The WEAI Tool and Feed the Future Ethiopia Findings

The WEAI Tool and Feed the Future Ethiopia Findings

Hazel Malapit, IFPRI / PHNFanaye Tadesse, IFPRI / ESSP

Gender and Agriculture: Reviewing the evidence and the way forwardGetfam Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 17 June 2016

Purpose of the WEAI

• 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

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Measuring Women’s Empowerment: Challenges and Opportunities

• Defining empowerment: “expanding people’s ability to make strategic life choices, particularly in contexts in which this ability had been denied to them” (Kabeer 1999)

• Challenges: empowerment is personal, context-specific, therefore difficult to measure

• But: what’s measured matters: if we measure, we can monitor, and use it as a benchmark for progress

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Methodological foundations and innovations• Key aspect of index construction: similar to family of multi-

dimensional poverty indices (Alkire and Foster 2011, J of Public Econ) and the Foster-Greere-Thorbeck (FGT) poverty indices

• Innovative because it uses interviews of the primary male and primary female adults in the same household

• Focus is strictly on empowerment in agriculture, distinct from economic status, education, and empowerment in other domains

• Details on index construction in Alkire et al. (2013), World Development

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 achievements 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

90 % 10 %

6

The 5DE• 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

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Five

dom

ains

of e

mpo

wer

men

tA woman’s empowerment score shows her own achievements

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Who is empowered?

A woman who has achieved ‘adequacy’ in 80% or more of the weighted indicators is empowered

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Q: Is Lilian Empowered/Disempowered?

A: Lilian is Empowered

Q: Is Seema Empowered/Disempowered?

A: Seema is Disempowered

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 – 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 FGT Poverty Gap measure to reflect gender parity.

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How is WEAI 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. Impact evaluations, testing new indicators/assessing validity in different contexts, etc.

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Impact of WEAI worldwide

5 = FTF countries only15 = other organizations only13 = both FTF countries & other organizations

62 known cases of WEAI adoption (including IFAD & FAO)

WB will collect A-WEAI in future waves of Malawi LSMS-ISA

WEAI : Ethiopia Result

Data

• Data from a baseline and survey conducted for the evaluation of the FtF program in Ethiopia, the US government global hunger and food security initiative.

• Collected from 5 regions of the country and comprises of 7,056 households from 84 woredas (districts).

• Data collection took place in June 2013 and 2015. • The questionnaire used for the survey includes modules on

• basic demographic information; household consumption expenditure; Women empowerment indicators; women dietary diversity and anthropometry; child anthropometry and infant and young child feeding; employment, agricultural productivity and input use; and other relevant information.

• The data is representative at FTF zone of influence.

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Feed the Future in Ethiopia

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Women Empowerment in Agricultural Index results.

IndicesSurvey Midline Vs.

baselineBaseline Interim

78.1% 73.3% -6.2%

41.0% 39.2% -4.4%

Disempowerment Index 0.321 0.288 -10.3%

5DE Index 0.676 0.711 5.2%

% of women with no gender parity 56.0% 53.3% -4.8%

% of women with gender parity 44.0% 46.7% 6.1%

Average Empowerment Gap 23.5% 22.9% -2.6%

GPI 0.869 0.878 1.0%

WEAI 0.698 0.729 4.4%

WEAI : Result

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Contribution of each of the 5 domains to disempowerment of women

15.1%

12.7%

17.6%

16.8%

7.3%

14.1%

2.7%2.1%

7.9%

3.7%

Input in Productive DecisionsAutonomy in ProductionOwnership of AssetsPurchase, Sale or Transfer of AssetAccess to and De-cisions on CreditControl Over use of IncomeGroup MembershipSpeaking in PublicWorkloadLeisure

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Contribution of the 10 sub-domains to the disempowerment of women

Domain Sub-domain Baseline InterimProduction      

Input in productive decisions 3.5% 3.7%  Autonomy in production 7.4% 7.9%Resources

Ownership of assets 4.8% 2.1%

Purchase, sale or transfer of assets 5.4% 2.7%

Access to and decisions on credit 15.1% 14.1%

Income        Control over use of income 6.5% 7.3%Leadership

Group membership 15.4% 16.8%Speaking in public 14.4% 17.6%

Time      Workload 13.5% 12.7%

  Leisure 14.1% 15.1%

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Result: Proportion of disempowered women by the sub-domains (Interim survey)

