EHFP AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENTJennifer Nielsen, PhD, Senior Program Manager for Nutrition & Health

Science Forum 2013 – 24 September

• ENA Training• Community Health Worker Support• Ag orientation

CHWMothers’Groups

HH Gardens

VMF-FFSVillage Model Farm Farmer Field School

Demo-training-supplies

• Ag Training • Ag Inputs

• ENA Training• ENA Venue

• Market Linkages• Value Chain

• Ag Inputs• Ag Training

AgriculturalExtension

AGRICULTURE ELEMENT• Market Linkages-Value Chain

• Ag Inputs• Ag Training

HFs

Equity

• Food for Work• Options for Landless

• Urban Gardening • ENA Training

NUTRITION ELEMENT• Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA)• Coordination for HH messaging• Linkages to Health Facilities (HF)

Key• Project Provides• Project Facilitates

HKI’S ENHANCED HOMESTEAD FOOD PRODUCTION MODEL

WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

• Improve capacity among individuals

and communities to recognize and

meet nutritional needs of both

current and future generations.

• Create conditions for empowerment

and improved quality of life through

participatory approaches that foster

shared responsibility for ensuring

optimal food, health and care.

• Promote social inclusion & equity

NUTRITION, FOOD SECURITY & EQUITY GOALS OF EHFP

• Women’s knowledge, self-efficacy & HH support for adoption of

essential nutrition actions; the highest priority

• Skills, assets for nutrition-sensitive food production and

processing (to improve yield, nutrient and market value)

• Links to markets for surplus; skills for identifying & seizing

opportunities

• Increased control over production, income, investment decisions

• Right to land access

• Shared labor burden to protect family nutrition (women, infants &

young children)

DEFINING WOMEN’S “EMPOWERMENT” FOR EHFP

Photo © HKI / Keang Khim

EXPERIENCES IN ASIA

• Compared to control HH, women participants in EHFP were

significantly more likely to report non-traditional roles:

– Contribute importantly to HH production & income

– Participate in group meetings, visit parental home

– Decide how to use HH land

– Power to make (small) HH purchases

• Building women’s skills and assets for poultry production and

financial training for couples altered social norms

– Husbands accepted women’s control of poultry investments & income

– Husbands’ and in-laws’ respect for women’s increased contributions to HH grew

– Women’s exposure to valued training & education enhanced status in community

– PRA helped community reexamine norms

BANGLADESH 1993-2013: WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT MEASURES

• Addition of group marketing to address barriers women face to

income generation: marketing skills; pooling of surplus

BANGLADESH 1993-PRESENT: WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT MEASURES

• TRT women reported significantly greater ability to control assets

from poultry production

– Unadjusted OR 2.83 (1.17 – 6.85)

• Significant increases in TRT HH income

– Unadjusted OR for monthly income >4,000 NRs 1.39 (1.07 – 1.82)

• Significantly higher BMI and Hb concentration among TRT women

NEPAL RCT 2008-2012 : WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IMPACTS (AAMA)

Adjusted logistic regressions assessing effect on women’s nutrition

Binary outcome variable

Maternal underweight Maternal anemia

Treatment X time 0.63 (0.47 – 0.84)* 0.59 (0.45 – 0.76)

*

Gender approach will target:

• Women’s lack of economic say

– Joint financial planning

– Dialogue on HH decision-making

• Women’s high work burden

– Increased male involvement in child care

• Alcohol abuse & violence

– Dialogue on community norms

CAMBODIA EHFP FISH ON FARMS 2012-2015: GENDER OBJECTIVES

Photo © HKI

EXPERIENCES IN AFRICA

• Impact evaluation showed relative

improvements in women’s assets

– Significant increase in TRT women’s assets and

in ratio of assets compared to men

– Significant increase in TRT women’s small

animal holdings

– TRT women’s control of production and income

derived from poultry

• Operations research found shifts in

community norms on land use

– Women’s access to land for homestead food

production

– Community opinions regarding women’s

capacity to produce and own or manage land

– Spill-over effect to non-beneficiary HH

BURKINA FASO RCT 2010-2012: IMPACT ON ASSETS

• Men continue to control large assets and own land-- Land ownership by women increased modestly (from 2% to 10%)

• Collaboration with ICRISAT & Institut d’Economie Rurale

• Links research stations to smallholders with nutrition objectives

– Identify acceptable Fe- and ZN-rich varieties of sorghum & millet

– Promote women’s production, processing to increase bioavailability (malting,

fermenting), nutrition knowledge, recipes for complementary foods, support for

local value added and marketing

• Enhancing women’s traditional roles

– Conduct participatory research with women on improved varieties

– Helping women market improved seeds as well as packaged fortified

complementary food product for children 6-23 months

MALI BIOFORTIFICATION PROJECT:

Photo © HKI / George Pigdor

CONCLUSIONS

• EHFP and other nutrition-sensitive agriculture models that target

women for support make inroads on gender inequities, enhancing

improvements in food security, nutrition and health

• Income, assets, skills, nutrition knowledge & practice

• Status, respect, role definition, decision-making

• Gradual rather than radical change

• HKI’s sustained experience in each setting informs culturally

adapted strategies that work incrementally

• Gender equity third pillar with nutrition & agriculture (CHANGE)

• Model continually evolving and building on evidence base and local needs

• Partnerships and participatory models are fundamental

EMPOWERMENT ACHIEVEMENTS THROUGH EHFP

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR SUPPORT