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Designing for empowerment impact in agricultural development projects: Experimental evidence from the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) project in Bangladesh

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  • Quisumbing, Agnes R.
  • Ahmed, Akhter
  • Hoddinott, John F.
  • Pereira, Audrey
  • Roy, Shalini

Abstract

The importance of women’s roles for nutrition-sensitive agricultural projects is increasingly recognized, yet little is known about whether such projects improve women’s empowerment and gender equality. We study the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) pilot project, which was implemented as a cluster-randomized controlled trial by the Government of Bangladesh. The project’s treatment arms included agricultural training, nutrition behavior change communication (BCC), and gender sensitization trainings to husbands and wives together – with these components combined additively, such that the impact of gender sensitization could be distinguished from that of agriculture and nutrition trainings. Empowerment was measured using the internationally-validated project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), and attitudes regarding gender roles were elicited from both men and women, to explore potentially gender-transformative impacts. Our study finds that ANGeL increased both women’s and men’s empowerment, raised the prevalence of households achieving gender parity, and led to small improvements in the gender attitudes of both women and men. We find significant increases in women’s empowerment scores and empowerment status from all treatment arms but with no significant differences across these. We find no evidence of unintended impacts on workloads and we note inconclusive evidence of possible increases in intimate partner violence (IPV). Our results also suggest some potential benefits of bundling nutrition and gender components with an agricultural development intervention; however, many of these benefits seem to be driven by bundling nutrition with agriculture. While we cannot assess the extent to which including men and women within the same treatment arms contributed to our results, it is plausible that the positive impacts of all treatment arms on women’s empowerment outcomes may have arisen from implementation modalities that provided information to both husbands and wives when they were together. The role of engaging men and women jointly in interventions is a promising area for future research.

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  • Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Ahmed, Akhter & Hoddinott, John F. & Pereira, Audrey & Roy, Shalini, 2020. "Designing for empowerment impact in agricultural development projects: Experimental evidence from the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) project in Bangladesh," IFPRI discussion papers 1957, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1957
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    1. Akhter Ahmed & Fiona Coleman & Julie Ghostlaw & John Hoddinott & Purnima Menon & Aklima Parvin & Audrey Pereira & Agnes Quisumbing & Shalini Roy & Masuma Younus, 2024. "Increasing production diversity and diet quality: Evidence from Bangladesh," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(3), pages 1089-1110, May.
    2. Kumar, Neha & Raghunathan, Kalyani & Arrieta, Alejandra & Jilani, Amir & Pandey, Shinjini, 2021. "The power of the collective empowers women: Evidence from self-help groups in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    3. Lecoutere, Els & Spielman, David J. & Van Campenhout, Bjorn, 2023. "Empowering women through targeting information or role models: Evidence from an experiment in agricultural extension in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. 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).
    5. Ambler, Kate & Jones, Kelly M. & O’Sullivan, Michael, 2021. "Increasing Women's Empowerment: Implications for Family Welfare," IZA Discussion Papers 14861, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Etienne Lwamba & Shannon Shisler & Will Ridlehoover & Meital Kupfer & Nkululeko Tshabalala & Promise Nduku & Laurenz Langer & Sean Grant & Ada Sonnenfeld & Daniela Anda & John Eyers & Birte Snilstveit, 2022. "Strengthening women's empowerment and gender equality in fragile contexts towards peaceful and inclusive societies: A systematic review and meta‐analysis," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(1), March.
    7. 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).

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    Keywords

    gender norms; gender; women's empowerment; nutrition-sensitive agriculture; randomized controlled trials; empowerment; agriculture; nutrition; agricultural development; women; Bangladesh; Southern Asia; Asia;
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