Download or read book Empowerment in agricultural value chains Mixed methods evidence from the Philippines written by Hazel J. Malapit and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2019-10-30 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women’s participation and empowerment in value chains are goals that concern many development organizations, but there has been limited systematic, rigorous research to track these goals between and within value chains (VCs). We use the survey-based project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) to measure women’s and men’s empowerment in the abaca, coconut, seaweed, and swine VCs in the Philippines. Results show that most women and men in all four VCs are disempowered, but unlike in many other countries, Filipino women in this sample are generally as empowered as men. Pro-WEAI results suggest that respect within the household and attitudes about gender-based violence (GBV) are the largest sources of disempowerment for both women and men, followed by control over use of income and autonomy in income-related decisions. Excessive workload and lack of group membership are other important sources of disempowerment, with some variation across VCs and nodes along VCs. Across all four VCs, access to community programs is associated with higher women’s empowerment, and access to extension services and education are associated with higher men’s empowerment. Our results show that, despite the egalitarian gender norms in the Philippines, persistent gender stereotypes influence men’s and women’s empowerment and VC participation.

Download or read book Empowerment in Agricultural Value Chains written by Hazel J. Malapit and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Women s Empowerment and Nutrition written by Mara van den Bold and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many development programs that aim to alleviate poverty and improve investments in human capital consider women’s empowerment a key pathway by which to achieve impact and often target women as their main beneficiaries. Despite this, women’s empowerment dimensions are often not rigorously measured and are at times merely assumed. This paper starts by reflecting on the concept and measurement of women’s empowerment and then reviews some of the structural interventions that aim to influence underlying gender norms in society and eradicate gender discrimination. It then proceeds to review the evidence of the impact of three types of interventions—cash transfer programs, agricultural interventions, and microfinance programs—on women’s empowerment, nutrition, or both. Qualitative evidence on conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs generally points to positive impacts on women’s empowerment, although quantitative research findings are more heterogenous. CCT programs produce mixed results on long-term nutritional status, and very limited evidence exists of their impacts on micronutrient status. The little evidence available on unconditional cash transters (UCT) indicates mixed impacts on women’s empowerment and positive impacts on nutrition; however, recent reviews comparing CCT and UCT programs have found little difference in terms of their effects on stunting and they have found that conditionality is less important than other factors, such as access to healthcare and child age and sex. Evidence of cash transfer program impacts depending on the gender of the transfer recipient or on the conditionality is also mixed, although CCTs with non-health conditionalities seem to have negative impacts on nutritional status. The impacts of programs based on the gender of the transfer recipient show mixed results, but almost no experimental evidence exists of testing gender-differentiated impacts of a single program. Agricultural interventions—specifically home gardening and dairy projects—show mixed impacts on women’s empowerment measures such as time, workload, and control over income; but they demonstrate very little impact on nutrition. Implementation modalities are shown to determine differential impacts in terms of empowerment and nutrition outcomes. With regard to the impact of microfinance on women’s empowerment, evidence is also mixed, although more recent reviews do not find any impact on women’s empowerment. The impact of microfinance on nutritional status is mixed, with no evidence of impact on micronutrient status. Across all three types of programs (cash transfer programs, agricultural interventions, and microfinance programs), very little evidence exists on pathways of impact, and evidence is often biased toward a particular region. The paper ends with a discussion of the findings and remaining evidence gaps and an outline of recommendations for research.

Download or read book Gender crop diversification and nutrition in irrigation catchment areas in the central dry zones in Myanmar Implications for agricultural development support written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-07-08 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report describes the baseline data collected from 1,835 men and women respondents in 998 households in two irrigation sites in the central dry zone in Myanmar to help diagnose, design, and test interventions to enhance the Myanmar Agricultural Development Support Project’s impacts on gender equality and nutrition. Baseline data show large gender gaps, in which fewer women than men achieved adequacy in all 11 indicators of empowerment. Eighty-nine percent of women versus 64 percent of men respondents were not empowered, and 66 percent of dual-adult households have gender gaps. The main contributors of disempowerment among women were high tolerance and acceptance of intimate partner violence, lack of work balance, and low membership in groups, especially influential groups. Although 95 percent of respondents owned smartphones, women were less likely than men to access Internet or social media through their phones. Thirty-nine percent of respondents received rice-related information and half received health-related information. Nine to 14 percent of respondents attended agriculture- or health-related training courses. Women were significantly less likely to receive agriculture and nutrition-related information and training than men. The dietary diversity score, a common indicator of diet quality and a good proxy for nutrition, is low in the sample. The individual dietary diversity score was 4.32, with no significant difference between women and men and no major differences between irrigation water users and other households. Dairy, nuts and seeds, eggs, vitamin-A-rich fruits and vegetables, and other fruits are not commonly or frequently consumed by a majority of respondents. Beans and dark leafy vegetables, which are relatively abundant in the study context, are consumed by only 38–48 percent of the respondents on a daily basis. Nutrition education highlighting dietary diversity can help the sample communities achieve better nutrition. Overall, most women and men in the sample communities employ good sanitation practices, but more people need to be sensitized on proper garbage disposal, drinking water treatment, and proper and more frequent handwashing.

