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Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI)

Non-PR, IFPRI1; DCA; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; G Cross-cutting gender theme; CRP2; CRP4, Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI); Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Innovation Policy and Scaling (IPS); Development Strategies and Governance (DSG); Transformation Strategies; Food and Nutrition Policy, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH); CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), Many development agencies design and implement interventions that aim to reach, benefit, and empower rural women across the value chain in activities ranging from production, to processing, to marketing. Determining whether and how such interventions empower women, as well as the constraints faced by different value chain actors, requires quantitative and qualitative tools. We describe how we adapted the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI), a mixed-methods tool for studying empowerment in development projects, to include aspects of agency relevant for multiple types of value chain actors. The resulting pro-WEAI for market inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI) includes quantitative and qualitative instruments developed over the course of four studies. Studies in the Philippines (2017), Bangladesh (2017), and Malawi (2019) were intended to diagnose areas of disempowerment to inform programming, whereas the Benin (2019) study was an impact assessment of an agricultural training program. The pro-WEAI+MI includes all indicators included in pro-WEAI, plus a dashboard of complementary indicators and recommended qualitative instruments. These tools investigate the empowerment of women in different value chains and nodes and identify barriers to market access and inclusion that may restrict empowerment for different value chain actors. Our findings highlight three lessons. First, the sampling strategy needs to be designed to capture the key actors in a value chain. Second, the market inclusion indicators cannot stand alone; they must be interpreted alongside the core pro-WEAI indicators. Third, not all market inclusion indicators will be relevant for all value chains and contexts. Users should research the experiences of women and men in the target value chains in the context of the programto select priority market inclusion indicators.

PR, 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; IFPRI4, Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI); Food and Nutrition Policy; Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategies, Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment in food systems can result in greater food security and better nutrition, as well as more just, resilient and sustainable food systems for all. This chapter uses a scoping review to assess the current evidence on pathways between gender equality, women’s empowerment and food systems. The chapter uses an adaptation of the food system framework to organize the evidence and identify where evidence is strong, and where gaps remain. Results show strong evidence on women’s differing access to resources, shaped and reinforced by contextual social gender norms, and on links between women’s empowerment and maternal education and important outcomes, such as nutrition and dietary diversity. However, evidence is limited on issues such as gender considerations in food systems for women in urban areas and in aquaculture value chains, best practices and effective pathways for engaging men in the process of women’s empowerment in food systems, and how to address issues related to migration, crises and indigenous food systems. While there are gender-informed evaluation studies examining the effectiveness of gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs, evidence indicating the long-term sustainability of such impacts remains limited. The chapter recommends key areas for investment: improving women’s leadership and decision-making in food systems, promoting equal and positive gender norms, improving access to resources, and building cross-contextual research evidence on gender and food systems.

PR, IFPRI3; ISI; G Cross-cutting gender theme; GAAP; CRP4, PHND; EPTD; A4NH, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), Time use, or how women and men allocate their time, is an important element of empowerment processes. To extend this area of study, this article proposes and explores the concept of time-use agency, which shifts the focus from the amount of time individuals spend on activities to the strategic choices they make about how to allocate their time. It draws on 92 semi-structured interviews from three qualitative studies in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria to explore and compare the salience of time-use agency as a component of empowerment. The article finds that time-use agency is salient among women and men and dictates how they can make and act upon strategic decisions related to how they allocate their time. It also finds that time-use agency is tied to other dimensions of agency beyond decision making and ways of exerting influence in the household. Its findings highlight that women's capacity to exercise time-use agency is conditional on gendered power dynamics and other barriers within households, which together are reciprocally related to local gender norms that dictate how women should spend their time.

Non-PR, IFPRI1; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; G Cross-cutting gender theme; women’s empowerment in agrifood governance (weagov), DSGD, This paper develops a new framework to measure and track women’s empowerment in governance of countries’ agrifood systems. All too often, women’s needs, priorities, and voices are missing from the policy process, even when women may be disproportionately affected by shocks or have distinct policy preferences. The Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood Systems Governance (WEAGov) is an assessment framework to help countries and stakeholders measure the extent of inclusion and leadership of women in agrifood systems governance and to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. WEAGov looks across three stages of the policy cycle: policy design, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. At each stage of the policy cycle, WEAGov asks three questions central to women’s empowerment in governance: Are women considered? Are women included? And are women influencing? This paper describes the process of conceptualizing and developing the WEAGov assessment framework by drawing together evidence, experience, and lessons from the literature and from over 30 stakeholder consultations across several countries and sectors to develop a practical and theoretically grounded framework.

