The Women's Empowerment in Agricultre Index (English)

Construction of the Women’s

Empowerment in Agriculture Index

and pilot results

Purpose

• Design, develop, and test an index to measure the greater inclusion of women in agricultural sector growth that has occurred as a result of US Government intervention under the Feed the Future (FTF) Initiative

• What is “greater inclusion”? The concept of Inclusive Agricultural Sector Growth is broad and multi-dimensional

• Feed the Future defines it as: “the empowerment of women in their roles and engagement throughout the various areas of the agriculture sector, as it grows, in both quantity and quality”

What is empowerment?

• Similar to Kabeer (2001), we define

empowerment as the expansion of people’s

ability to make strategic life choices, within

their households and their communities,

particularly in contexts where this ability has

been limited

Why focus on women? • Women are important in agriculture, account for 43% of

the agricultural labor force worldwide (SOFA 2011)

• Yet women consistently have less resources than men:

land, education, access to extension and credit, inputs--

resulting in yield gaps of between 20-25%

• Closing the gap in access to resources could increase

agricultural productivity—with benefits for families and

the next generation

What is new about the WEAI? • An aggregate index in two parts:

– Five domains of empowerment (5DE): assesses whether

women are empowered in the 5 domains of empowerment in

agriculture

– Gender Parity Index (GPI): reflects the percentage of

women who are as empowered as the men in their households

• It is a survey-based index, not based on aggregate statistics or

secondary data, constructed using interviews of the primary male

and primary female adults in the same household

Innovations in survey design and

implementation

• Index components designed to be applicable across countries

and cultures

• Men and women from the same household are interviewed

• The survey questionnaire modules focus on men’s and women’s

empowerment in agriculture

• The index applies to women in households with male adults--as

well as those with only female adults.

Scope of the WEAI • Focus is strictly on empowerment in agriculture, distinct

from: – Economic status

– Education

– Empowerment in other domains

This enables clear analysis of external determinates of empowerment in agriculture.

• WEAI is international; Local adaptation possible.

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

Fiv

e d

om

ain

s o

f em

po

werm

en

t

A woman’s empowerment score shows her own achievements

Who is empowered?

A woman who has achieved

‘adequacy’ in 80% or more of

the weighted indicators

is empowered

• The 5DE is based on the Alkire Foster methodology and reflects: – Incidence of Empowerment - The percentage of women who are

empowered

– Adequacy among the Disempowered - The weighted share of indicators in which disempowered women enjoy adequate achievements

• Based on each woman’s empowerment profile

• Identifies who is empowered

• Shows how women are disempowered

• Rigorous properties

5DE Methodology Alkire and Foster 2011. J of Public Economics.

Gender Parity Index (GPI) Reflects two things:

1. The percentage of women who enjoy gender parity. A woman enjoys gender parity if – she is empowered or

– if her empowerment score is equal to or greater than the empowerment score of the primary male in her household.

2. The empowerment gap - the average percentage shortfall that a woman without parity experiences relative to the male in her household.

The GPI adapts the Foster Greer Thorbecke Poverty Gap measure to reflect gender parity.

5DE = He + Hd × Ae He is the percentage of empowered women

Hd is the percentage of disempowered women

Ae is the average absolute empowerment score among the disempowered

GPI = I – (HGPI × IGPI) HGPI is percentage of gender parity-inadequate households

IGPI is the average empowerment gap between women and men living in households that lack gender parity

Formula

The Pilots

• Tested feasibility in a real-world setting before scale-up

• An innovation in the measurement and monitoring of

women’s empowerment in agriculture—not the final word

on it!

• Representative of the zone of influence (not nationally)

Country choice Three Feed the Future countries in different regions and different socio-cultural contexts, focused on the zone of influence:

• Bangladesh, Guatemala, Uganda

• Split roughly 20/80 between single female and dual adult households

• ~350 households/625 individuals each

Collaborators: • Data Analysis and Technical Assistance, Ltd. (Bangladesh),

• Vox Latina (Guatemala),

• Associates Research Uganda Limited (Uganda).

