Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI):

Lessons for Water

Purpose of WEAI• Design, develop, and test an index to measure

the greater inclusion of women in agricultural sector growth that has occurred as a result of US Government intervention under the Feed the Future Initiative– To be used to assess the impact of Feed the

Future’s impact in 19 countries

• Possible applications to understand key areas for attention in designing programs or assess impact of NGO, other agricultural programs

What is new about the WEAI?• An aggregate index in two parts:

– Five domains of empowerment (5DE): assesses whether women are empowered in the 5 domains of empowerment in agriculture

– Gender Parity Index (GPI): reflects the percentage of women who are as empowered as the men in their households

• Survey-based index, not based on aggregate statistics or secondary data, constructed using interviews of the primary male and primary female adults in the same household– Piloted in Bangladesh, Uganda, Guatemala—comparable across

countries, with some adaptation

Five Domains of Women’s

Empowerment

in Agriculture

Case studies

Case studies consisted of interviews on five domains with narratives to explain answers, describe “life stories,” and get concepts of empowerment from men and women themselves

“Being empowered, it means that the woman can do things

too, not just the man”~ Woman, Guatemala aged 63

Who is empowered?

A woman who has achieved ‘adequacy’ in 80% or more of the weighted indicators is empowered

Gender Parity Index (GPI)Reflects two things:1. The percentage of women who enjoy gender parity. A

woman enjoys gender parity if – she is empowered or – if her empowerment score is equal to or greater than the

empowerment score of the primary male in her household.

2. The empowerment gap - the average percentage shortfall that a woman without parity experiences relative to the male in her household.

The GPI adapts the Foster Greer Thorbecke Poverty Gap measure to reflect gender parity.

Lilian, Uganda (Empowerment Score 83%)

Has parity with her husband Wilson

Seema is Disempowered (Empowerment Score = 64%)

She has not achieved parity with her husband

Bangladesh: How to increase empowerment?

Bangladesh: How to increase empowerment?

Contribution of each indicator to disempower-ment of women and men

Uganda: How to increase empowerment?

The WEAI can be used to: 1) Understand major areas of

disempowerment2) Show how to increase women’s

empowerment3) Track changes over time in He and

Ae

4) Monitor progress toward gender equality

Applications to Water• WEAI is quantitative, outcome indicator (may

need other qualitative process indicators, e.g. for AMCOW)

• Level of measurement: individual or community?

• Same or different domains of empowerment? • Gender parity: measure men as well as women?

5 Domains of Empowerment for Water?• Production: Involvement in different water-related activities/uses, and

decision-making related to each water use• Resources: Ownership and decisionmaking power over productive

resources (or focus on water-related infrastructure and water rights?)• Income: Sole or joint control over the use of income and expenditures

(how relevant for water?)• Leadership: Group membership (all or water user groups?), comfort in

speaking in public, feel able to make changes in water-related infrastructure or institutions?

• Time: productive and domestic tasks and satisfaction with the available time for leisure—very relevant for water, and may show value of improved domestic or garden uses, close to home