Women’s Empowerment through Collective Action?

Marcella VIGNERI –Quantitative research component

IFPRI Learning Workshop on WEAI- 21 Nov 13

Researching Women’s Collective Action

Research, learning and communications Oxfam project launched in 2009 with funding from Gates

Builds on IFPRI work on gender and CA-focus on CA in markets for women

Measure economic and empowerment impacts of CA to identify factors of success across ag sectors relevant for wider range of women smallholders.

Research questions:

• Q1 Which women participate in CA?

• Q2 What economic and empowerment benefits do smallholder women derive from collective action in ag. markets?

• Q3 How does collective action overcome women smallholders’ constraints to accessing and benefiting markets?

The research questions

What empowerment benefits from collective action in ag. markets?

compare 'empowerment' outcomes for women farmers participating in market oriented CA(treatment group - sample size c. 300) with women involved in the same sectors/ activities but not participating in CA groups (control group - sample size c. 600).

Objective

Overview of Phase III Research Focus

• Mali, Ethiopia, Tanzania– low-income countries– strong potential for ag. development. – Governments committed to rural econ

transformation, and – all promoted agricultural

cooperatives.

• Shea, Honey, Vegetables – ‘high value’ with nation-wide growth

potential– export potential, internationally

(honey, shea) and domestically (vegetables),

– untapped opportunities for producers to move up value chains.

Sample size: Approx 900 women/ country: • 300 WCA-members • 600 not WCA-members

Baseline survey: March – June 2012

Analytical Framework

Comparing women members of WCAswith women non-members:

1. Treatment and Control

2. Women active in ag sub-sector of study

3. No measurement of gender parity

Context for WEAI Adaption

Conceptual and Technical appeal of WEAI

1. Measuring women’s empowerment in ag marketsIndicators relevant at any geographical level

2. Menu of relevant dimensions: when is empowerment adequate?

3. Based on individual-level data information

Rationale for changes made

1. Select domains and indicators suitable for project RQs

2. Adjust thresholds to allow variation across observations

to estimate impact of WCA membership on empowerment

3. Re-rank attitudinal choicesin some cases increased attitudinal threshold to ‘feels strongly’ or ‘highly able’ ..to make an input (or actually take the decision) from original wording: ‘feels moderately’ able

4. Actual decisions vs perceptions of choices

5. …and TimingDesign of RWCA fieldwork simultaneous to finalisation of

WEAI methods: learning process

Adjustments: step 1Selection of key dimensions

DOMAIN weight indicators weight Production

1/4

input in productive decisions

1/8

Ability to take autonomous decisions in production

1/8

Resources

1/4

ownership of assets

1/12

purchase, sale, or transfer of assets 1/12 Access to credit and decisions on credit 1/12

Income

1/4

control over use of income

1/4

Freedom of Movement

1/4

Freedom to move in the village space 1/8

Freedom to attend group meetings 1/8

Kept three dimensions: Role in HH decision making - Access to productive capital - Decision making

Added Freedom of movement dimension

Adjustments: step 2‘Tuning’ thresholds to the RWCA data

EMPOWERMENT DIMENSION INCREASE of Threshold

REASON

Decision in agr activities From one domain to at least two domains.

Virtually all women were empowered with one domain only

Decision on income from agr Women must feel « highly able » to make a decision

Threshold was too low for quality / significance of input in decision making

Ownership of assets Raise to 3 small assets or two large asset or 2 small + at least one large

Need to identify empowerment as something women ‘typically’ do not do.

Rights over agr assets Exclude chicken and farming equipment from two asset threshold

Exclude things women ‘typically’ own anyway

Decision on HH exp Feel « highly able » to make a decision, on at least one domain (the latter is kept from original)

Threshold was too low in terms of quality or significance of input in decision making (but number of domains is kept)

Adjustments: step 3Autonomy vs Actual decision making

Measured actual decision making rather than autonomy in decision making

Original wording of WEAI questionnaires did not work in the field (time constraints + time frame of actual survey exercise)

RWCA measures the ‘formal’ ability to make decisions rather than ‘autonomy’ 

Derived Independence in Decision-making Index (IDMI)

Illustration 1 MALI

Decisio

n-mak

ing ag

ric. a

ctiv.

Decisio

n-mak

ing agri

c. inco

me

Ownership/co

ntrol o

f asse

ts

Rights

on agric

ultural

asset

s

Access

to cred

it

Use of in

come f

or HH ex

p.

Freed

om of move

ment

Freed

om to att

end m

eetings

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

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0.7

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1

MembersNon-members

Illustration 2 TANZANIA

Decisio

n-mak

ing ag

ric. a

ctiv.

Decisio

n-mak

ing agri

c. inco

me

Ownership/co

ntrol o

f asse

ts

Rights

on agric

ultural

asset

s

Access

to cred

it

Use of in

come f

or HH ex

p.

Freed

om of move

ment

Freed

om to att

end m

eetings

0

0.1

0.2

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MembersNon-members

Illustration 3 ETHIOPIA

Decisio

n-mak

ing ag

ric. a

ctiv.

Decisio

n-mak

ing agri

c. inco

me

Ownership/co

ntrol o

f asse

ts

Rights

on agric

ultural

asset

s

Access

to cred

it

Use of in

come f

or HH ex

p.

Freed

om of move

ment

Freed

om to att

end m

eetings

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

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0.5

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1

MembersNon-members

• No systematic relationship between WCA membership and empowerment domains

• Income gains not systematically associated with higher levels of empowerment– Women members are significantly more empowered than

non-members in only some dimensions of empowerment (between 1 and 3 out of 8 in each country)

What empowerment benefits?

Food for ThoughtsUsing empowerment measures

Methodology: Adapting WEAI 1. Practicality in the field

2. Adequacy indicators thresholdsadjusted upwards .. but how to calibrate

3. Aggregation: does it work and/or challenges for this type of research?

4. Decision making vs. autonomy

IssuesDo more empowered women self-select into groups

Causality/endogeneity problems?

Final report available @http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/womens-collective-action-unlocking-the-potential-of-agricultural-markets-276159

THANK YOU