In between rights and power: Women’s land rights and the gendered politics of land ownership, use, and management in Mexican ejidos

The monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of agricultural projects for their impact on household food insecurity and nutrition is important, given the paucity of data documenting successes and failures in such projects, and because of the need to rapidly address possible adverse effects in such projects. Recognizing, however, the lack of capacity and/or reluctance of some agriculture project managers and planners to incorporate nutrition in their management information systems, a feasible alternative approach is needed, one capable of meeting agriculture-nutrition M&E objectives without encumbering project managers. To help overcome this, external teams of skilled individuals could carry out M&E for food security and nutrition. Baseline and monitoring data should indicate (a) the extent to which households and individuals within households have been reached by the project, (b) household food insecurity levels, dietary quality, and/or market-level indicators of food availability and prices, (c) women’s empowerment, (d) the health and sanitation environment, and (e) where appropriate, nutritional status. Additional data of primary interest to project managers also would be collected. Although ownership of nutrition issues in the field of agriculture is desirable in the long term, this approach offers a short-term means of assessing and learning from the nutrition effects of these agriculture projects in the immediate term. This is particularly important in the current environment of increasing interest in improving nutrition impact from such projects.

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A collaborative approach to Monitoring and Evaluating the Impact of Agricultural Projects on Nutrition

Validation of the 24-hour perceived exertion recall survey (PERS) in women in rural Tigray, Ethiopia

The burdens of participation: A mixed-methods study of the effects of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture program on women’s time use in Malawi

Why do aspirations matter for empowerment?: Discrepancies between the A-WEAI domains and aspirations of ethnic minority women in Vietnam

Women’s empowerment and gender equality in South Asian agriculture: Measuring progress using the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) in Bangladesh and India

Abstract Using the lens of the theory of induced innovation, we reflect on the development of metrics for women’s empowerment and gender equality. The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), launched in 2012, was used to monitor women’s inclusion in agricultural sector growth. Demand by WEAI users and the supply of tools and methods from researchers shaped the ongoing evolution of the tool to a shorter version and to another that reflected what agricultural development projects deemed meaningful to judge project success. Eventual modifications reflected user demand: a greater interest in market inclusion and value chains stimulated the development of specialized modules for market inclusion. WEAI-related metrics have demonstrated the importance of women’s empowerment for development outcomes, helping governments and civil society organizations design and implement gender-sensitive agricultural development programs. Finally, the adoption of SDG5 on women’s empowerment and gender equality created a demand for a measure of women’s empowerment for use by national statistical systems. Whether such a metric will be adopted globally will depend on the demand from, and utility to, stakeholders as well as existing capacity, capacity-building efforts, a belief in the intrinsic value of women’s empowerment, and the commitment of resources to attaining this goal. 

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Peter J. Forshaw

Papers

Women’s empowerment and gender equality in South Asian agriculture: Measuring progress using the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) in Bangladesh and India

Women’s empowerment and gender equality in South Asian agriculture: Measuring progress using the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) in Bangladesh and India

Measuring Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Through the Lens of Induced Innovation