This document summarizes a study examining the relationship between women's empowerment in agriculture and household, maternal, and child dietary diversity in Bangladesh. The study uses a new Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index to measure women's empowerment across several domains. It finds that higher overall empowerment scores, as well as greater group participation, control over assets and credit decisions, and reduced gender parity gaps, positively impact household and individual dietary diversity. The results suggest policies should strengthen women's access to and control over land, resources, credit, and leadership opportunities to improve food and nutrition security outcomes.

1. Women’s Empowerment in
Agriculture: What Role for
Food and Nutrition Security
in Bangladesh?
Esha Sraboni
Hazel Malapit
Agnes Quisumbing
Akhter Ahmed
Workshop on
Evidence-Based Policy Options
For Food And Nutrition Security
in Bangladesh
1 October 2014, Dhaka

2. Introduction
 Achieving gender equity and empowering women is a goal in
itself (UN MDG 3). Would women’s empowerment also lead
to improved food and nutrition security outcomes?
 We use a new measure of empowerment to examine the
relationship between women’s empowerment in agriculture
and
• Household dietary diversity
• Maternal dietary diversity
• Child dietary diversity

3. The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture
Index (WEAI)
 Survey-based index designed to measure empowerment and
inclusion of women in the agricultural sector
– Collaboration between USAID, IFPRI and the Oxford Poverty and
Human Development Initiative
– Designed initially as tool to monitor US government’s Feed the Future
interventions
– Broadly applicable as a diagnostic tool to identify potential areas for
policy intervention
 WEAI is made up of two sub indices
– Five domains of empowerment (5DE)
– Gender parity index (GPI)
– All range from zero to one (higher values mean greater
empowerment)

4. A woman’s empowerment score
shows her own achievements

5. Data
 IFPRI’s Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) 2011-2012;
nationally representative of rural Bangladesh
 Final estimation sample: 3,273 farm households
 Household-level data on weekly food acquisition used to construct
household dietary diversity measure
 Individual level data on food consumption based on 24-hour recall
used to construct maternal and child dietary diversity measures
 WEAI survey data used to construct individual empowerment
scores for primary males and females in households

6. Food and nutrition outcomes examined
Diet diversity scores
Household-level
– 12 food groups
Maternal
– 9 food groups
Child
- 7 food groups

7. Empowerment measures
 Empowerment score of primary female (overall
empowerment in the five domains)
 Gender parity gap (=0 if have gender parity)
 Leadership domain:
– Number of groups in which she is an active member
 Resources domain:
– Average number of credit decisions she participates in
solely/jointly
– Number of assets she has sole/joint ownership of
– Number of decisions over purchase/sale/transfer of
assets she participates in solely/jointly

8. Other control variables
Household characteristics
Individual characteristics for child and mother
Price of rice
Production diversity: Number of food crops produced by
household
Method of impact estimation
– Instrumental variables regression

9. Results

10. Impacts on weekly household dietary diversity
(number of food groups)
1.9
1.7
0.9
0.2
0.01
-2.6
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
-1.5
-2
-2.5
-3
Empowerment
score
Group
membership
Credit
decisions
Asset
ownership
Rights over
assets
Gender
parity gap

11. Impact on child
dietary diversity
(number of food groups)
Impact on maternal
dietary diversity
(number of food groups)
0.44
0.5
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Empowerment score
0.38
0.50
0.45
0.40
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
Empowerment score

12. Summary of key results
 Overall women’s empowerment score, the number of groups in which
women actively participate, women’s control of assets and ability to take
decisions regarding credit, reduction of empowerment gap between men
and women in the same household have a positive impact on household
dietary diversity
 Women’s empowerment has a positive impact on maternal and child
dietary diversity
 Increasing crop production diversity contributes to improved household
and child dietary diversity
 A woman’s education is important for her and her child’s dietary diversity

13. Conclusions

14. Policy implications
 Strengthen women’s access to land and resources, including:
– Livestock
– Farm equipment
– Credit (from both banks and NGOs)
 Strengthen women’s control over land and resource use.
– Evaluation of BRAC’s Targeting the Ultra-Poor Program demonstrates
that access to resources does not necessarily mean control of
resources or decision-making authority over use
 Increase community leadership opportunities for women in:
– Group-based programs through NGOs
– Local government

15. Policy implications
 Include men in the process and programs to empower
women
 Increase women’s educational attainment
 Need to diversify crop production in this predominantly rice-based
economy

16. More information available at
WEAI RESOURCE CENTER
http://www.ifpri.org/book9075/ourwork/program/weai-resource-
center