May 27, 2014 - FROM: CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network ... researchers to use these indicators to monitor pr
MEMO TO: CRP IDO Design Group FROM: CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network RE: Common Gender & Empowerment IDO DATE: May 27, 2014 Background Gender research experts in the CGIAR Gender and Agricultural Research Network, representing 15 CRPs, met in Cali, Colombia May 19-20th to make recommendations for a set of indicators and their measurement for the common Gender and Empowerment IDO, defined by the CRP-IDO working group as Increased control over resources and participation in decision-making by women and other marginalized groups. The CRP IDO Design Group previously invited and requested the Network to make recommendations for indicators for the Common Gender and Empowerment IDO. The workshop agenda did not include setting targets which first need to be defined by individual CRPs. Once all CRP targets are defined, the Network will recommend common targets. The workshop developed the Network’s recommendations for indicators for the common gender IDO and their measurement, presented in detail below. In addition the Network recommends CRP gender researchers to use these indicators to monitor progress towards change in women’s empowerment in major CRP target areas. Workshop participants agreed to collaborate in cross-CRP gender research and joint monitoring and evaluation to validate the indicators and assess the responsiveness of women’s empowerment to CGIAR innovations.1 This joint work also aims to focus CRP research agendas and communication about gender research on their progress in enhancing women’s empowerment in agriculture. Theory of change for the Common Gender & Empowerment IDO The new knowledge, technologies, practices, institutions and policies developed by the CGIAR and partners change the social and economic returns to key productive resources for agriculture (e.g. biodiversity, land, water, forests, livestock and fish, seeds, fertilizers, and machinery). These changes in the returns to productive resources alter the balance of power in gender relations causing change in the ways men and women control these resources and how they benefit from their use. Shifts in control over resources and their benefits contribute to and interact with changes in the accepted gender norms, rules and customs that regulate cooperation, conflict and the balance of power among men and women in farm households, communities and other institutions. Positive change women’s empowerment will help all the other IDOs reach their objectives: changes in empowerment can affect whether men or women want to adopt CGIAR innovations and how they share the resultant increases in production, food or income. Conversely, technological and institutional innovations that do not take into account their potential influence on gender norms and differences between men’s and women’s control over resources and benefits can lead to unanticipated harmful outcomes Recommended Indicators for the Gender and Empowerment IDO Indicator 1: Women’s control over resources. (a) Rationale: Control over productive resources such as land, water is crucial for agricultural production and NRM and for the wellbeing of individuals and households in rural areas, enabling people 1
The Network will commission a review paper to synthesize existing evidence on gendered changes in control over agricultural resources in the published and grey literature to ground the index and metrics in the latest research on this topic. 1
to pursue preferred livelihood strategies, manage risks, and cope with shocks. Control over resources is a central concept for the measurement of empowerment: control requires participation in decisionmaking; it depends on the balance of power among the parties to key resource-management decisions; and it is governed by social norms as well as formal institutional policies, procedures and the laws of a society. Control over a resource is distinct from access or rights to a resource which may confer the potential for control but do not indicate whether the producer or group is exercising access or rights to act in decisions about resource-allocation and use for farming and NRM. (b) Measurement: This indicator should be measured with an Index designed to compare men’s and women’s control over selected key agricultural resources: land, livestock water, forests, common property, seeds, fertilizers, machinery, financial assets and the income from sales of crop, livestock or forest products. The Index should be composed of information that manifests who has control over how the resource in question is used (as distinct from mere access): for example, ownership or secure tenure associated with control over land-use; ownership and control over livestock (large stock, small stock, poultry, and fish); control over water; control over forests; rights to use common property; control over use of inputs such as see, fertilizers and machinery; control over financial assets such as savings, loans and income from sales The index should be applied to samples of men and women (not households) in order to measure and evaluate gender gaps in control over resources. Indicator 2: Women’s Participation in Decision Making (a) Rationale: Decision-making refers to decision-making by individuals about their management of agriculture and natural resources and related life choices (e.g. whether or not to leave agriculture). It also refers to decision-making within households about farming and NRM, involving negotiation and exchange among household members. As well, decision-making refers to collective decisions that may be made in made in informal groups, formal organizations such as farm cooperatives or political bodies at various scales from local to national. Increased participation in decision-making includes both a greater degree of participation in specific decisions that relate to women’s own wellbeing and that of their households and an expansion of the range of decisions and available choices in which women (and their families and communities) can participate. (b) Measurement: This indicator is based on participation in three areas of decision-making. (1) Decisions over own labor – This indicator should show whether women’s decision-making over their own labor has increased, decreased, or remained constant, and whether men’s decision-making over women’s labor has increased, decreased or remained constant: it refers to the degree of participation of women compared to men in decisions over how women’s own labor is used, when it is used, and on what activities; whether the decisions available to either over women’s labor have expanded, reduced or remained static over the previous five years. (2) Decisions over own income – This indicator should show whether women’s decision-making over income they generate has increased, decreased, or remained constant, and whether men’s decisionmaking over income women generate has increased, decreased or remained constant: it refers to the degree of participation of women compared to men in decisions on how income women generate from farming or NRM it is used and on what purchases; whether the decisions available to men as compared to women over woman-generated income have expanded, reduced or remained static over the previous five years. Note that this question specifically addresses decision-making over women’s “own income” as distinct from (a) control over the aggregate, household income from farm product sales measured in Indicator 1 or (b) the Common Income IDO measurement of how farm household income is distributed between men and women.