Bangladesh • Southern part of the country

– 25 villages from 5 rural districts (Khulna, Madaripur, Barguna, Patuakhali and Jessore)

– 18 households randomly selected from each village (14 dual adult; 4 female adult only)

• Sample size: 450 households (800 individuals)

Guatemala • Western highlands, large

indigenous population – 25 villages from 28 targeted

municipalities from 5 departamentos (Quetzaltengo, San Marcos, Huehuetenango, El Quiché and Totonicapán)

– 14 households randomly selected from each village (11 dual adult; 3 female adult only)

• Sample size: 350 households (626 individuals)

Uganda • Northern, Central, and Eastern

– 25 Local Councils in 25 Parishes in 5

preselected rural districts: Kole and

Amuru (North), Masaka and Luwero

(Central) and Iganga (Eastern)

– 14 households randomly selected

from each LC (11 dual adult; 3 female

adult only)

• Sample size: 350 households (625

individuals)

Case studies

Case studies consisted of interviews on five domains with narratives to explain answers, describe “life stories,” and get concepts of empowerment from men and women themselves

“Being empowered, it means that the woman can do things too, not

just the man”

~ Woman, Guatemala aged 63

Lilian, Uganda

Empowerment Score = 83%

Has achieved parity with her

husband Wilson

Lilian is Empowered

Seema, Bangladesh

Empowerment Score

= 64%

She has not achieved parity with her

husband

On average, disempowered women in

the Bangladesh pilot have

empowerment scores of 61%

Seema is Disempowered

• 39% of women are empowered

• Disempowered women have adequate

achievements in 58.4% of domains

• 59.8% of women enjoy gender parity

• Households without gender parity have a

25.2% empowerment gap between the

woman and man

Bangladesh Pilot results

Overall, the WEAI

score is 0.762

Bangladesh: How to increase empowerment?

Proportion of women not empowered and who have inadequate achievements by indicator in Bangladesh sample

Bangladesh: How to increase empowerment?

Policies need to focus on improving women's control over income

• 28.7% of women are empowered

• Disempowered women have adequate

achievements in 56.5% of domains

• 35.8% of women have gender parity

• 29.1% empowerment gap

Guatemala Pilot

results

Overall, the WEAI

score is 0.702

Guatemala: How to increase empowerment?

Women's achievements are worse than men's in every indicator

Improving gender parity is extremely important

• 43.3% of women are empowered

• Disempowered women have adequate

achievements in 62.8% of domains

• 54.4% of women have gender parity

• 22.4% empowerment gap

Uganda Pilot results

Overall, the WEAI

score is 0.800

Uganda: How to increase empowerment?

Policies need to focus on time use, where women have greater burdens than men

Empowerment, wealth and education

• Wealth – clear association with empowerment in Uganda, but an imperfect proxy in Bangladesh and Guatemala: – 76% in top three quintiles are disempowered in Guatemala

• Education – significant influence in Guatemala and Uganda but insignificant for men and women in Bangladesh: – In Uganda, 35% of women with less than primary schooling are empowered vs.

45% with primary education

– 31% of women with less than primary education were empowered in Bangladesh vs. 33% with primary schooling

The new survey questions used for the WEAI show that having money or being educated does not guarantee that women are empowered.

Innovations in the Index 1) Captures empowerment directly:

– Not through proxies – education, income etc.

– The results show what has been missing from our view of

empowerment to date

2) Three ways to change it:

– Empower women

– Increase the adequacy among disempowered women

– Increase gender parity

How will WEAI be used?

1. As a monitoring indicator for FTF to evaluate whether

programs are having intended effect on women's

empowerment

2. As a diagnostic tool to help identify areas in which women

and men are disempowered, so that programs and policies can

be targeted to those areas

3. Conducting more research: testing new indicators/assessing

validity in different contexts, etc.

4 WEAI Dissertation Fellowships Awarded

• To strengthen understanding and evidence of the

WEAI

• To expand understanding of WEAI dynamics through

complementary qualitative and ethnographic work

• To support promising researchers interested in

gender and agriculture

• For more information, please refer to the WEAI Resource Center: http://www.ifpri.org/book-

9075/ourwork/program/weai-resource-center

• Or contact Hazel Malapit: [email protected]

Source:

Alkire, S., Meinzen-Dick, R., Peterman, A., Quisumbing, A. R.,

Seymour, G. and A. Vaz. 2012. “The Women’s Empowerment

in Agriculture Index,” Poverty, Health & Nutrition Division,

International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI Discussion

Paper No. 01240, December 2012. http://www.ifpri.org/publication/women-s-empowerment-agriculture-index

Presentation prepared by:

Hazel Malapit and Chiara Kovarik