and fisheries, as well as autonomy in agricultural production
Resources: access to and decisionmaking power over productive resources, including ownership of, access to, and decisionmaking power over productive resources such as land, livestock, agricultural equipment, consumer durables, and credit
Income: sole or joint control over income and expenditures
Leadership: Leadership in the community, including membership in economic or social groups and being comfortable with speaking in public
Time: allocation of time to productive and domestic tasks and satisfaction with the time available for leisure activities
Rising incomes …. The share of expenditure in the total expenditure towards non-food commodities is increasing… what we know
With the new and additional data that we have we may be able to establish the connection between malnutrition and sanitation….
WATER
Validated and now can be incorporated into ag surveys
The means are not significantly different (p=.4212)
The MNDA 3 Day WDDS and the VLS 2014 WDDS are collecting the same information.