Download or read book Gender gaps in agricultural growth and development Opportunities for improving gender responsive programming written by Blackmore, Ivy and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2022-05-11 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In addition to identifying gender gaps and other challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurship in agricultural growth and development, this brief focuses on potential for improvement in the key areas of (1) seed systems, (2) finance and market access, and (3) production and value chains. While gender norms and challenges are inherently context-specific, the underlying intention of this evidence brief is to provide an overview of research findings from low- and middle-income countries, to address key questions and challenges that can be generalized across contexts, and to offer suggestions of promising approaches and best practices.

Download or read book Technology and Women s Empowerment written by Ewa Lechman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-08 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The near-ubiquitous spread of ICT offers unprecedented opportunities for social and economic agents, reshapes social and economic structures and drives the emergence of socioeconomic networks. This book contributes to the growing body of literature and present state of knowledge, offering the reader broad evidence on how new information and communication technologies impact women’s economic and social empowerment and hence have an impact on overall welfare creation. More specifically, it concentrates on demonstrating how ICT may become "empowering technologies" through their implementation. The book is designed to provide deep insight into the theoretical and empirical evidence on ICT as a significant driver of women`s social and economic development. Special focus is given to examining the following broad topics: channels of ICT impact on women's development; the role of ICT in enhancing women's active participation in formal labor markets; examples of how ICT encourages education, skills development, institutions development et alia, and thus contributes to women’s social and economic empowerment, as well as case-based evidence on ICT's role in fostering women’s equality. The primary audience for the book will be scholars and academic professionals from a wide variety of disciplines but mainly those who are concerned with addressing the issues of economic development and growth, social development, the role of technology progress in the context of broadly defined socioeconomic progress. Chapters 1 and 3 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Download or read book 2020 Global food policy report Building inclusive food systems written by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-04-06 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food systems are at a critical juncture—they are evolving quickly to meet growing and changing demand but are not serving everyone’s needs. Building more inclusive food systems can bring a wide range of economic and development benefits to all people, especially the poor and disadvantaged. IFPRI’s 2020 Global Food Policy Report examines the policies and investments and the growing range of tools and technologies that can promote inclusion. Chapters examine the imperative of inclusion, challenges faced by smallholders, youth, women, and conflict-affected people, and the opportunities offered by expanding agrifood value chains and national food system transformations. Critical questions addressed include: How can inclusive food systems help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and malnutrition? \What can be done to strengthen the midstream of food value chains to improve rural access to jobs, markets, and services? Will Africa’s food systems generate sufficient jobs for the growing youth population? How can women be empowered within food system processes, from household decisions to policymaking? Can refugees and other conflict-affected people be integrated into food systems to help them rebuild their lives? How can national food system transformations contribute to greater dietary diversity, food safety, and food quality for all? Regional sections look at how inclusion can be improved around the world in 2020 and beyond. The report also presents interesting trends revealed by IFPRI’s food policy indicators and datasets.

