Womens Empowerment in Agriculture & Child Nutritional

Status in Rural Nepal: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Dr. Kenda Cunningham Nutrition Innovation Lab Symposium Kathmandu, Nov 2014

Government of Nepal Ministry of Health & Population

Outline

Conceptual framework Existing evidence Study objectives & design Measurement Results Conclusions

Source: Authors construction based on Care Framework from Engle, P. L., Menon, P., & Haddad, L. (1997). Care and Nutrition: Concepts and Measurement.

Conceptual Framework

PresenterPresentation NotesDeterminants of child nutritional status are diverse and interact in complex ways1997 Care Framework updated the 1990 UNICEF framework noting importance of maternal resources3 of 6 maternal resource domains are about womens empowerment (autonomy/control of resources; workload/time; and social support)Some empirical evidence does exist that these aspects of womens empowerment are important for child malnutrition in South Asia but studies are (limited in number and quality; focused on autonomy/control more than other aspects of WE; about women in HH but not about her as a producer; and inconsistently define and measure WE)

Existing Evidence Is there evidentiary support for womens empowerment as a

determinant of child nutritional status in South Asia? ew Era Literature Search:

Womens Empowerment: employment, authority, control, decision-making, power, leadership, autonomy Nutritional Status: 0-5y anthropometry Excluded: non-English, after 1990, grey literature Databases: 9 Results: 13 studies

Key Findings:

1. All + associations, but inconsistent definitions and measurement methods for empowerment 2. ZERO studies on time/workload 3. ZERO studies specific to rural/agricultural contexts 4. ZERO studies including more than 1 aspect of womens empowerment

PresenterPresentation NotesDeterminants of child nutritional status are diverse and interact in complex ways1997 Care Framework updated the 1990 UNICEF framework noting importance of maternal resources3 of 6 maternal resource domains are about womens empowerment (autonomy/control of resources; workload/time; and social support)Some empirical evidence does exist that these aspects of womens empowerment are important for child malnutrition in South Asia but studies are (limited in number and quality; focused on autonomy/control more than other aspects of WE; about women in HH but not about her as a producer; and inconsistently define and measure WE)

Objective: To examine the association of womens empowerment in agriculture and child (

Five domains of

empowerment (5DE)

Gender parity Index (GPI)

Womens Empowerment in Agriculture

Index (WEAI)

Source: USAID. OPHI. IFPRI. 2012. Womens Empowerment In Agriculture Index.

Measurement Tool: WEAI

PresenterPresentation NotesWEAI is an innovative new tool First index to directly capture womens empowerment in agriculture rather than proxies (e.g. income, education)Allows for cross-region or cross-country comparison because generates 1 number but also can be disaggregated into its component parts Shows whether there is an empowerment gap between women and men in the same household (both answer same empowerment questionnaire)

WEAI made up of 2 sub-indexes one of which is 90% of the full weight and is based on data collected from the mother --- called 5 Domains of Empowerment5 domains of empowerment further divided into 10 indicators Nested weighting structure of equal weights across domains and across indicators within each domainGenerates a 5DE variable based on whether the woman has met a cut-off of empowerment in 80% of the weighted domains and indicators and likewise a variable for each indicator on whether the woman has met a certain cut-off

Measurement Tool: 5DE

OLS Linear Regressions Primary outcome: child nutritional status

Child (

N Mean (SD) Length-for-age Z-score 1776 -1.42 (1.3)

Stunting Prevalence

32%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Results: Child (

Results: WEAI 5DE

PresenterPresentation NotesOrient listeners to different variablesNote that all are binary variables --- empowered or not in overall 5DE and each indicatorLess than 10% empowered in agriculture according to the 5DE indexEmpowerment in Indicators ranges from group membership at 21% to asset ownership at 85%Interesting that within 1 domain percents are drastically different ie production decisions vs autonomy or workload vs satisfaction with leisure

Note: * p < 0.05, **p < 0.001

WEAI 5DE Final Model

(N=1306) (95% CI)

Overall 0.19* (0.01, 0.36) Dimensions Input into productive decisions 0.11 (-0.07, 0.29) Autonomy in production decisions 0.10* (0.00, 0.20) Ownership of assets 0.00 (-0.34, 0.35) Right to purchase, sale, or transfer agricultural assets -0.02 (-0.16, 0.13) Access to and decision-making power regarding credit 0.19* (0.03, 0.34) Control over use of income 0.13 (-0.03, 0.29) Group membership 0.06 (-0.12, 0.24) Comfortable speaking in public 0.06 (-0.10, 0.23) Workload (

Conclusions Consistent with literature that womens

empowerment and child nutritional status are associated.

Results are exclusively about womens empowerment in agriculture but can be compared to other measures of womens empowerment.

Indicators are not monotonic: different aspects of womens empowerment in agriculture influence child nutritional status in different ways; some are and others arent associated; and also differs by nutritional outcome (results not shown).

THANK YOU!

Co-authors: Elaine Ferguson, LSHTM George Ploubidis, IoE Purnima Menon, IFPRI Suneetha Kadiyala, LSHTM Ricardo Uauy, LSHTM Marie Ruel, IFPRI

Collaborators: New Era USAID Suaahara

Government of Nepal Ministry of Health & Population

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