Agnes Quisumbing SPECIAL EVENT A Decade of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI): Lessons from Using Empowerment Metrics Co-Organized by IFPRI, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) FEB 16, 2022 - 9:30 TO 11:00AM EST

1. The Evolution of WEAI and
Evidence Generated:
Lessons learned and future directions
Agnes Quisumbing
Senior Research Fellow
IFPRI

2. What is the Women’s Empowerment in
Agriculture Index?
The Genesis
▪ Developed by USAID, IFPRI & OPHI in
2012
▪ Measures inclusion of women in the
agricultural sector
▪ Survey-based – interviews men and
women in the same household
▪ Designed to look at decision-making
and control over livelihoods, resources,
and income (both sole and joint),
mostly in agriculture, and in population-
based surveys

3. Quick refresher | How is the WEAI constructed?
Five domains of
empowerment
(5DE)
A direct measure of
women’s empowerment
in 5 dimensions
Gender parity
Index (GPI)
Women’s
achievement’s relative
to the primary male in
hh
Women’s
Empowerment
in Agriculture
Index
(WEAI)
WEAI is made up of two sub indices
All range from zero to one;
higher values = greater empowerment

4. A-WEAI (Abbreviated WEAI)
▪ 5 Domains
▪ 6 Indicators
WEAI
▪ 5 Domains
▪ 10 Indicators
Evolution of WEAI: A-WEAI
A-WEAI

5. Evolution of WEAI: pro-WEAI
▪ Demand for measuring impact of
projects on women’s
empowerment, including additional
aspects of empowerment
▪ Draws on qualitative research and
testing quantitative instruments
▪ Optional add-ons for nutrition,
livestock-oriented projects
▪ Tailoring and reorienting for
projects focusing on market
inclusion, not only primary
production

6. Measuring empowerment and the WEAI family
of indicators
WEAI A-WEAI Pro-WEAI
Core Health &
Nutrition
Livestock
Market
Inclusion
Optional add-on
modules
➔
i-WEAI
Integration into
existing large
survey, time-
use agency,
collective
agency
A-WEAI

7. Growing the WEAI Community

8. WEAI pilot
3 countries total
4 organizations total
2011
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

9. WEAI launched in Feed the Future Initiative countries
21 countries total
4 organizations total
2012
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
3 countries
4 orgs

10. A-WEAI launched
26 countries total
41 organizations total
2015
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
3 countries
4 orgs
21 countries
4 orgs

11. 2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
GAAP2 for pro-WEAI starts
ANGeL launched in Bangladesh
39 countries total
78 organizations total
2016
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
3 countries
4 orgs
21 countries
4 orgs
26 countries
41 orgs

12. 2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Pro-WEAI piloted in 9 countries by 13 projects
WEAI4VC piloted in Bangladesh, Philippines
47 countries total
91 organizations total
2017
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
3 countries
4 orgs
21 countries
4 orgs
26 countries
41 orgs
39 countries
78 orgs

13. Soft launch of pro-WEAI
50 countries total
122 organizations total
2018
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
3 countries
4 orgs
21 countries
4 orgs
26 countries
41 orgs
39 countries
78 orgs
47 countries
91 orgs

14. Pro-WEAI+MI piloted in Benin, Malawi
52 countries total
184 organizations total
2019
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
3 countries
4 orgs
21 countries
4 orgs
26 countries
41 orgs
39 countries
78 orgs
47 countries
91 orgs
50 countries
122 orgs

15. 2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Virtual consultations for WEMNS
54 countries total
200 organizations total
2020
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
3 countries
4 orgs
21 countries
4 orgs
26 countries
41 orgs
39 countries
78 orgs
47 countries
91 orgs
50 countries
122 orgs
52 countries
184 orgs

16. Phone surveys for WEMNS in Bangladesh, Malawi, Nepal
58 countries total
231 organizations total
2021
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
3 countries
4 orgs
21 countries
4 orgs
26 countries
41 orgs
39 countries
78 orgs
47 countries
91 orgs
50 countries
122 orgs
52 countries
184 orgs
54 countries
200 orgs

