INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Evaluating the Impacts of Agricultural Development Programming on Gender Inequalities, Asset Disparities, and Rural Livelihoods

Overview of the initiative

INTERNATIONAL LIVESTOCK RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Purpose

To reduce the gap between men’s and women’s control and ownership of assets, broadly defined, by evaluating how and how well agricultural development programs build women’s assets

Three-year project, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Dreaming big and thinking ahead: might be the start of a new paradigm in agricultural development programming!

Why assets?

Control over and ownership of assets is a critical component to well-being

Increasing control/ownership of assets help create pathways out of poverty more than measures that aim to increase incomes or consumption alone

Different types of assets matter

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Different types of assets matter

Natural capital

Physical capital

Financial capital

Human capital

Social capital

Political capital

Tangible and Intangible assets

Why look at control of assets?

Why controls assets within the household matters

Households do not pool resources nor share the same preferences

Who receives resources determines impact of policy

Evidence from many countries that increasing resources controlled by women improves child health and nutrition, agricultural productivity, income growth

Women continue to have fewer assets than men

Percentage change in husbands’ and wives’ exclusively owned assets, Bangladesh, 1996-2006

-100-50

050

100150200250300350400

% c

ha

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Type of asset

Husbands

Wives

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Why does a gender gap in assets persist?

We know a lot about:

• how to target women with development interventions

• how to improve participation

• what to do to increase the chances that they will benefit from ag devt projects, including working with men to change attitudes and behaviors that limit women’s economic opportunities.

But these methods are still not widely used in development projects

Have not been addressing gender gap in assets

The big picture: Putting it together

Capacity building

Build capacity of project teams/evaluation partners to undertake integrated economic and social gender impact assessments, to collect and analyze sex-disaggregated data, and use the results to design, implement and evaluate strategies to enhance project impacts on women

Key partners in capacity building:

• Project teams/implementers

• Evaluation partners

Capacity building activities--1

Develop a conceptual framework for analyzing gender and assets in agricultural R&D programs, specifying the different assets targeted and impact pathways

Inception workshop in November 2010: training and planning workshop for potential projects (one evaluation person and one implementer)

Develop a capacity building strategy for selected projects and for the overall initiative based on the KAP survey

Capacity building activities--2

Train a regional team of experts, evaluators, and/or project team members in

• use of rapid gender and asset assessments tools and analytical approaches

• setting up M&E processes to measure effectiveness of strategies for increasing women’s assets in the context of ongoing projects

Midterm workshop (year 2): progress, research results, midterm adjustments to projects

Final workshop (end of project): present evaluation results, effectiveness of different strategies , share lessons from evaluation results and integrated strategies

Research--1

Understand the impact of agricultural development activities on women’s and men’s access to and control over key assets

Empirical evidence based on quantitative and qualitative approaches

Key question: Have agricultural development interventions increased ownership of and access to key assets (land, livestock, and access to water, soil, and improved varieties) and reduced the extent of inequality in asset ownership between men and women?

Research--2

Individual case studies, with regional representation and balance across key assets

Synthesis across case studies

Analysis to be conducted jointly by the PIs and the evaluation staff of the individual projects

Note: realistically, for a project to be included, baseline data must exist. This initiative is only a 3-year project—for now!

Research activities--1

Form an External Advisory Committee

Review and select projects for participation in the initiative based on the initial workshop and elaboration by the projects of their gender, asset and evaluation needs and priorities

Work with the evaluation partners in the selected projects, design additional gender-sensitive approaches or components to include in the evaluation plan for each participating project

Research activities--2

Support project evaluation partners to gather additional data as needed, either immediately, or over time as part of the impact assessment.

Conduct gender analysis together with evaluation partners, to include:

• initial characterization of baseline data

• documentation of mid-course adjustments and their impacts

• impact analysis by project

• synthesis of findings across projects

Identifying “good practices”

Identify effective pathways for reaching women and reducing gender asset disparities, based on ongoing implementation and cross-projectlearning

Some projects may want to implement mid-term adjustments, as a result of findings. Changes will be documented so we can learn from them

Develop alternative strategies for addressing gender disparities in assets in agricultural development projects, depending on context (SSA vs SA)

Dissemination and outreach

Document and widely disseminate methods, results, and lessons learned about how to build women’s assets and improve livelihoods through agricultural development projects

Thinking “outside the box”: use web-based dissemination options, such as http://genderassets.wordpress.com

Develop training materials and for supporting partners in data collection, analysis and implementation

Prepare scientific papers, project reports, and policy briefs

Key points--1

Evaluate 8-10 agricultural development projects

• identify the projects’ impacts on women’s assets

• clarify which strategies have been successful in reducing gender gaps in asset access and ownership

Participatory process between implementors and evaluation partners

Use existing baseline surveys and new targeted studies (qualitative and quantitative) to document men’s and women’s assets and the change in those levels over the life of the project

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Key points--2

Provide training and technical assistance to program staff in methods to identify and address genderdisparities in assets.

Contribute to a development toolkit to reduce gender asset disparities and help to place gender considerations at the center of agricultural development.

Mind the gap!