Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index - IFPRI Gender Methods Seminar

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index

Hazel MalapitGender Methods Seminar

November 19, 2013

Background

• New survey-based tool designed to measure women’s empowerment and inclusion in the agriculture sector

• Developed by USAID, IFPRI and OPHI as a monitoring tool for the U.S. government’s Feed the Future (FTF) Initiative

• Rolled out to 19 FTF countries

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

What is new about the WEAI?

• Index components designed to be applicable across countries and cultures

• Men and women from the same household are interviewed

• The index applies to women in households with male adults--as well as those with only female adults

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

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 empower

ment (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 Empowermen

t 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

pow

erm

en

tA 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

Lilian is Empowered

Lilian, Uganda

Empowerment Score = 83%

Has achieved parity with

her husband Wilson

Seema is Disempowered

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%

The PilotsConducted pilots in 3 FTF 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).

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

• 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

Limitations• Women engaged in non-agriculture

decisions only may appear disempowered• Female-only HHs more likely to appear

empowered because of focus on decisionmaking questions

• Focus on agriculture may not capture other domains of empowerment that may be more relevant to specific desired outcomes

• Nuances behind domains not fully captured

How will the 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.

For more information:

• Alkire, S., Meinzen-Dick, R., Peterman, A., Quisumbing, A. R., Seymour, G. and A. Vaz. 2012. “The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index,” World Development, Vol. 52, pp.71-91.

• WEAI Resource Center: http://www.ifpri.org/book-9075/ourwork/program/weai-resource-center

• Email me! Hazel Malapit: [email protected]

Preliminary WEAI Scores

Country Region WEAI Score Ranking

Bangladesh Asia 0.66 Low

Cambodia Asia 0.98 High

Nepal Asia 0.80 Medium

Tajikistan Asia 0.69 Low

Haiti Latin America & Caribbean 0.85 High

Honduras Latin America & Caribbean 0.75 Medium

Kenya East Africa 0.72 Low

Rwanda East Africa 0.91 High

Uganda East Africa 0.86 High

Ghana West Africa 0.72 Low

Liberia West Africa 0.69 Low

Malawi Southern Africa 0.84 Medium

Zambia Southern Africa 0.80 Medium

PreliminaryDisempowerment scores

for women (1 – 5DE)

BANGLADES

H

NEPAL

HAITIKEN

YAUGANDA

LIBER

IA

ZAMBIA

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

Dise

mpo

wer

men

t Ind

ex (1

- 5D

E)

Asia LAC East Africa West Africa

Southern Africa