Input i

n Producti

ve Decis

ions

Autonom

y in Pro

duction

Ownership

of Ass

ets

Purchase

, Sale or T

ransfe

r of A

sset

Access

to and D

ecisions o

n Credit

Control O

ver use

of Inco

me

Group M

embers

hip

Speaking in

Public

Work

load

Leisure

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

23

Contribution of each domain to disempowerment of women

WEAI : Result

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 Baseline Midline

Female Male Female Male

Disempowered Headcount 78.1% 59.3% 73.3% 46.5%

Average Inadequacy Score 41.0% 35.0% 39.2% 34.4%

Disempowerment Index 0.321 0.208 0.288 0.16

5DE Index 0.679 0.792 0.712 0.84

% of women with no gender parity 56.0% 53.3%

Average Empowerment Gap 23.5% 22.9%

GPI 0.869 0.878

WEAI 0.698   0.729  

Women Empowerment in Agricultural Index (comparison between men and

female)

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Contribution of each of the 5 domains to disempowerment of men

Women

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Result: Proportion of Disempowered Men and Women (Interim survey)

Input i

n Producti

ve Decis

ions

Autonom

y in Pro

duction

Ownership

of Ass

ets

Purchase

, Sale or T

ransfe

r of A

sset

Access

to and D

ecisions o

n Credit

Control O

ver use

of Inco

me

Group M

embers

hip

Speaking in

Public

Work

load

Leisure

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Women Men

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Conclusion

• Overall empowerment of women based on the WEAI shows some level of improvement.

• Percentage of women who are disempowered in the 5 domains has declined.

• Percentage of women who are adequate in the ten indicators has increased except in speaking in public indicator (declined) and leisure (remained the same).

• The percentage of women who are disempowered in the resource domain has declined

• Major contributors to disempowerment of women in both rounds are leadership and time domains.

• Similar contributors to the disempowerment of both women and men

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Gender Integration and Empowerment in

Agriculture

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Interventions to address gender gaps at scale:• Women’s Agribusiness Leadership Network created a sustainable network of

over 500 women entrepreneurs and their mentees in four regions. Over 78,000 women joined farmer cooperative unions as a result.

• 250 women Transitioning Out of Pastoralism (TOPs) and 167 in the dairy sector were trained on business skills and entrepreneurship.

WEAI Analysis:• Leadership and time

domains are the largest contributors to the disempowerment for women which might contribute to the limited access to trainings and technology application compared to men.

Bangladesh’s Experience with the WEAI and Lessons for Ethiopia

Hazel Malapit, IFPRI / PHNFanaye Tadesse, IFPRI / ESSP

Gender and Agriculture: Reviewing the evidence and the way forwardGetfam Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 17 June 2016

31

What’s special about Bangladesh?

• First FTF country to collect the WEAI– Pilot country (with Uganda and Guatemala)– Went to field before WEAI was finalized; collected an

extensive pilot version• Only FTF country to collect WEAI nationally• First FTF country to publicly release data• Lowest WEAI score among the 13 countries

included in global report• Showed remarkable improvement in WEAI scores

in only 2 years (+17%)

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Baseline Results

• Preliminary WEAI results shared broadly, even before baseline report was finalized

• Generated a lot of demand for more analysis and for access to data

• BIHS released for public access in April 2013

• Published open-access research article on WEAI and food security (Sraboni et al 2014)

Which domains contribute most to disempowerment of women?

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In-ad-equacy in

Leader-

ship32%

In-ade-quacy in Re-

sources

21%

In-ade-quacy in In-

come 20%

In-ad-equacy in

Pro-duction16%

Inadequacy in time12%

FtF Zone

In-ad-equacy in

Leader-

ship35%

Inadequacy in Resources

22%

In-ad-equacy in In-

come

15%

In-ad-equacy in

Production15%

In-ad-equacy in

Time13%

Bangladesh

Which indicators contribute most to disempowerment of women in the FtF zone?