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(3) Decisions made in groups or collective organization – This indicator should show whether men and women have the same opportunities to participate in group decisions: it should measure the degree of participation of women compared to men in decisions made in important groups and the extent to which their voice is valued when participating; whether the type of collective decision available to either men or women have expanded, reduced or remained static over the previous five years. Group decisions selected for measurement should clearly influence the share of benefits of men and women capture from CGIAR outcomes, such as increases in income, productivity, food security and sustainability. Considerations related to measurement and scale (a) Measurement for monitoring the common IDO at large (national) scale At the large-scale, Common IDO level of measurement, the Network recommends for Indicator 1 Women’s Control Over Resources, that CGIAR explores with other organizations administrating existing surveys (e.g. LSMS), the possibility of inserting into the survey, specific questions for the proposed Index with the understanding that the CGIAR will commit to using them for monitoring and performance assessment. For Indicator 2 Women’s Participation in Decision Making, the Network recommends use of items already included in existing secondary data sources (e.g. DHS, LSMS2, World Values Survey, and WEAI) that already include appropriate questions. (b) Measurement for testing the common IDO’s Theory of Change at small (sub-national) scale The Network recommends that CRPs conduct strategic gender research at a range of scales and using complementary quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches and methods3 to analyze how the cause-effect relationships laid out in the theory of change for the Gender and Empowerment IDO play out in practice. This research should investigate: Actual levels of gender-differentiated control over key productive resources for agriculture Participation in decisions Factors that change men’s and women’s control over resources and participation in decisions Changes in perceptions of appropriate gender roles and relations of relevant actors, including institutions.4 Changes in gender attitudes indicate progress in improving the enabling environment for women’s empowerment) Effects of agricultural research and development interventions on men’s and women’s control and participation. How changes in control of resources affect the outcome of household decisions in particular the adoption and sustained use of CGIAR technologies and management practices. The Network plans to facilitate collaborative research across Programs to this end. The theory of change will enable meta-analysis and synthesis across CRP target regions, cultures, crops, types of natural resources and innovations. 2
The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) (http://iresearch.worldbank.org/lsms/lsmssurveyFinder.htm) was created to explore ways of improving the type and quality of household data collected by statistical offices in developing countries. The goal is to foster increased use of household data as a basis for policy decision-making. 3 The Network and PIM will issue a paper on Recommended Minimum Standards for Gender Analysis and SexDisaggregated Data Collection (forthcoming in 2014). 4 Various scales and indices already exist to measure gender equality attitudes; these have been developed in the field of health and in surveys such as CARE’s Pathways baseline. AAS has commissioned a literature review to document and assess available scales. 3
IDO: Increased control over resources and participation in decision-making by women New knowledge, technologies, practices, institutions and policies emitted by the CGIAR and partners
Change in social and economic returns to key productive resources for agriculture
Change in the balance of power in gender relations affecting decisionmaking about resource use
Change in gender norms, rules and customs that regulate cooperation, conflict and the balance of power among men and women in farm households, communities and other institutions
Figure 1 . Common Gender IDO Theory of Change
Positive change in women’s empowerment can increase their adoption and sustained use of CGIAR innovations and more gender equitable distribution of resultant increases in production, food or income.
Change in the ways men and women control resources and how they benefit from their use.
Decreased or no change in control over resources and participation in decisionmaking by women
Negative change in women’s empowerment can decrease their adoption and sustained use of CGIAR innovations decreasing gender equity in the distribution of benefits to production, food security or income.
