Dairy Livestock Interventions for Food Security in Uganda: What are the Implications for Women's Empowerment?*

Abstract

Women are increasingly the target of agricultural development programs aimed at reducing poverty and food insecurity, especially in sub‐Saharan Africa. Some feminist scholars argue that such efforts are driven more by concerns about the efficient use of resources than the rights of women and do little to transform gendered power relations. We examine how development interventions that target women affect household well‐being, especially food insecurity, empower women, and transform gendered power relations. Our study uses the case of the Gates Foundation funded East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) program in Uganda. Our methods include the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index survey and in‐depth interviews of women farmers and key informants, within the EADD program. We argue that the livestock sector provides critical insights into women's empowerment because livestock are not “socially neutral” in their gendered effects. Our study found that: (1) ownership of dairy cows enhanced important dimensions of women's empowerment and gender equity that benefited women and households; (2) women's labor responsibilities for dairy cows disempowered some women by increasing their time poverty and; (3) ownership of dairy cows provided a means for women to disrupt entrenched social norms related to gender roles within the household and agriculture.

Women's agency in nutrition in the association between women's empowerment in agriculture and food security: A case study from Uganda

“…Education in particular may be associated with improvement in a woman's level of self‐efficacy, which could affect her ability to participate in the decision‐making processes related to her food intake as well as her children's. Similar to our results, previous studies, i.e., Bain et al (2020), Haley and Marsh (2021), and Mishra and Sam (2016), have discussed the important role of enabling economic resources such as income control and land/asset ownership in promoting women's empowerment in various domains. Results herein and from previous studies affirmed the importance of economically empowering women as a focal point in the pathway to nutritionally empowering them.…”

Intrahousehold empowerment patterns, gender power relations, and food security in Uganda

“…Considering that, compared with women, men were more empowered but significantly experienced higher rates of food insecurity than women, it will be necessary to (a) find effective solutions for enhancing the food security status of disadvantaged groups of men and (b) examine the role of empowering their female counterparts in their food security status. Most previous studies focused on women's empowerment and food security generally overlooked the data on the men's side (Aziz et al, 2021; Bain et al, 2020; Galiè et al, 2019; Murugani & Thamaga‐Chitja, 2019; Tsiboe et al, 2018). Even in the presence of gender‐disaggregated data such as WEAI surveys, these same studies reported women's empowerment role in desired outcomes targeting households or women.…”

“…Current knowledge about food security and gender is largely based on empirical studies that investigated the relationship between women's empowerment and their own food security (Asitik & Abu, 2020; Aziz et al, 2020; Bhandari & Burroway, 2018; Sraboni et al, 2014; Wei et al, 2021) or their households (Asitik & Abu, 2020; Aziz et al, 2021; Bain et al, 2020; Clement et al, 2019; Essilfie et al, 2021; Galiè et al, 2019; Murugani & Thamaga‐Chitja, 2019; Sariyev et al, 2020; Sharaunga et al, 2016; Tsiboe et al, 2018; Zereyesus, 2017). Although empirical evidence of the positive association between women's empowerment and food security is growing, it is still inconclusive (Asitik & Abu, 2020; Aziz et al, 2020, 2021; Bain et al, 2020; Clement et al, 2019; Essilfie et al, 2021; Galiè et al, 2019; Sariyev et al, 2020; Tsiboe et al, 2018; Wei et al, 2021).…”

“…From a household perspective, most studies that were focused on the effect of women's empowerment overlooked the empowerment status of their male counterparts in the household (Asitik & Abu, 2020; Aziz et al, 2020, 2021; Bain et al, 2020; Clement et al, 2019; Essilfie et al, 2021; Galiè et al, 2019; Tsiboe et al, 2018; Wei et al, 2021) and the potential interactions between them, which was referred to herein as “intrahousehold empowerment patterns” following Malapit et al's (2019) protocol. The probability of food security, either at the individual or household level, might change depending on women's and men's empowerment status in households (Gebre et al, 2021; Zingwe et al, 2023).…”

A review of gender in agricultural and pastoral livelihoods based on selected countries in west and east Africa

“…Women can be successfully empowered when men are not present, for example, as a result of migration (Crossland et al, 2021). As well as economic benefits and improved decision-making capacity, successful empowerment leads to the disruption of typical gender norms-as illustrated in a case in Uganda where women were provided with dairy cows (Bain et al, 2020).…”