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Leadership32%

Resources21%

Income 19%

Production16%

Time12%

Lack of group membership 17%

Inadequate ownership of assets 5%

Lack of input in decision-making over purchase, sale or transfer of assets 7%

Insufficient access to and decisions on credit 9%

Lack of control over use of income 19%

Lack of input in productive decisions 11%

Insufficient autonomy in production 5%

Discomfort in speaking in public 15%

Inadequate leisure 7%

Dissatisfaction with workload 5%

How do major disempowering factors differ by region? Comparing FtF zone and Rangpur division

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LEADERSHIP32%

PRODUCTION16%

IN-COME

19%

LEADERSHIP35%

TIME16%

INCOME11%

FTF ZONE RANGPURLack of control over use of income 19%

Discomfort in speaking in public 15%

Lack of group membership 17%

Lack of input in productive decisions 11%

Lack of group membership 19%

Lack of control over use of income 11%

Discomfort in speaking in public 16%

Inadequate leisure 11%

Similarities and Differences in disempowering factors among men and women: FtF Zone

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LEADERSHIP32%

PRODUCTION16%

IN-COME

19%

LEADERSHIP38%

TIME

25%

RE-SOURCE

S17%

Lack of control over use of income 19%

Lack of input in productive decisions 11%

Discomfort in speaking in public 15%

Lack of group membership 17%

Insufficient access to and decisions on credit 12%

Discomfort in speaking in public 13%

Lack of group membership 25%

Excessiveworkload 13%

WOMEN MEN

Baseline Findings• Global report released last May

2014 with findings from 13 of the 19 countries, as well as cross-country comparisons

• Suggestive evidence that women’s empowerment is strongly correlated with several outcomes (EBF, MAD), but not with others (WDDS, children’s nutritional status)

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Cross-country baseline findings

Banglad

esh

Tajik

istan

Kenya

NepalHaiti

Uganda

Cambodia

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

LeisureWorkloadSpeaking in publicGroup memberControl over use of incomeAccess to and decisions on creditPurchase, sale, or transfer of assetsOwnership of assetsAutonomy in productionInput in productive decisions

Dise

mpo

wer

men

t Ind

ex (1

- 5D

E)

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• USAID Bangladesh responded to the WEAI baseline findings by:– Retrofitting existing programs– Encouraging partners to take up activities focused on promoting

women’s empowerment in the FTF zone– Funded US$6 million worth of new programs that aim to improve

women’s empowerment in the 5 domains• IFPRI working with the Bangladesh government Ministry of

Agriculture (MOA) to orient agriculture toward nutrition and women’s empowerment (RCT to test alternative approaches)

What gets measured, gets done!

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Presentation for the FTF Gender Cluster MeetingHKI, DhakaNovember 17, 2014

The Feed the Future Zone of Influence in Bangladesh: Changes in Selected Indicators from 2011 Baseline to 2015 MidlineAkhter AhmedRicardo Hernandez, Zeeshan Abedin, Julie Ghostlaw, Nusrat Hossain, Wahidur Quabili, Farha Sufian, Salauddin Tauseef

Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Program, IFPRI Presentation at BFS/USAID Washington, DCMarch 17, 2016

Created a comprehensive database for the Feed the Future ZOI

IFPRI-PRSSP’s Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS): the most comprehensive, nationally representative rural household survey to date. Largest panel survey.

A part of BIHS has been designed to serve as the baseline, midline, and endline for estimating change in a set of FTF indicators.

BIHS sampling is statistically representative nationally of rural Bangladesh,rural areas for each of the 7 administrative divisions,FTF Zone of Influence.

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BIHS Baseline-Midline FTF sample

Two-round panel:

FTF baseline (Nov-Dec 2011): 2,040 HHsFTF midline (Jan-Mar 2015): 2,017 HHs

Low attrition: 1.3%/year

Map of Bangladesh showing the survey upazilas in the Feed the Future sampling frame.

