Building upon the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
This is a summary of the following paper: Heckert J, Martinez E, Seymour G et al (2022) Development and validation of a health and nutrition module for the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI+HN). Maternal & Child Nutrition. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mcn.13464
Improving gender equality and empowering women – who make up 49.58% of the global population, and whose agency has been impeded throughout much of human development – is a central component of the Sustainable Development Goals. Agricultural development projects readily target women by incorporating gender-sensitive objectives to address the underlying drivers of malnutrition. Great strides have been made in quantifying women’s empowerment within this field, as seen by the development of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) and the Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index, to name a few. Yet there remains no standardised measure of women’s empowerment focusing on nutritional outcomes that is also validated in multiple contexts. Without such data, it is not possible to determine how nutrition-sensitive agriculture programmes contribute to women’s empowerment.
In this paper, the researchers have developed a health and nutrition ‘module’ (questionnaire) for the project-level WEAI (pro-WEAI+HN) to measure health-related and nutrition-related agency. The study used data from six projects across two distinct regions: Bangladesh and Burkina Faso/Mali (n = 12,114). The module was designed to be administered to women participants and considered all three pillars of the food, health and care paradigm (nutritious foods, healthcare utilisation and caregiving practices, alongside agricultural production); key life stages (infancy, early childhood, and pregnancy and lactation); and animal-source food consumption (women often face barriers to accessing these nutrient-dense and often culturally valuable foods due to entrenched societal norms). Although integral components of a diverse diet, fruits and vegetables were not considered in the module as women do not face the same barriers when accessing this food group compared to animal-source foods.
The results highlighted seven indicators, covering a woman’s decision-making ability in the areas of her own health and diet; her health and diet during pregnancy; her child’s diet; breastfeeding and weaning; purchasing food and health products; and acquiring food and health products. The analysis indicated that this module (pro-WEAI+HN) measures aspects of decision-making that are distinct from the previously used questionnaire (core pro-WEAI), highlighting the increased value provided by this expanded methodology. This led the authors to conclude that uptake of these indicators when studying nutrition-sensitive agricultural development projects may in turn strengthen the evidence on how these programmes can enhance women’s empowerment. Such empowerment can then serve as a vehicle to improve health and nutrition outcomes for both women and their children.
A detailed breakdown of the methodology used by the researchers is beyond the scope of this summary (although this can be accessed via the link provided at the top of this review), although both the process and findings were robust, with a clear breakdown of study limitations included in the discussion. The findings can therefore be interpreted with a high degree of confidence.
More like this
FEX: Women’s empowerment through food security interventions: a secondary data analysis
By Elizabeth Hohenberger View this article as a pdf Elizabeth Hohenberger is a Master's student in International Agricultural Development at the University of California,...
NEX: Unlocking Zambia’s Agricultural Potential for Nutrition Development
William Chilufya William Chilufya is a civil society advocate with 9 years of experience in championing pro poor development in Zambia. He is leading the Zambia Civil Society...
FEX: Nutrition-sensitive agriculture: What have we learned and where do we go from here?
Summary of research1 Location: Global What we know: Agriculture has strong potential to improve nutrition outcomes through improving food availability and access and through...
FEX: The potential of nutrition-sensitive Conservation Agriculture: lessons from Zambia
By Anne Marie Mayer, Marjolein-Mwanamwenge and Carl Whal Anne Marie Mayer works as a freelance nutritionist specialising in the links between agriculture and nutrition. She...
FEX: Agri-health research: what have we learned and where to next?
The Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH) held its fifth annual research conference, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical...
NEX: Singing the same song: Nutrition-sensitive agriculture messages in Zambia
Bertha Munthali has worked for ten years on nutrition in agriculture in Africa, and is currently advisor for the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis...
FEX: Maternal Nutrition in Emergencies: technical review and round table discussion
By Emily Mates and Tanya Khara Emily Mates is a Technical Director with the ENN. Tanya Khara worked as an ENN consultant on the project. Through the INSPIRE consortium, the...
FEX: Nutrition-sensitive outcomes of a permaculture project in Nepal
View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici By Anne-Marie Mayer Anne Marie Mayer is a freelance nutritionist specialising in the links between...
FEX: A multi-sector approach to improve nutrition: Experiences of the Nutrition at the Center project, Bangladesh
View this article as a pdf Lisez cet article en français ici Click here to listen to an interview with the authors on the ENN podcast channel By Jahangir Hossain,...
FEX: Links between household agricultural production and nutrition
Summary of research1 Location: Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Nepal What we know: It is generally accepted that agricultural development will...
FEX: Effectiveness of programme approaches to improve the coverage of maternal nutrition interventions in South Asia
View this article as a pdf Summary of research1 The nutritional status of women before and during pregnancy and after delivery has far-reaching consequences for maternal...
FEX: Cost-benefit analysis of a kitchen-garden intervention in Pakistan
Summary of Research1 Save the Children. Cost-benefit analysis of the kitchen garden intervention: Women and children/infants improved nutrition in Sindh, Pakistan Report, July...
FEX: An evidence gap map: food systems interventions for nutrition and food security outcomes
View this article as a pdf Moore N, Lane C, Storhaug I, Franich A, Rolker H, Furgeson J et al (2021) 3ie Evidence gap map brief: The effects of food systems interventions on...
FEX: Livestock and nutrition: Summary of a discussion paper for the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards
View this article as a pdf By Kate Sadler Dr Kate Sadler is a public nutritionist with over 20 years of experience in the design, management, evaluation and research of...
FEX: Process learning: field testing a social and behaviour change guide for nutrition-sensitive agriculture
By Sarah Titus Sarah Titus is the food security and nutrition manager with Save the Children for USAID's global nutrition project, SPRING. She has a Masters of Law and...
FEX: Implementation challenges and successes of an AG4Nut project in the eastern region of Burkina Faso
By Marcellin Ouedraogo, Régina Khassanova and Fanny Yago-Wienne Lisez cet article en français ici Marcellin Ouedraogo has been in charge of food security...
FEX: Is reliable water access the solution to undernutrition?
Summary of research1 Location: Global What we know: Irrigation interventions have the potential to reduce undernutrition by impacting food security, nutrition and...
FEX: Improving women’s nutrition is imperative for the rapid reduction of childhood stunting in South Asia
View this article as a pdf Research Snapshot1 Maternal factors, both nutritional and non-nutritional, are a significant contributor to high rates of undernutrition in...
FEX: Developing guidance and capacities for nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems: lessons learnt, challenges and opportunities
By Charlotte Dufour Charlotte Dufour has worked as Food Security, Nutrition and Livelihoods Officer in the UN FAO's Nutrition Division in Rome since 2010, focusing on...
Resource: Women's nutrition: A summary of evidence, policy and practice including adolescent and maternal life stages
Please scroll down for links to download the Executive Summary (also available in French) and full report Lisez cet document d'information technique en français ici...
Reference this page
Building upon the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index. Field Exchange 69, May 2023. p33. www.ennonline.net/fex/69/building-upon-the-womens-empowerment-in-agriculture-index
(ENN_7626)