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The Health Effects of Women Empowerment: Recent Evidence from Northern Ghana

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  • Ross, Kara L.
  • Zereyesus, Yacob
  • Shanoyan, Aleksan
  • Amanor-Boadu, Vincent

Abstract

Women empowerment could be the key to unlocking women’s productivity potential in Africa. Women’s contribution to the agricultural sector is greatly influenced by their health status. This paper examines the impact of women’s empowerment in agriculture on women’s health and the implications for the African food and agricultural sector. It utilizes a unique dataset from a 2012 survey of 2,405 women in northern Ghana and the Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes modeling approach. Findings provide insight on how gender-sensitive policies and private-public initiatives can translate into better health outcomes for women and improved capacity to meet future needs of food and agriculture in Africa. Initiatives focusing on increasing women’s membership in social and economic groups, easing women’s access to credit, and increasing women’s incomes are some key empowerment strategies for improving women’s health status and production capabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ross, Kara L. & Zereyesus, Yacob & Shanoyan, Aleksan & Amanor-Boadu, Vincent, 2015. "The Health Effects of Women Empowerment: Recent Evidence from Northern Ghana," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 18(1), pages 1-17, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ifaamr:197777
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.197777
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    Cited by:

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    2. Tii N. Nchofoung & Simplice A. Asongu & Vanessa S. Tchamyou, 2021. "The political implication of women and industrialisation in Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 21/072, African Governance and Development Institute..
    3. Diana E Lopez & Romain Frelat & Lone B Badstue, 2022. "Towards gender-inclusive innovation: Assessing local conditions for agricultural targeting," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-25, March.
    4. Yimer, Feiruz & Tadesse, Fanaye, 2015. "Women’s empowerment in agriculture and dietary diversity in Ethiopia:," ESSP working papers 80, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Tii N. Nchofoung & Simplice A. Asongu & Vanessa S. Tchamyou, 2022. "Effect of women’s political inclusion on the level of infrastructures in Africa," Working Papers of The Association for Promoting Women in Research and Development in Africa (ASPROWORDA). 22/004, The Association for Promoting Women in Research and Development in Africa (ASPROWORDA).
    6. Soumya Gupta & Vidya Vemireddy & Prabhu L. Pingali, 2019. "Nutritional outcomes of empowerment and market integration for women in rural India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(6), pages 1243-1256, December.
    7. Aziz, Noshaba & Ren, Yanjun & Rong, Kong & Zhou, Jin, 2021. "Women’s empowerment in agriculture and household food insecurity: Evidence from Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    8. Kassie, M., 2018. "The nutrition impacts of women’s empowerment in Kenyan agriculture: Application of the multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 276003, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Francis Tsiboe & Yacob A. Zereyesus & Jennie S. Popp & Evelyn Osei, 2018. "The Effect of Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture on Household Nutrition and Food Poverty in Northern Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 89-108, July.
    10. Elizabeth Bryan & Elisabeth Garner, 2022. "Understanding the pathways to women’s empowerment in Northern Ghana and the relationship with small-scale irrigation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 905-920, September.

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