PR, IFPRI3; G Cross-cutting gender theme; ISI, EPTD; PHND

Non-PR, IFPRI5; UNFSS; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; G Cross-cutting gender them; CRP2; CRP4, AFR; EPTD; PHND; PIM; A4NH, 28 pages, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH); CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment in food systems can result in greater food security and better nutrition, and in more just, resilient, and sustainable food systems for all. This paper uses a scoping review to assess the current evidence on pathways between gender equality, women’s empowerment, and food systems. The paper uses an adaptation of the food systems framework to organize the evidence and identify where evidence is strong, and where gaps remain. Results show strong evidence on women’s differing access to resources, shaped and reinforced by contextual social gender norms, and on links between women’s empowerment and maternal education and important outcomes, such as nutrition and dietary diversity. However, evidence is limited on issues such as gender considerations in food systems for women in urban areas and in aquaculture value chains, best practices and effective pathways for engaging men in the process of women’s empowerment in food systems, and for addressing issues related to migration, crises, and indigenous food systems. And while there are gender informed evaluation studies that examine the effectiveness of gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs, evidence to indicate the long-term sustainability of such impacts remains limited. The paper recommends keys areas for investment: improving women’s leadership and decision-making in food systems, promoting equal and positive gender norms, improving access to resources, and building cross-contextual research evidence on gender and food systems.

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP4; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; G Cross-cutting gender theme; Capacity Strengthening; GAAP, EPTD; PHND; A4NH, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), Time use, or how women and men allocate their time, is an important aspect of empowerment. To build on this area of study, we propose and explore the concept of time-use agency in this paper, which shifts the focus from the amount of time spent on activities to the strategic choices that are made regarding how to allocate time. We draw on 92 interviews from qualitative studies in Benin, Malawi, and Nigeria to explore across contexts the salience of time-use agency as a component of women’s empowerment. Our results indicate that time-use agency is salient among both women and men and dictates how women and men are able to make and act upon strategic decisions related how they allocate their time. Our findings suggest that time-use agency is important for fully understanding empowerment with respect to time use. Importantly, this study highlights the gendered dynamics and barriers women face in exercising their time-use agency. These barriers are tied to and conditioned by social norms dictating how women should spend their time. Women often make tradeoffs throughout any given day with respect to their time, balancing their expected priorities with the barriers or limitations they face in being able to spend any additional time on tasks or activities that further their own strategic goals. Additionally, these results on time-use agency echo similar themes in the literature on gendered divisions of labor, time poverty, and decision-making, but also add new subtleties to this work. For example, we find that women can easily adjust their schedules but must carefully navigate relationships with husbands to be able to attend trainings or take on new income generating activities, results that align with previous findings that women consistently have higher involvement in small decisions compared to large ones. While these themes have been observed previously in studies of women’s empowerment, to our knowledge, our study is the first to connect them to time use and time-use

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP4; GAAP; Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index; G Cross-cutting gender theme; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; Capacity Strengthening, PHND; A4NH, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), This study presents qualitative findings from an assessment conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute and Cultural Practice, LLC of the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) Agricultural Technical Vocational Education and Training program for women (ATVET4Women) in Benin, supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). ATVET4Women in Benin targets women working in value chains for four target commodities (soy, rice, chicken, and compost) to support capacity building in their respective nodes (production, processing, and marketing). The contributions of this study are multifold. First, it assesses program experiences and impacts. Second, it examines the gender dimensions of production, processing, and marketing activities in four specific value chains. Third, this research is a component of a broader study to adapt and validate the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index for market inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI) on key agricultural value chains in Benin and Malawi for ATVET4Women. This study employed multiple qualitative methods to assess beneficiaries’ program experiences and impacts. Fifteen key informant interviews were conducted with various actors along the value chain and agro-processing center managers involved in ATVET4Women. Thirty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with women beneficiaries of ATVET4Women, husbands of beneficiaries, women that were involved in the value chain but did not participate in ATVET4Women, and ATVET4Women trainers. Structured observations were conducted of five ATVET4Women training centers. In general, women beneficiaries and their husbands shared positive reviews of ATVET4Women in that the program increased women’s confidence in their abilities and taught women best practices for producing and selling higher quality products, generating higher incomes for women. Women noted several challenges and barriers to par

