Gender, Nutrition and Health: Achievements and key insights

Village Dynamics Studies in South Asia

Presented by R Padmaja

On behalf of SAT India team : Cynthia Bantilan, K Kavitha, GV Anil Kumar, P Padmaja, Y Mohan Rao

16 Female Field Investigators and 11 Male Field Investigators (ICRISAT)East India team: Usha Rani Ahuja and team (NIAP)Bangladesh team: Humnath Bhandari, Alamgir Chowdhury and team (IRRI, SocioConsult)

Session 5, VDSA ARM 6, April 2-3, 2015, ICRISAT-Patancheru

Ultimate goal

Raising the voices of the poor

Achievements

Analytics using the data generated in the past and 2013-2014

VDSA is a blunt instrument, but is like a Swiss army knife

Individual indicators (for eg. on empowerment and nutrition) are revealing !

These indicators add up to the computation of empowerment and rural transformation

They may not always add up in the same direction

Social and gender norms and context specific insights are important ; understanding the processes

Power of VDSA – ground level, context specific knowledge that can be translated into actions and

outcomesSource of Picture and concept: Hazel Malapit, 2014

Feminization of agriculture

Feminization of agriculture – a myth or a reality ?

Two contrasting and bipolar findings:

Macro data trends project defeminisation of agriculture

Micro-level evidences however point to a progressive feminisation of agriculture

Feminization of agriculture Definite approaches to

understand processes taking place

Institutional dimensions to be also looked into

Agrarian distress Vs. agriculture distress

Dynamics of structural transformation to be understood

Dynamics of rural labor markets – aspirations of people

Assets – men and womenNetwork map of women involved in land and labor transactions

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tA woman’s empowerment score shows her own achievements

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Does income increase automatically translate into better nutritional outcomes especially for women and children?

Dietary diversity: women

Dietary diversity: children

Double burden of malnutrition

Dietary Composition

*Values are in real prices base year of 2009-10

Lessons learnt

VLS data can explain why income appears to be a small factor in conditioning nutritional status – calorie and micro-nutrient intake

Why to people in India continue to defecate in the open…

Minimum nutrition metrics for agriculture

Tool validation: MNDA Vs VDSA Intensive rounds

- WDDS

Source: TCi-ICRISAT Collaborative research

Way forwardIntegrate nutrition modules into VDSA Phase 2 in all the locations/sites

MNDA - quarterly

Periodic intensive nutrition surveys

Analytics – in collaboration with ARIs eg. DSE, Cornell University, Penn State

Way forwardProvide answers for action outcomes …

Why income increases not translate into nutritional improvements? Sanitation – a blind spot on nutrition ? How can we make the communities more resilient to shocks – eg.

climatic shocks, health shocks, etc Feminization of agriculture – a good thing or bad thing?

Translating the results into outcomes/ actions – BCC; policy options; programs

Markets – driving force for transformation : IMOD lens for VDSA

Thank you!