Download or read book Impact of Women in Food and Agricultural Development written by Sadiq, Sanusi Mohammed and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2024-08-09 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the field of global agricultural development, the unequal recognition and acknowledgment of women's indispensable role in shaping the sector has become a pressing concern. While women have long been the backbone of agricultural progress, their multifaceted contributions often remain overlooked, hindering the pursuit of sustainable and equitable solutions in an ever-evolving world. As we confront the pressing need for inclusivity and resilience in agriculture, it becomes important to examine and celebrate the transformative influence of women. Impact of Women in Food and Agricultural Development serves as an illuminating exploration, delving into the uncharted roles that women play, from tilling the soil to navigating complex supply chains, and championing sustainable practices. It is a compelling response to the urgent call for recognizing and addressing the challenges faced by women in this crucial sector. Impact of Women in Food and Agricultural Development endeavors to shed light on the challenges women face, the triumphs they achieve, and the profound changes they instigate within the agricultural sector. Drawing on a rich tapestry of stories, data, and expert insights, this book seeks to provide a deep understanding of how women contribute to and are impacted by global agricultural development. As we navigate an era marked by climate uncertainties, technological advancements, and the urgent need for sustainable practices, understanding the dynamic role of women in agriculture is not just an academic pursuit but a crucial step towards building a more resilient and equitable future. Through the lens of this book, we embark on a journey that illuminates the untold stories of women who, against various odds, have become catalysts for change, shaping the present and future of food and agricultural development.

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture written by Carolyn E. Sachs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-28 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture covers major theoretical issues as well as critical empirical shifts in gender and agriculture. Gender relations in agriculture are shifting in most regions of the world with changes in the structure of agriculture, the organization of production, international restructuring of value chains, climate change, the global pandemic, and national and multinational policy changes. This book provides a cutting-edge assessment of the field of gender and agriculture, with contributions from both leading scholars and up-and-coming academics as well as policymakers and practitioners. The handbook is organized into four parts: part 1, institutions, markets, and policies; part 2, land, labor, and agrarian transformations; part 3, knowledge, methods, and access to information; and part 4, farming people and identities. The last chapter is an epilogue from many of the contributors focusing on gender, agriculture, and shifting food systems during the coronavirus pandemic. The chapters address both historical subjects as well as ground-breaking work on gender and agriculture, which will help to chart the future of the field. The handbook has an international focus with contributions examining issues at both the global and local levels with contributors from across the world. With contributions from leading academics, policymakers, and practitioners, and with a global outlook, the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture is an essential reference volume for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in gender and agriculture. Chapter 13 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Download or read book Empowering and Advancing Women Leaders and Entrepreneurs written by Haoucha, Malika and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2024-05-31 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women living in rural regions today still often struggle to harness the full potential of mobile internet for their economic empowerment, despite a rapidly evolving digital landscape. This limitation hinders their ability to engage in online selling, job searching, and accessing public services, thereby constraining potential economic opportunities. The powerful research book, Empowering and Advancing Women Leaders and Entrepreneurs, presents a comprehensive analysis of the impact of mobile internet on gender-inclusive economic empowerment, offering innovative solutions to enhance rural entrepreneur’s digital skills and knowledge. The underrepresentation of women in leadership roles globally must be addressed to advance gender equity. This book examines the systemic barriers, including stereotypes and biases, that impede women's advancement in leadership positions. By proposing coordinated solutions involving corporations, governments, and civil society, such as allyship building and policy reforms, the book aims to reduce gender gaps in leadership and foster a more inclusive society. Through its insightful analysis and practical recommendations, this book is a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to promote gender equality and inclusive development, and underscores the necessity of their roles for this initiative.

Download or read book Asian Development Outlook 2021 Update written by Asian Development Bank and published by Asian Development Bank. This book was released on 2021-09-01 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renewed COVID-19 outbreaks and uneven vaccination progress are prolonging the fight against the disease in developing Asia. This is contributing to a divergence in growth paths in the region that is partly being determined by the progress on tackling COVID-19. Asian Development Outlook 2021 Update raises regional growth forecasts for East Asia and Central Asia, and revises them down for South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. The main risks to the region's economic prospects still center on the pandemic, particularly the emergence of new variants, lagging vaccine rollouts, and waning vaccine effectiveness. As economies recover from the pandemic, the threats of climate change will take center stage again. Sustainable food production and agricultural systems that are resilient to climate change will be crucial for developing Asia. To transform agriculture in the region, its economies must tackle challenges from changing consumer demand, changing demographics, and a changing and more fragile environment.

