Enhancing agency and empowerment in agricultural development projects: A synthesis of mixed methods impact evaluations from the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, Phase 2 (GAAP2).

Development interventions increasingly include women's empowerment and gender equality among their objectives, but evaluating their impact has been stymied by the lack of measures that are comparable across interventions. This paper synthesizes the findings of 11 mixed-methods impact evaluations of agricultural development projects from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa that were part of the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, Phase 2 (GAAP2). As part of GAAP2, qualitative and quantitative data were used to develop and validate the multidimensional project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), which was used to assess the impact of GAAP2 projects on women's empowerment.

Women's empowerment, production choices, and crop diversity in Burkina Faso, India, Malawi, and Tanzania: a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data.

Background: Bolstering farm-level crop diversity is one strategy to strengthen food system resilience and achieve global food security. Women who live in rural areas play an essential role in food production; therefore, we aimed to assess the associations between women's empowerment and crop diversity.

Methods: In this secondary analysis of cross-sectional data, we used data from four cluster-randomised controlled trials done in Burkina Faso, India, Malawi, and Tanzania.

Can a gender-sensitive integrated poultry value chain and nutrition intervention increase women's empowerment among the rural poor in Burkina Faso?

Understanding the types of food systems interventions that foster women's empowerment and the types of women that are able to benefit from different interventions is important for development policy. SELEVER was a gender- and nutrition-sensitive poultry production intervention implemented in western Burkina Faso from 2017 to 2020 that aimed to empower women. We evaluated SELEVER using a mixed-methods cluster-randomized controlled trial, which included survey data from 1763 households at baseline and endline and a sub-sample for two interim lean season surveys.

Development and validation of a health and nutrition module for the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI+HN).

Agricultural development projects increasingly aim to improve health and nutrition outcomes, often by engaging women. Although evidence shows such projects can improve women's and children's health and nutrition and empower women, little is known about their impacts on women's health- and nutrition-related agency and the extent to which impacts emerge through women's empowerment, largely due to a lack of instruments that measure the dimensions of women's agency that are directly relevant to health and nutrition outcomes. We developed an optional, complementary module for the project-level women's empowerment in agriculture index (pro-WEAI) to measure health- and nutrition-related agency (pro-WEAI + HN).

A community edutainment intervention for gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, and maternal and child health in rural Senegal: a process evaluation.

Background: Edutainment aims to spread educational messages in an entertaining way, and often reaches large audiences. While studies increasingly report the impacts of edutainment interventions, there is limited context-specific evidence on the underlying processes and barriers to effective delivery, especially in rural areas. This article presents results from a process evaluation of a community-based edutainment intervention designed to improve knowledge, attitudes, and practices on gender-based violence (GBV), sexual and reproductive health (SRH), and maternal and child health.

Women's empowerment and gender equality in agricultural value chains: evidence from four countries in Asia and Africa.

Women play important roles at different nodes of both agricultural and off-farm value chains, but in many countries their contributions are either underestimated or limited by prevailing societal norms or gender-specific barriers. We use primary data collected in Asia (Bangladesh, Philippines) and Africa (Benin, Malawi) to examine the relationships between women's empowerment, gender equality, and participation in a variety of local agricultural value chains that comprise the food system. We find that the value chain and the specific node of engagement matter, as do other individual and household characteristics, but in different ways depending on country context.

Corrigendum to "Development of the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI)" [World Development 122 (2019) 675-692].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.

Measurement properties of the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index.

Women's empowerment is a process that includes increases in intrinsic agency (power within); instrumental agency (power to); and collective agency (power with). We used baseline data from two studies-Targeting and Realigning Agriculture for Improved Nutrition (TRAIN) in Bangladesh and Building Resilience in Burkina Faso (BRB)-to assess the measurement properties of survey questions operationalizing selected dimensions of intrinsic, instrumental, and collective agency in the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI). We applied unidimensional item-response models to question (item) sets to assess their measurement properties, and when possible, their cross-context measurement equivalence-a requirement of measures designed for cross-group comparisons.

Development of the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI).

