Feiruz Yimer and Fanaye TadesseIFPRI-ESSP

June 15, 2015Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture and Nutritional Outcomes in Ethiopia

Introduction

• Intra-household resource allocation has a considerable role to play in nutritional outcomes.

• The extent to which women control resources largely determines the kind of care they provide for their children.

• Lack of control over household resources, time, knowledge, and social support networks -> poor nutritional outcomes.

• Empirical research mostly shows that greater control by women in household has an impact on the nutritional and educational outcomes of children

Objective of our research

• Look into the impact of women’s empowerment on dietary diversity of children and women.

• Complex linkages; direction of relationship between women’s status and nutrition not straight forward.

• Women’s empowerment through engaging in agriculture or other paid work could reduce the amount of time available for them to take care of themselves as well as their

children. Positive income effect

• Measuring women’s empowerment not easy. Use new measure of women empowerment called Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI).

Data

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

• Collected by CSA in collaboration with IFPRI in June 2013. • The data is collected

o5 regions (Tigray, Amhara, Oromiya, Somalia and SNNP)o84 woredas (districts)o 7,056 households

Methodology - Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI)

• Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI)

• Developed by researchers at USAID, IFPRI, and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)

• Composed of two sub-indexes: the Five Domains of Empowerment sub-index (5DE) and the Gender Parity sub-Index (GPI)

Five Domains of Empowerment sub-index (5DE) measures the empowerment of women in five areas (90 percent of the total WEAI); and

The Gender Parity Index (GPI) measures the empowerment gap of men and women within the household(10 percent of the total WEAI)

Methodology (Cont.) WEAI Components

• The five domains, their definitions under the WEAI, the corresponding indicators, and their weights for the 5DE are:

Descriptive of WEAI

• How empowered are Ethiopian women in Agriculture?• The female respondent’s individual-level 5DE profile or score (weighted average

of the 10 indicators)• The average 5DE score is 0.67

A lower level of empowerment in agriculture for Ethiopian women compared with women in Bangladesh (0.75), Uganda (0.79) and Guatemala (0.69).

and better compared to Nepal (0.59)• The findings from the WEAI diagnostics are used to identify the focus of

analysis.• Contribution of each of the five domains to disempowerment Leadership, Time, Resources, Production and Income

Results - Contribution of each of the 5 domains to disempowerment of women

Production11%

Resources25%

Income7%Leadership

30%

Time27%

Result- Contribution of each of the 10 domain indicators to disempowerment of women

Input in productive de-cisions

3% Autonomy in production

7%Ownership of

assets5%

Purchase, sale or transfer of as-

sets5%

Access to and decisions on

credit15%

Control over use of income

7%Group membership15%

Speaking in pub-lic

15%

Workload13%

Leisure14%

Production-Autonomy in productionResource- Decision on creditIncome- Control over use of incomeLeadership- Group membershipTime- Workload

Regression

• Follows the works by IFPRI colleagues (Sraboni et al, 2014 in Bangladesh and Malapit et al, 2013 on Nepal)

• Estimated six models using the six empowerment variables• Outcome variables- dietary diversity of children - dietary diversity of women

• Controlled for household and community level characteristics

Result: Regression on children dietary diversity

Model I Model II Model III Model IV Model V Model VI

Five domains of empowerment 0.889***

No. of group membership 0.153***

Decision on credit 0.088**

Decision on income 0.076***

Autonomy in production 0.084***

Workload 0.0003***

Production diversity 0.156*** 0.164*** 0.176*** 0.160*** 0.160*** 0.174***

*, ** and *** stands for 10%, 5% and 1% level of significance, respectively.

Result: Regression on Women’s nutritional outcome` Model I Model II Model III Model IV Model V Model VIFive domains of empowerment 1.133***

No. of group membership 0.153***

Decision on credit 0.148***

Decision on income 0.068***

Autonomy in production 0.076***Workload 0.001***

Production diversity 0.161*** 0.161*** 0.172*** 0.165*** 0.164*** 0.175***

*, ** and *** stands for 10%, 5% and 1% level of significance, respectively.

Result-Additional variables

• Children of under age 2 have better dietary diversity• Household size - negative effect on the nutritional outcome of

children.• Wealth - positive and significant effect on the dietary diversity of

children except in regressions of 5DE and decision on income use being insignificant• Wealth-same effect on the women dietary diversity though it is

insignificant in regressions of 5DE and decisions on credit

Conclusion

• Women’s empowerment has a positive impact on children’s Dietary Diversity as well as women’s Dietary Diversity

• Having say on credit decisions has implication on dietary diversity of both children and women

• Our study confirms finding from other countries: Nepal (Malpit et. al, 2013): Autonomy in production dietary diversity of both

women and children Bangladesh (Sraboni et. al, 2013): Over all women empowerment score, number of

groups in which a women is an active member and women’s control over asset household dietary diversity

Ghana (Malapit et. al, 2013): 5DE infant and young child feeding

role in credit decisions women’s dietary diversity