IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v233y2019icp93-102.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Heckert, Jessica
  • Olney, Deanna K.
  • Ruel, Marie T.

Abstract

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. With structural equation models, we examined whether four domains of women's empowerment—purchasing decisions, healthcare decisions, family planning decisions, and spousal communication—mediated the program's impact on reducing wasting and increasing hemoglobin among children who were three to 12 months old at the start of the two-year program. We found that improvements in women's empowerment in the domains of spousal communication, purchasing decisions, healthcare decisions, and family planning decisions contributed to the program's impact on reducing wasting with the largest share being attributable to spousal communication. Improvements in women's empowerment did not contribute to the increase in hemoglobin. These findings provide the first evidence from a randomized controlled trial that women's empowerment is a pathway by which a nutrition-sensitive program can improve child wasting. Programs that aim to improve child nutritional status should incorporate interventions designed to empower women.

Suggested Citation

  • Heckert, Jessica & Olney, Deanna K. & Ruel, Marie T., 2019. "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," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 233(C), pages 93-102.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:233:y:2019:i:c:p:93-102
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.05.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619302801
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.05.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jesmin Akhter & Kun Cheng, 2020. "Sustainable Empowerment Initiatives among Rural Women through Microcredit Borrowings in Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Mwololo, Henry Muli & Nzuma, Jonathan Makau & Ritho, Cecilia Nyawira, 2021. "Farmer empowerment in agriculture and its association with smallholder farm incomes in Kenya," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 16(4), December.
    3. Kassie, Menale & Fisher, Monica & Muricho, Geoffrey & Diiro, Gracious, 2020. "Women’s empowerment boosts the gains in dietary diversity from agricultural technology adoption in rural Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    4. Gago, Cristina M. & Jurkowski, Janine & Beckerman-Hsu, Jacob P. & Aftosmes-Tobio, Alyssa & Figueroa, Roger & Oddleifson, Carly & Mattei, Josiemer & Kenney, Erica L. & Haneuse, Sebastien & Davison, Kir, 2022. "Exploring a theory of change: Are increases in parental empowerment associated with healthier weight-related parenting practices?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    5. Junuthula, Shirisha & Kumari, Veenita & Srinivasan, Chittur, 2023. "Identification of Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) Knowledge Gaps in the Integration of Nutrition into Training by Agricultural Extension Advisory Services (EAS) Providers in India," 97th Annual Conference, March 27-29, 2023, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 334565, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    6. Malapit, Hazel & Quisumbing, Agnes & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Seymour, Greg & Martinez, Elena M. & Heckert, Jessica & Rubin, Deborah & Vaz, Ana & Yount, Kathryn M., 2019. "Development of the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 675-692.
    7. Galvin, Lauren & Verissimo, Cristiana K. & Ambikapathi, Ramya & Gunaratna, Nilupa S. & Rudnicka, Paula & Sunseri, Amy & Jeong, Joshua & O'Malley, Savannah Froese & Yousafzai, Aisha K. & Sando, Mary Mw, 2023. "Effects of engaging fathers and bundling nutrition and parenting interventions on household gender equality and women's empowerment in rural Tanzania: Results from EFFECTS, a five-arm cluster-randomiz," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    8. Carly Nichols & Halie Kampman & Mara Bold, 2022. "Forging just dietary futures: bringing mainstream and critical nutrition into conversation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(2), pages 633-644, June.
    9. Leight, Jessica & Awonon, Josué & Pedehombga, Abdoulaye & Ganaba, Rasmané & Gelli, Aulo, 2022. "How light is too light touch: The effect of a short training-based intervention on household poultry production in Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    10. Cheryl R. Doss & Agnes R. Quisumbing, 2020. "Understanding rural household behavior: Beyond Boserup and Becker," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(1), pages 47-58, January.
    11. Quisumbing, Agnes & Heckert, Jessica & Faas, Simone & Ramani, Gayathri & Raghunathan, Kalyani & Malapit, Hazel & The pro-WEAI for Market Inclusion Study Team, 2022. "IFAD Research Series 74: Women’s empowerment, food systems, and nutrition," IFAD Research Series 321953, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    12. Waid, Jillian L. & Wendt, Amanda S. & Sinharoy, Sheela S. & Kader, Abdul & Gabrysch, Sabine, 2022. "Impact of a homestead food production program on women's empowerment: Pro-WEAI results from the FAARM trial in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Harris-Fry, Helen & Saville, Naomi M. & Paudel, Puskar & Manandhar, Dharma S. & Cortina-Borja, Mario & Skordis, Jolene, 2022. "Relative power: Explaining the effects of food and cash transfers on allocative behaviour in rural Nepalese households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    14. Mwololo, Henry & Nzuma, Jonathan & Ritho, Cecilia, 2021. "Gender Empowerment Dividends on Smallholder Farm Incomes in Kenya," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 314944, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Karimli, Leyla & Lecoutere, Els & Wells, Christine R. & Ismayilova, Leyla, 2021. "More assets, more decision-making power? Mediation model in a cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating the effect of the graduation program on women's empowerment in Burkina Faso," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    16. Solomon Kibret Abreha & Solomon Zena Walelign & Yacob Abrehe Zereyesus, 2020. "Associations between women’s empowerment and children’s health status in Ethiopia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-24, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:233:y:2019:i:c:p:93-102. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.