Innovative Grassroots NGOS and the Complex Processes of Women’s Empowerment: An Empirical Investigation from Northern Tanzania

Goldman, Mara J.; Little, Jani

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.09.005

Cited by 65 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Selling products on local markets is accepted by men for the most part because it contributes to the household economy, but is unlikely to be transformational with respect to power structures (Smith 2014). These activities could form an incremental step within processes of empowerment, in which resources (material, relational, and knowledge) are being used by Maasai women to take control of their lives, make decisions, and in doing so challenge gender norms (Goldman and Little 2015). However, the ability of women to take part in new employment opportunities and importantly to control the income they earn, remains constrained by their relationships with their husbands.…”

Section: Diversity and Change In Maasai Well-being Conceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Well-being and conservation: diversity and change in visions of a good life among the Maasai of northern Tanzania

Woodhouse¹,

McCabe²

2018

E&S

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ABSTRACT. The Simanjiro plains, east of Tarangire National Park in Northern Tanzania are a key dispersal area for wildlife, and are of vital importance to Maasai pastoral livelihoods, which are rapidly diversifying. Diversification is coupled with fragmentation of the rangelands as agriculture expands and multiple actors compete for land. These changes reflect transformations occurring across pastoral rangelands, and pose the broader challenge of reconciling conservation and development objectives. We propose that qualitative research using a three-dimensional human well-being framework, encompassing material, relational, and subjective aspects, can inform locally legitimate and socially just conservation. Through semistructured group interviews across four villages, we explore well-being conceptions of Maasai men and women in Simanjiro. In particular we focus on the value of understanding social complexity for conservation research in the form of (i) the heterogeneity of conceptions of well-being across gender, age groups, and villages; (ii) temporal dynamics in notions and experiences. Material assets, namely land (for grazing and agriculture) and livestock are important to people but are intertwined with other aspects of well-being. Subjective well-being is centered on concerns about future security, especially with regards to land. Autonomy and social unity (relational dimension) are key priorities. We reflect on the implications for conservation at the study site, and more broadly on how well-being can better be incorporated into policy and practice that takes social justice seriously. The diversity we find in well-being priorities and experiences shows the importance of taking a disaggregated approach that conceptualizes benefits and burdens across a range of locally important well-being components ensuring the priorities of the most marginalized groups are represented.

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Section: Diversity and Change In Maasai Well-being Conceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Well-being and conservation: diversity and change in visions of a good life among the Maasai of northern Tanzania

Woodhouse¹,

McCabe²

2018

E&S

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“…Some strategies have focused on empowerment through education and marketing training (Emory University and UN World Food Programme n.d.); whereas, others have focused on financial empowerment through microenterprise interventions; and still others on political empowerment through leadership training and quotas (Goldman and Little 2015;Halim et al 2015Halim et al , 2016. Similarly, within AR4D, empowerment has been associated with various approaches to development, for instance focusing on access to and control over resources (Ogato et al 2009) or food security (Negin et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index

et al. 2018

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The empowerment of women in the livestock sector is fundamental to achieve gender equality. It also is instrumental for increased household productivity and improved household health and nutrition. Diverse strategies exist to empower women, yet these strategies are difficult to prioritize without a reliable and adapted means to measure women's empowerment. One quantitative measure is the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI). Despite its reliability in certain agricultural contexts, the WEAI requires adaptation in settings where livestock farming is the dominant form of livelihood. Using the WEAI as a starting point, a multidisciplinary team of researchers developed the Women's Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI), a new index to assess the empowerment of women in the livestock sector. This paper presents the WELI and the dimensions of empowerment it includes: (1) decisions about agricultural production; (2) decisions related to nutrition; (3) access to and control over resources; (4) control and use of income; (5) access to and control of opportunities; and (6) workload and control over own time. The paper illustrates the use of the WELI by introducing pilot findings from dairy smallholders in four districts of northern Tanzania. The paper addresses considerations for the appropriate use and adaptation of the WELI to balance the needs for context specificity and crosscultural comparisons; it also discusses its limitations. The paper recommends participatory and qualitative methods that are complementary to the WELI to provide context-specific insights on the processes of women's empowerment in the livestock sector.

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“…Typically, the literature examines the influences of the two groups of female leaders separately. Scrutinizing their interactions, we acknowledge that gendered action is partly shaped by institutional constraints and hierarchies (Razavi, 1997;Boehe and Cruz, 2013;Goldman and Little, 2015), and by gender inequality in social institutions (Teasdale et al, 2011;Branisa, et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women Leaders and Social Performance: Evidence from Financial Cooperatives in Senegal

Périlleux

Szafarz

2015

World Development

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How do women leaders such as board members and top managers influence the social performance of organizations? This paper addresses the question by exploiting a unique database from a Senegalese network of 36 financial cooperatives. We scrutinize the loan-granting decisions, made jointly by the locally elected board and the top manager assigned by the central union of the network. Our findings are threefold. First, female-dominated boards favor social orientation. Second, female managers tend to align their strategy with local boards' preferences. Third, the central union tends to assign male managers to female-dominated boards, probably to curb the boards' social orientation.

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Innovative Grassroots NGOS and the Complex Processes of Women’s Empowerment: An Empirical Investigation from Northern Tanzania

Cited by 65 publications

References 19 publications

Well-being and conservation: diversity and change in visions of a good life among the Maasai of northern Tanzania

Well-being and conservation: diversity and change in visions of a good life among the Maasai of northern Tanzania

The Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index

Women Leaders and Social Performance: Evidence from Financial Cooperatives in Senegal

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