Gender dynamics, women’s empowerment, and diets: Qualitative findings from an impact evaluation of a nutrition-sensitive poultry value chain intervention in Burkina Faso

Eissler, Sarah; Sanou, Armande; Heckert, Jessica; Myers, Emily; Nignan, Safiatou; Thio, Elisabeth; Pitropia, Lucienne AmÃ©lie; Ganaba, RasmanÃ©; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Gelli, Aulo

doi:10.2499/p15738coll2.133653

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…These results may suggest a change toward more equitable or shared parenting, where more empowered women have more engaged partners. Indeed, in West Africa, empowered women are those who manage the family in tandem with their partners [61]. In South Africa, more empowered women who enter the workforce have more engaged partners who spend more time with their children [62].…”

Section: Plos Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between women’s empowerment and child development, growth, and nurturing care practices in sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-sectional analysis of demographic and health survey data

et al. 2021

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Background Approximately 40% of children 3 to 4 years of age in low- and middle-income countries have suboptimal development and growth. Women’s empowerment may help provide inputs of nurturing care for early development and growth by building caregiver capacity and family support. We examined the associations between women’s empowerment and child development, growth, early learning, and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Methods and findings We pooled data on married women (15 to 49 years) and their children (36 to 59 months) from Demographic and Health Surveys that collected data on child development (2011 to 2018) in 9 SSA countries (N = 21,434): Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, and Uganda. We constructed a women’s empowerment score using factor analysis and assigned women to country-specific quintile categories. The child outcomes included cognitive, socioemotional, literacy–numeracy, and physical development (Early Childhood Development Index), linear growth (height-for-age Z-score (HAZ) and stunting (HAZ <−2). Early learning outcomes were number of parental stimulation activities (range 0 to 6) and learning resources (range 0 to 4). The nutrition outcome was child dietary diversity score (DDS, range 0 to 7). We assessed the relationship between women’s empowerment and child development, growth, early learning, and nutrition using multivariate generalized linear models. On average, households in our sample were large (8.5 ± 5.7 members) and primarily living in rural areas (71%). Women were 31 ± 6.6 years on average, 54% had no education, and 31% had completed primary education. Children were 47 ± 7 months old and 49% were female. About 23% of children had suboptimal cognitive development, 31% had suboptimal socioemotional development, and 90% had suboptimal literacy–numeracy development. Only 9% of children had suboptimal physical development, but 35% were stunted. Approximately 14% of mothers and 3% of fathers provided ≥4 stimulation activities. Relative to the lowest quintile category, children of women in the highest empowerment quintile category were less likely to have suboptimal cognitive development (relative risk (RR) 0.89; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.80, 0.99), had higher HAZ (mean difference (MD) 0.09; 95% CI 0.02, 0.16), lower risk of stunting (RR 0.93; 95% CI 0.87, 1.00), higher DDS (MD 0.17; 95% CI 0.06, 0.29), had 0.07 (95% CI 0.01, 0.13) additional learning resources, and received 0.16 (95% CI 0.06, 0.25) additional stimulation activities from their mothers and 0.23 (95% CI 0.17 to 0.29) additional activities from their fathers. We found no evidence that women’s empowerment was associated with socioemotional, literacy–numeracy, or physical development. Study limitations include the possibility of reverse causality and suboptimal assessments of the outcomes and exposure. Conclusions Women’s empowerment was positively associated with early child cognitive development, child growth, early learning, and nutrition outcomes in SSA. Efforts to improve child development and growth should consider women’s empowerment as a potential strategy.

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Section: Plos Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between women’s empowerment and child development, growth, and nurturing care practices in sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-sectional analysis of demographic and health survey data

et al. 2021

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“…They therefore did not provide any examples where they (the man) or their wives would voice anything related to how the other utilized his or her time. Men from Niger state are more likely to be polygynous, which may explain some of these differences between participants from Niger and Anambra states, as polygynous men are less likely than monogamous men to discuss matters with their wives, or perhaps only with the first wife (see Eissler et al., 2020 for a discussion of these dynamics in Burkina Faso).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Women's Empowerment: Gender and Time‐use Agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria

Eissler¹,

Heckert²,

Myers³

et al. 2022

Development and Change

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Time use, or how women and men allocate their time, is an important element of empowerment processes. To extend this area of study, this article proposes and explores the concept of time‐use agency, which shifts the focus from the amount of time individuals spend on activities to the strategic choices they make about how to allocate their time. It draws on 92 semi‐structured interviews from three qualitative studies in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria to explore and compare the salience of time‐use agency as a component of empowerment. The article finds that time‐use agency is salient among women and men and dictates how they can make and act upon strategic decisions related to how they allocate their time. It also finds that time‐use agency is tied to other dimensions of agency beyond decision making and ways of exerting influence in the household. Its findings highlight that women's capacity to exercise time‐use agency is conditional on gendered power dynamics and other barriers within households, which together are reciprocally related to local gender norms that dictate how women should spend their time.

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“…For instance, in Burkina Faso, focus groups showed that men are considered the head decision-makers around poultry production and marketing. But beneficiary women in a poultry value chain intervention said raising poultry increased their self-confidence in their skills and capacities; gaining financial independence was critical, as they no longer needed to rely on their husbands' permission or direction on how to spend money (Eissler et al 2020). In Malawi, many women are tied by the norms dictating the role of a "good wife" who often must defer to her husband.…”

Section: Figure 93-distribution Of Project Impacts On Women's and Men...mentioning

confidence: 99%

2023 Annual Trends & Outlook Report (ATOR)

John Mususa Ulimwengu,

Kwofie,

Collins

2023

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Established in 2006 under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) supports efforts to promote evidence-and outcome-based policy planning and implementation. In particular, ReSAKSS provides data and related analytical and knowledge products to facilitate CAADP benchmarking, review, and mutual learning processes. AKADEMIYA2063 leads the work of ReSAKSS in partnership with the African Union Commission, the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), and leading regional economic communities (RECs). AKADEMIYA2063's mission is to provide data, policy analysis, and capacity strengthening support to enable African Union (AU) Member States to achieve economic transformation and shared prosperity in support of AU's Agenda 2063.

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Gender dynamics, women’s empowerment, and diets: Qualitative findings from an impact evaluation of a nutrition-sensitive poultry value chain intervention in Burkina Faso

Cited by 9 publications

References 3 publications

Associations between women’s empowerment and child development, growth, and nurturing care practices in sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-sectional analysis of demographic and health survey data

Associations between women’s empowerment and child development, growth, and nurturing care practices in sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-sectional analysis of demographic and health survey data

Measuring Women's Empowerment: Gender and Time‐use Agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria

2023 Annual Trends & Outlook Report (ATOR)

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