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BIHS: Big data, big impact

Downloads of 2011/12 BIHS dataset: 600 (2013) 8,000 (now)Diverse users across 6 continents

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Change in FTF Indicators from 2011/12 to 2015:

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture

(updated results)

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Overall WEAI results in the FTF ZOI

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Women's 5DE Men's 5DE GPI WEAI0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

1.00

0.67

0.84 0.81

0.68

0.78

0.88 0.90

0.80

2011/12 Baseline 2015 Midline

Perc

ent

+18% +6% +11% +17%Growth rate

Remarkable improvement in women’s empowerment status in the FTF ZOI

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Empowered headcount

Adequacy score Women with gender parity

Empowerment gap0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

27.4

54.1

40.231.6

41.2

63.2

50.7

21.0

2011/12 Baseline 2015 Midline

Perc

ent

Men’s empowerment status improved as well

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Empowerment headcount Adequacy score0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

52.16

65.7664.0167.19

2011/12 Baseline 2015 Midline

Perc

ent

Which domains contribute most to disempowerment of women in the FTF zone?

2011/12 - 2015

481 – 5DE: 0.33 1 – 5DE: 0.22

Inadequacy in Time; 15%

Inadequacy in Leader-ship; 34%

Inadequacy in Resources; 20%

Inadequacy in Production; 15%

Inadequacy in Income; 16%

2011/12 Baseline

Inadequacy in Time;

16%

Inade-quacy in Leader-

ship; 39%

Inadequacy in Re-

sources; 27%

Inadequacy in Produc-tion; 12%

Inadequacy in Income; 6%

2015 Midline

Changes in WEAI disempowerment headcount in 10 sub-domain indicators

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

34

17

22

32

48

26

56 56

25 25

10

17

12

3740

7

49

35

1519

2011/12 baseline 2019 midline

Perc

ent

Conclusions

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Poverty has declined in the FTF ZOI by 16% from baseline to midline. Poverty decline was more for the poorest of the poor than those who are less poor.

Key factors that help households move out of poverty are education, non-farm income, women’s empowerment, access to electricity, physical asset holding, and savings. If the size of safety net transfer is at least 15% of income of recipient households then safety net participation tends to prevent households from backsliding into poverty.

Household incomes, measured in terms of per capita expenditures, increased in the FTF ZOI by 18%. The magnitude of increase was much higher for the poor.

Increased farmers’ income is positively associated with education, mechanized irrigation, access to commercial loans, women’s empowerment in agriculture, access to electricity, ownership of cell phone and solar panel, as well as non-farm income.

Conclusions

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Dietary diversity of reproductive-aged women in the FTF ZOI shows a modest 5% increase. Women’s and children’s dietary diversity are improving, but these areas still call for greater attention.

Increased dietary diversity is positively associated with education, agricultural production diversity, women’s empowerment in agriculture, access to electricity, mechanized irrigation, remittances, non-farm income.

Only 27% of women in the FTF ZOI were empowered at baseline. In 2015, 41% in the ZOI were empowered. Women’s empowerment in agriculture improves dietary diversity, increases farmers’ income, and helps households move out of poverty. Therefore, promoting women’s empowerment should remain paramount to the FTF agenda to attain complementary development goals.

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Lessons from the Bangladesh experience

• Make data available early• Regional analysis greatly increased usefulness of

the data to other organizations working outside the FTF zone

• Encourage other users to use the data (Bangladesh data set was the first FTF data set to be publicly available)

• Have enough in-country support for data analysis so that if policymakers ask for more information, it can be provided in a timely manner

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Lessons from the Bangladesh experience• Share research results with local stakeholders early to get

feedback and to build ownership of the research process• But what if the results change, or are not too favorable?

– Be clear about results that are preliminary estimates– Use sound analytical methods that can be defended– If results aren’t “good”, look for credible reasons why—this might be

an opportunity for policy intervention. – For example: Bangladesh had the lowest levels of overall

empowerment in the baseline. The disempowerment gaps helped inform the design of a new pilot project for nutrition-sensitive agriculture, with gender sensitization

• Use diagnosed gaps as a way to motivate policy change• Take advantage of long history of policy engagement and

research in country to have a similar engagement in the area of women’s empowerment

THANK YOU

For more information, visit the WEAI Resource Center: http://www.ifpri.org/topic/weai-resource-center

Or contact Hazel Malapit, h.malapit@cgiar.org

Gender and Agriculture: Reviewing the evidence and the way forwardGetfam Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 17 June 2016