Download or read book Conceptualizing women s empowerment in agrifood systems governance A new framework written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2023-01-03 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Does market inclusion empower women Evidence from Bangladesh written by Raghunathan, Kalyani and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-03-17 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increased market inclusion through participation in agricultural value chains may increase employment and household incomes, but evidence on its empowerment impacts is mixed. In societies with restrictive social norms, greater market inclusion can enhance existing income and empowerment inequalities by relegating marginalized groups, including women, to low value chains or lower value nodes within those chains. We use primary data from rural Bangladesh to investigate the associations between households’ primary economic activity – agricultural wage-earning, production, or entrepreneurship – and absolute and relative levels of men’s and women’s empowerment. Women in producer households, on average, fare better on empowerment outcomes than women in wage-earner or entrepreneur households; the opposite is true for men. The gap between men’s and women’s empowerment scores is also lowest in producer households. A decomposition of these results into composite indicators yields insights into potential trade-offs, while accompanying qualitative work highlights the importance of social and cultural norms in shaping the economic roles women can adopt. With a push towards diversification of agriculture into higher value market-oriented crops, more careful programming is needed to ensure that market inclusion translates into an increase in women’s empowerment.

Download or read book It takes two Women s empowerment in agricultural value chains in Malawi written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-03-03 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inclusive agricultural value chains (VCs) are potential drivers for poverty reduction, food security, and women’s empowerment. This report assesses the implementation of the Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training for Women Program (ATVET4Women) that aims to support women with vocational training and market linkages in priority agricultural value chains. This report focuses on Malawi, one of the six pilot countries of the ATVET4Women; and focuses on vegetable value chains in which some non-formal training sessions have been conducted as of October 2019. This report presents (1) program experience of stakeholders; (2) evidence of program benefits and challenges among ATVET4Women non-formal training graduates; and (3) baseline data on value chain and empowerment indicators, using a pilot household survey-based instrument for measuring women’s empowerment in agricultural value chains (pro-WEAI for market inclusion) and supplementary qualitative research. Results show graduates’ satisfaction and appreciation of the training provided, and some graduates reported having access to more lucrative markets as a result of the training. However, positive changes in several outcome indicators were reported by only some graduates: 30 percent of graduates reported increased production and sales. There is no significant difference in the reported changes and levels of vegetable production and income between graduates and non-graduates. Qualitative findings suggest that constraints to accessing agricultural inputs and funds to upgrade their production may be why there are no measured differences. Results on empowerment status reveal that 73 percent of women and 85 percent of men in the sample are empowered, and 73 percent of the sample households achieved gender parity. The main contributor of disempowerment among women and men is lack of work balance and autonomy in income. Fewer women achieved adequacy in work balance than men. Adequacies in attitudes about domestic violence, respect among household members, input in productive decisions, and asset ownership are generally high for both women and men, but significantly lower for women. While this report is mainly descriptive and further analysis is ongoing, it offers some lessons and practical implications for improving ATVET4Women program implementation and its outcomes on women’s market access, incomes, and empowerment.

Download or read book Measuring empowerment across the value chain The evolution of the project level Women s Empowerment Index for Market Inclusion pro WEAI MI written by Malapit, Hazel J. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2023-03-09 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development How much can Africa learn from Asia written by Diao, Xinshen, ed. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

Download or read book Challenging Chains to Change written by Anna Laven and published by Kit Pub. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Very often, efforts to improve value chains miss out half of the population - the female half. It is men who sell the products and who keep the money from those sales. The women, who do much of the work but are not recognized for it, often have to work even harder to meet ever-increasing quality requirements. But they see few of the benefits. How to change this? This book explains how development organizations and private entrepreneurs have found ways to improve the position of women in value chains - especially small scale women farmers and primary processors. It outlines five broad strategies for doing this: (1) working with women on typical "women's products" such as shea, poultry and dairy; (2) opening up opportunities for women to work on what are traditionally "men's commodities" or in men's domains; (3) supporting women and men in organizing for change by building capacity, organization, sensitization and access to finance; (4) using standards and certification to promote gender equity, and (5) promoting gender-responsible business. The book draws on dozens of cases from all over the world, covering a wide range of crops and livestock products. These include traditional subsistence products (such as rice), small-scale cash items (honey, vegetables) as well as export commodities (artichokes, coffee) and biofuels (jatropha). The book includes a range of tools and methodologies for analyzing and developing value chains with gender in mind. By bringing together the two fields of gender and value chains, this book offers a set of compelling arguments for addressing gender in value chain development.