Women's empowerment as pathway to food security and productivity

1. Women’s Empowerment as Pathway to Food
Security and Productivity
Dr. Pranati Mohanraj
MEL Advisor, CARE USA
GENDER - JUST FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY IN
INDIA
AUGUST 29, 2016

2. Pathways Objectives and Program Countries
September 27, 2016
2
Objective 1: To increase
the productive engagement
of 50,000 poor women in
sustainable agriculture, and
contribute to their
empowerment
Objective 2: To enhance
the scale of high-quality,
women-responsive
agriculture programming
Objective 3: To
contribute to the global
discourse that surrounds
women and agriculture
70%
20%
10%

3. Program Objectives and Theory of Change

4. Nurturing collectives for livelihoods capacities and
social change
Group Maturity
Categories:
•Category A - Prepared
to graduate. Adopted 80
% of the practices.
•Category B – Performing
well. Adopted 50-80 % of
the practices.
•Category C – Lagging
behind . Adopted 25 – 50
% of the practices.
•Category D – Failing to
adopt key (0 – 25%) or
very newly recruited.
Impact and target groups, members and
outreach, 2015
India
Number of groups by type:
Self Help Groups 591
Farmers Club 22
Co-operatives 3
Forests Right Committee 71
Forest Protection Committee 22
Water Users Association 18
Watershed Committee 25
Total number of groups 752
Total number of women farmers and other target
group reached by type:
Women smallholder farmers 13,006
Men and Boys (e.g. spouses) 40,000
Elites including traditional leaders 150

5. Pathways interventions
The Farmer Field and
Business School
Sustainable agriculture
Market engagement
Nutrition
Gender & empowerment
Group Strengthening
P-MLE
Seasonal Planning
Toolkit
Community Based Trainers
Agency & Skills
Changing the behaviors,
practices and beliefs of:
Men, boys and power holders
Input suppliers, traders, financiers
Government officials, policy
makers
Women as viable farmers,
market actors, leaders
Challenging underlying social
norms & practices
Access to productive resources
Structures & Relations

6. Measuring change
Impact Measures - Baseline and
endline:
Coping Strategies Index
Household Dietary Diversity Score
 Intra-household food access
(women’s access)
HH asset index (and intra-household
control)
Monthly per capita hh income
(disaggregated by earner)
Household expenditures
Women’s Empowerment Index
(WEI)
Annual Review Studies:
•Productivity
•Market access
•Income and expenditures
•Decision-making
•Gender attitudes
Mid-term evaluation:
•Men’s engagement
•Intra-household change
•Social norm change
Participatory Performance Tracker
(PPT):
•Adoption of practices
•Group maturity

7. Results: Food and nutrition security & coping
strategies
Significant improvements in food and nutrition security:
- Mean HH dietary diversity score improved from 4.1 to 5.4
- Women's intra-hh food access increased to 5.3 from 3.9
Coping strategies
-HHs adapting at least one strategy to reduce impact of
future shocks increased to 94.8% from 56.5%
Adaptation strategies % of households
BL EL
Accessed additional land 2.3 28.8
Changed crops 22.1 57.6
Invested in irrigation infrastructure 5.8 41.5
Diversified income generating activities 18.2 38.3
Purchased additional livestock 8.3 22.6
Invested in savings 44 72.7
Invested in animal health care* - 29.5
Improved drainage or constructed dams or
dykes*
- 26.2
Stored food for future use* - 30.1
Reinforced housing* - 3.7

8. • % of HHs with women earning income
from agricultural production tripled to
84.8% from 31.8%
Results: Increased Productivity
September 27, 2016
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9. Results: Access to Productive Resources
9
 Extension services
 Increased more than three times - 89% at
endline compared to 23.8% at BL
 Inputs- Quality seed, and
equipment
 Rose to 89% at endline from 37% at BL
 Improved technology - Improved
varieties, post-harvest mgt
 Market info & business support
services
 MRCs & women membership

10. Results: Women’s Empowerment
September 27, 2016
10
Women's empowerment index (WEI)
% of women achieving empowerment (.80 or greater)
BL EL
All households 4.7 10.7
Female HHHs 16.2 42.9
Male HHHs 1.2 3.7
Women’s empowerment score (mean)
All households 0.47 0.53
Female HHHs 0.61 0.75
Male HHHs 0.16 0.16
Women in focus groups nearly universally describe
themselves as more empowered economically and
socially within their households and community

11. Results: Women’s Empowerment
September 27, 2016
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Domain Indicator % of women achieving
BL EL
Production Decision-making input for hh productive decision 78.4 89.9
Autonomy in one or more hh production domains 14.6 26.7
Resources Sole or joint ownership of at least 50% of hh assets 45.1 67.5
Sole/joint control over purchase/sale of hh assets 29.3 54.3
Access to and decisions on credit 44.7 49.7
Income Control over hh income & expenditures 56.2 48.8
Leadership Participating in formal and informal groups 90.5 99.1
Confident speaking about gender & com. issues 60.8 74.9
Demonstrating political participation 50.1 68.0
Express self-confidence 41.4 48.7
Autonomy Satisfied with time available for leisure activities 89.2 85.8
Achieving a mobility score of 16 or greater 20.0 33.3
Expressing attitudes supporting gender equitable
roles
45.9 48.7

12. September 27, 2016
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“Earlier we used to think
women are just for
cooking and taking care
of children; now their
roles and responsibilities
have changed.”
- Men FG, Taldanaju
“These days, because of the
SHG, women know rates of our
produce and we always seek
their suggestion before selling
so that we get the best price.”
- Men FG, Taldanaju
“Previously women didn’t have
courage to speak to their
husbands about household work.
We were not supported in any
way even when we were having
babies. Recently husbands are
supporting wives like cooking
and taking care of children.”
- SHG members, Dokedi
“Earlier women were
afraid of men. They
weren’t allowing women to
attend meetings. Now we
are taking decisions
together about cultivation,
income generation,
household purchases and
children’s education.”
- SHG Women, Dedar

13. Reflections: Role of SHG
• Vehicle for empowerment and being more productive
• Participation in SHG brought notable changes in women’s
lives:
- increased skills, confidence, and solidarity
- more confident speaking to husbands and voicing opinions
• Forms a network of support for women in the community
September 27, 2016
13
“My husband was not
allowing me to join the
group, SHG members
talked to him and made
him understand the
benefits of group
membership. Now he is
supportive of me attending
SHG meetings.”

14. Reflections
 Group participation and income generation is
key to enable positive changes
 SHG participation enables women to gain self-
confidence and take collective action on
social issues
 Sequencing & interconnectedness of
interventions
 Participatory Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation
 Quantitative & Qualitative Approaches
September 27, 2016
14
“Because we formed
a group, we feel
confident and
courageous to face
and overcome the
challenges .”

15. Research implications
• HH income appeared to be notoriously unreliable
indicator for measuring income
• Coping Strategy Index needs to be augmented to
incorporate recent improvements in resilience
measurement
• Difficult to attribute empowerment impacts to the
program directly in the absence of counterfactuals
• Concept of ‘jointness’ in decision making could be
misleading (discrepancy between quantitative and
qualitative findings)September 27, 2016
15

16. Thank you!
September 27, 2016
16
“I am producing more now and got more income this year because we sold
our produce as a group through collective marketing. There is more harmony
in my home these days, thanks to the increased income. It makes me happy
when my husband appreciates my contribution to the family.”…
“I am producing more now and got more income this year because we sold
our produce as a group through collective marketing. There is more harmony
in my home these days, thanks to the increased income. It makes me happy
when my husband appreciates my contribution to the family.”…