Non-PR, IFPRI1; Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index; CRP4; Capacity Strengthening; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; G Cross-cutting gender theme, A4NH; EPTD; PHND, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), Cette étude comprend les résultats de la collaboration entre l’Institut International de Recherche sur les Politiques Alimentaires (IFPRI) et l’Agence d’exécution de l’Union Africaine du Nouveau Partenariat pour le Développement de l'Afrique (AUDA-NEPAD) avec le soutien du Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Les objectifs communs du projet étaient, en premier lieu, de développer l’Indice d’Autonomisation des Femmes dans l’Agriculture au Niveau Projet pour les Filières Agro-alimentaires (pro-WEAI+MI) 1 pour mesurer les changements dans l’autonomisation des femmes participantes et d’adapter l’outil au contexte africain (projet au Malawi), et, ensuite, d’évaluer le programme d’EFTPA pour les femmes au Bénin.

Non-PR, IFPRI1; SELEVER; CRP4; GAAP; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; G Cross-cutting gender theme; DCA; Capacity Strengthening, PHND; A4NH, CGIAR Research Programs on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), The SELEVER study is a five-year impact evaluation designed to address key knowledge gaps on the impact of a poultry value chain intervention on the diets, health, and nutritional status of women and children in Burkina Faso. This report uses qualitative methods to examine gendered participation in poultry value chains, the gendered opportunities and barriers experienced in poultry value chains, and the SELEVER program’s impact on these factors. A previous report (Eissler et al., 2020) based on the same fieldwork covered questions relating to local understandings of empowerment and dynamics of household food production and allocation. Six villages across five provinces were purposively selected for this study. Data were collected using multiple qualitative methods. In each village, we conducted four sex-disaggregated focus group discussions and semi-structured individual interviews with a man and a woman from two different households. Sex-disaggregated seasonal calendars were created for half of the villages. Interviews were also conducted with project service providers in each community, including group leaders (n=13), voluntary vaccinators (n=10), and poultry traders (n=6). A mix of inductive and deductive coding guided the thematic analysis of the data. The results indicate that while women in the study areas do engage in agricultural labor and various income-generating activities, they must prioritize their domestic responsibilities. Men are primarily responsible for providing staple food ingredients (e.g. grains or meat) for household consumption and earning the primary income, which often requires them to engage in seasonal migration. Men are increasingly aware of women’s time and unpaid labor burdens, and have started sharing in these tasks, a shift in which participants attribute to SELEVER. Additionally, we find that SELEVER has increased women’s capacity and opportunity to engage in poultry value chain activities while reducing barriers to their participat

Non-PR, IFPRI1; DCA; CRP4; GAAP; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; G Cross-cutting gender theme; SELEVER; UNFSS, PHND; A4NH, CGIAR Research Programs on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), The SELEVER study is a five-year impact evaluation designed to address key knowledge gaps on the impact of a poultry value chain intervention on the diets, health, and nutritional status of women and children in Burkina Faso. This report qualitatively examines the SELEVER program’s impact on women’s empowerment and intra-household gender dynamics in relation to food production and allocation, as well as control and use over poultry resources in the study areas. Six villages across five provinces were purposively selected for this study. Data were collected using multiple qualitative methods. In each village, we conducted four sex-disaggregated focus group discussions, and semi-structured individual interviews were held with a man and a woman from two different households. Sex-disaggregated seasonal calendars were created for half of the villages. Interviews were also conducted with project service providers in each community, including group leaders (n=13), voluntary vaccinators (n=10), and poultry traders (n=6). A mix of inductive and deductive thematic coding guided the analysis of the data. Men and women participants described an empowered woman in terms of her confidence, how she spent her time, financial capacity, and freedom of movement. SELEVER beneficiaries illuminated how gender norms were shifting related to household activities and women’s empowerment, such that young boys are now washing dishes and women earn additional incomes from raising her own poultry. Yet results suggest that women’s empowerment may threaten men and their masculinity, an important tension of which SELEVER and other projects should be cognizant. Participants perceived that while SELEVER has increased women’s access to the necessary resources and capacity to raise quality poultry, and their incomes, women still lack full latitude to make decisions around when to sell or kill their bird. Instead they must rely on their husbands’ permission. Beneficiaries are more aware of the benefits

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP4; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; Capacity Strengthening; DCA; SELEVER, PHND; A4NH, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), The SELEVER study is a five-year impact evaluation in Burkina Faso designed to address key knowledge gaps on the impact of poultry value chain interventions on the diets, health and nutritional status of women and children.