17. WEAI turns 10!
58 countries total
232 organizations total
2022
2011 2012 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
3 countries
4 orgs
21 countries
4 orgs
26 countries
41 orgs
39 countries
78 orgs
47 countries
91 orgs
50 countries
122 orgs
52 countries
184 orgs
58 countries
231 orgs
54 countries
200 orgs
10th
anniversary

18. 0
50
100
150
200
250
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Organizations
*As of January 2022
Organizational uptake of WEAI by year*

19. Lessons from a
decade of WEAI

20. ▪ Value of mixed methods
o WEAI drew on life histories and case
studies
o Pro-WEAI has qualitative protocols
that informed the choice of indicators
and interpretation of results
▪ Listening to people’s own
understandings and experiences of
empowerment is important
▪ Context is important—on its own and to
interpret quantitative findings
What have we learned from measuring
empowerment?

21. Empowerment, agricultural development, food
and nutrition
▪ Lower empowerment gaps between spouses associated with higher technical
efficiency in agricultural production in Bangladesh (Seymour 2017)
▪ Women’s empowerment associated with higher production diversity and
calorie availability in Bangladesh (Sraboni et al. 2014), better iron status for
women in India (Gupta et al. 2019)
▪ Women’s empowerment positively associated with her own dietary diversity
score in Kenya (Kassie et al. 2020), also enhances positive nutrition effect of
adoption of push-pull organic pest control system.

22. But tradeoffs may also exist
▪ In 6 countries, women’s empowerment
score positively associated only with
children’s long-term nutritional status
▪ Greater equality within the household
associated with a higher likelihood of
exclusive breastfeeding and children’s
long-term nutritional status but lower
women’s BMI (Quisumbing et al. 2020)
▪ Unpacking results suggests tradeoffs with
women’s time use and own nutritional
status
▪ Women who are more involved in
agriculture => higher workload, lower BMI

23. Can agricultural development projects empower women?
Lessons from pro-WEAI
▪ Even with empowerment objectives, many agricultural development projects
do not achieve significant impacts on empowerment indicators
▪ There is SOME correspondence between the types of strategies that have
impact and indicators of agency, but it is not exact
o Strategies increasing respect within the household for women, and
achieving work balance for both men and women may be effective
o Group-based strategies may end up reducing men’s participation in
groups
▪ Regional effects are important, and so are underlying gender norms

24. What can we learn from
successful projects?
▪ Successful projects:
o are intentional
o try to address underlying
gender norms
o often work through
women’s groups
o involve men and
influential household and
community members as
part of the solution

25. Towards a Women’s
Empowerment Metric
for National Statistical
Systems (WEMNS)
▪ Working with WB-LSMS and Emory University to develop a lean instrument for use in
nationally representative surveys
▪ Link women’s empowerment to other agricultural and development data, such as M&E
indicators for agricultural development projects
▪ Provide benchmarking for projects: how does their level of empowerment compare with
national average
▪ Candidate questions covered SDG 5 (women's empowerment and gender equality) and
other relevant SDGs
▪ Work-in-progress: Completed stakeholder consultations, pilot phone surveys and face-
to-face surveys ongoing => launch in 2023
▪ WEMNS will build on lessons from WEAI, but may look very different

26. Now let’s listen to
the voices of our
WEAI users!

27. ▪ USAID and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
o GIZ, IFAD, MCC, Walmart Foundation
o A4NH, PIM
▪ Fantastic IFPRI Team
▪ OPHI and all our partners in developing WEAI and pro-WEAI
o Our 13 partner projects in GAAP2: there is no pro-WEAI without the projects
o External Advisory Committee
Thanks

28. Enjoy the harvest
▪ WEAI Resource Center: https://weai.ifpri.info/
▪ Distance learning course:
https://www.ifpri.org/blog/now-available-project-
level-womens-empowerment-agriculture-index-
distance-learning-module
o Sign up:
http://elearning.foodsecurityportal.org/
o Foundations module in English [available]
o Foundations module in French [new]
o Foundations module in Arabic [to come]
o Foundations module in Spanish [to come]
Tool for “Choosing the right WEAI”
https://weai.ifpri.info/choosing-the-right-weai/