CBO’s Recent Appeals for New Research on Health-Related Topics
Measuring Women's Empowerment in Agriculture
1. Measuring Progress Toward Empowerment
Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index: Baseline Report
Chiara Kovarik, Senior Research Assistant, IFPRI
Gender and Agriculture: A Focus on Bangladesh
June 18, 2014
2. Overview
• How the WEAI is constructed
• WEAI cross country results
• Examine major constraints to
empowerment
• Compare the WEAI and selected indicators:
– Factors that might affect empowerment
• Income
• Education
– Outcomes that might result from empowerment
• Household hunger score
• Maternal behavior
• Summary
3. How is the Index constructed?
Five domains of
empowerment
(5DE)
A direct measure of
women’s empowerment
in 5 dimensions
Gender parity
Index (GPI)
Women’s
achievement’s relative
to the primary male
in hh
Women’s
Empowerment
in Agriculture
Index
(WEAI)
WEAI is made up of two sub indices
All range from zero to one;
higher values = greater empowerment
4. 5DE, GPI, and WEAI Scores
Country Region 5DE GPI WEAI Ranking
Bangladesh Asia 0.65 0.80 0.66 Low
Cambodia Asia 0.98 0.99 0.98 High
Nepal Asia 0.79 0.89 0.80 Medium
Tajikistan Asia 0.68 0.79 0.69 Low
Haiti Latin America & Caribbean 0.83 0.94 0.85 High
Honduras Latin America & Caribbean 0.74 0.87 0.75 Medium
Kenya East Africa 0.71 0.81 0.72 Low
Rwanda East Africa 0.90 0.96 0.91 High
Uganda East Africa 0.85 0.92 0.86 High
Ghana West Africa 0.70 0.81 0.71 Low
Liberia West Africa 0.66 0.95 0.69 Low
Malawi Southern Africa 0.83 0.91 0.84 Medium
Zambia Southern Africa 0.79 0.89 0.80 Medium
5. Women’s Disempowerment scores (1-5DE)
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
6. #1 Constraint: Access to and decisions on credit
0.49
0.05
0.40
0.73
0.39
0.66
0.63
0.24
0.32
0.60
0.67
0.41
0.53
0.00
0.15
0.30
0.45
0.60
0.75
Proportionofwomennotempoweredandwho
haveinadequateachievement
13. Summary
• Greatest constraints: Too little credit,
too much work and not enough groups!
• Comparison with men:
– On average women are 2X as
disempowered as men
– Women are almost 2X as
disempowered as men in their ability
to access and make decisions
regarding credit, and over 1.5X as
disempowered with respect to
workload and group membership
– While the magnitude of women’s
disempowerment is greater, men are
also disempowered in these domains
• Geographic patterns: Specific
constraints dominate certain regions
• WEAI and poverty, health and
nutrition outcomes:
– TheWEAI is most strongly
associated with household
educational achievement,income,
and maternal behavior (prevalence
of exclusive breastfeeding and
children receiving a minimum
acceptable diet)
