Telling the story of rural women and their empowerment through SDGs and WEAI

Clare Bishop-Sambrook, Lead Technical Specialist (Gender and Social Inclusion)International Fund for Agricultural Development

‘Globally and with only a few exceptions, rural women fare worse than rural men and urban women and men for every MDG indicator for which data are available.’

Rural women: from MDGs to SDGs

Rural women’s lives and livelihoodsEconomic empowerment• Resources, profitable economic activities, benefitsDecision-making and voice• Membership and leadership - producer

organizations, civic and political bodies, household Workloads• Water, sanitation, energy sourcesQuality of life • Nutrition, health, gender-based violence, harmful

traditional practices

SDGs2: Hunger, food security and nutrition, sustainable agriculture

5: Gender equality and women’s empowerment

IFAD and project logic

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index

IFPRI USAID OPHI

Enhanced sustainable and

equitable development

impacts

Gender mainstreaming/ transformative approaches in

project implementation

Gender mainstreaming/transformative approaches in project design

Activities Outputs Outcomes Impacts

Gender equality and

women’s empowerment

WEAI and two sub-indices

Five domains

of empower

ment (90% of index) Women’s

empowerment in five

dimensions

Gender parity index (10%)Women’s

achievement’s relative

to the primary

male in hh

Women’s Empowermen

t in Agriculture

Index(WEAI)

Index range from zero to one: higher values = greater empowerment

Identifies HOW women are/ aren't empowered -can support project design

Identifies WHO is empowered: relative/relational empowerment of women within HH

Measures absolute and relative levels of women empowerment

Domains of empowerment and indicators

Five dimensions of empowerment

Indicators Weight

Production 1. Input in productive decisions 1/10

2. Autonomy in production * 1/10

Resources 3. Ownership of assets 1/15

4. Purchase, sale, or transfer of assets * 1/15

5. Access to and decisions on credit 1/15

Income 6. Control over use of income 1/5

Leadership 7. Group member 1/10

8. Speaking in public * 1/10 Time 9. Workload 1/10

10. Leisure * 1/10

* New WEAI (2015): Proposed indicators to drop; weighting adjusted

A woman who achieved the standard of "adequate" with 80% or more of weighted indicators – Lilian is empowered

Example 1 – Lilian in Uganda

A woman who achieved the standard of "adequate" with 80% or more of weighted indicators - Seema is not empowered

Example 2 – Seema in Bangladesh

Example 3 – Gender parity index

Source http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/weaireport2013.pdf

Contribution of each indicator to disempowerment, Bangladesh

Overall (13 countries)• Credit• Workloads• Group membership

IFAD and use of WEAI

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index

Enhanced sustainable and

equitable development

impacts

Gender mainstreaming/ transformative approaches in

project implementation

Gender mainstreaming/ transformative approaches in project design

Activities Outputs Outcomes Impacts

Gender equality and

women’s empowerment

Issues• Length, individual rather than household, polygamous households, seasonality

Statistical analysis on existing and additional data sets• Fewer indicators (one per domain): underestimates disempowerment• Fewer questions per indicator: overestimates disempowerment• Better fit when choosing indicators and questions through multiple

component analysis, country-specific

Reduced questionnaire• Pilot in ongoing impact studies• Additional questions to capture empowerment dimensions relevant to IFAD’s

work (eg credit, groups, time use)

IFAD adaptations

Evidence-based investments and policy dialogue on links between women’s empowerment and improved project performance outcomes and impacts