With growing commitment to women's empowerment by agricultural development agencies, sound methods and indicators to measure women's empowerment are needed to learn which types of projects or project-implementation strategies do and do not work to empower women. The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), which has been widely used, requires adaptation to meet the need for monitoring projects and assessing their impacts. In this paper, the authors describe the adaptation and validation of a project-level WEAI (or pro-WEAI) that agricultural development projects can use to identify key areas of women's (and men's) disempowerment, design appropriate strategies to address identified deficiencies, and monitor project outcomes related to women's empowerment.

Cognitive interviewing to improve women's empowerment questions in surveys: Application to the health and nutrition and intrahousehold relationships modules for the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index.

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include fostering gender equality and women's empowerment and ending hunger and malnutrition. To monitor progress and evaluate programmes that aim to achieve these goals, survey instruments are needed that can accurately assess related indicators. The project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) is being developed to address the need for an instrument that is sensitive to changes in empowerment over the duration of an intervention.

The cost of improving nutritional outcomes through food-assisted maternal and child health and nutrition programmes in Burundi and Guatemala.

Evidence on the cost-effectiveness of multisectoral maternal and child health and nutrition programmes is scarce. We conducted a prospective costing study of two food-assisted maternal and child health and nutrition programmes targeted to pregnant women and children during the first 1,000 days (pregnancy to 2 years). Each was paired with a cluster-randomized controlled trial to evaluate impact and compare the optimal quantity and composition of food rations (Guatemala, five treatment arms) and their optimal timing and duration (Burundi, three treatment arms).

Is women's empowerment a pathway to improving child nutrition outcomes in a nutrition-sensitive agriculture program?: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Burkina Faso.

Nutrition-sensitive programs in low- and middle-income countries often aim to improve child nutrition outcomes in part by empowering women. Although previous studies have found cross-sectional associations linking women's empowerment and child nutritional status, there is limited empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that empowering women as part of an intervention will, in turn, improve child nutritional outcomes. We tested this hypothesis using two waves of data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a nutrition-sensitive agricultural program in Burkina Faso.

A 2-Year Integrated Agriculture and Nutrition Program Targeted to Mothers of Young Children in Burkina Faso Reduces Underweight among Mothers and Increases Their Empowerment: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Recent evidence demonstrates the benefits of integrated agriculture and nutrition programs for children's health and nutrition outcomes. These programs may also improve mothers' nutrition and empowerment outcomes. However, evidence from rigorous evaluations is scarce.

DOES RURAL-TO-URBAN MIGRATION PLACE ADOLESCENTS AT RISK OF DELETERIOUS SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH OUTCOMES? EVIDENCE FROM HAITI.

This study examines the links between migration and sexual and reproductive health among rural-to-urban migrant youth in Haiti. It evaluates behavioural, knowledge and attitudinal components from the perspective of three competing explanations for migrants' behaviours: adaptation, disruption and selection. Discrete-time event history analysis is employed to compare these hypotheses using Haiti Demographic and Health Survey data (N=1215 adolescent girls, N=829 adolescent boys).

Migrant youth's emerging dietary patterns in Haiti: the role of peer social engagement.

Objective: The present study examines whether rural-to-urban migrant youth consume a greater diversity of high-sugar beverages and fried snacks (HSBFS) compared with their peers who remain in rural areas. It also tests whether the association between migration and HSBFS diversity is moderated by migrant youth's social engagement with their peers.

Design: Participants were recruited in August and September 2011 following the completion of primary school (6th grade) and shortly before many rural youth migrate to urban areas.

Does the Orphan Disadvantage "Spill Over?" An analysis of whether living in an area with a higher concentration of orphans is associated with children's school enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: Despite considerable concern regarding the social consequences of sub-Saharan Africa's high orphan prevalence, no research investigates how living in a community densely populated with orphans is more broadly associated with children's-including nonorphans'-acquisition of human capital.

Objective: We provide a new look at the implications of widespread orphanhood in sub-Saharan Africa by examining whether living in an area with a high concentration of orphans is associated with children's likelihood of school enrollment.

Methods: We use data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) to estimate multilevel logistic regression models to assess whether living in a setting with a higher concentration of orphans is associated with school enrollment among 383,010 children in 336 provinces in 34 sub-Saharan African countries.