1. Gender in Agriculture-Nutrition Research
Suneetha Kadiyala
Senior-Lecturer in Nutrition Sensitive Development
LCIRAH & LSHTM

2. The basics
Gender refers to the social roles and identities associated with what it means to be a man or a woman.
Highly context specific
Within households: men and women; boys and girls
Note: the definition of a “household” is also context specific!
Beyond households : Contexts , institutions, policies, laws

3. Why do we need to consider gender in development?
Unitary vs. collective models
Women and men live in household with different degrees of seprateness and jointness with implications for ownership and control of resources.
Women own and control fewer resources/assets than men
Women and men spend their resources differently
This matters for household, maternal and child welfare outcomes

4. Women are key to nutrition
Contribution of underlying determinants to Improving Nutrition Globally
Sources: Smith and Haddad 2014

5. Women are key to agriculture & rural enterprise
FAO. SOFA 2011

6. FAO. SOFA 2011

7. FAO. SOFA 2011

8. FAO. SOFA 2011

9. FAO. SOFA 2011

10. Closing the gender gap in agriculture
Increases agriculture output by 2.5-4%
Decrease in the number of undernourished by 17-20%
Yet pervasive gender discrimination in policies and institutions affecting ownership and control of resources by women
Largely considered as an important factor in glacial reductions in undernutrition in South Asia

11. Conceptual pathways between agriculture and nutrition
Agriculture as a source of income
Agriculture as a source of food
Agricultural policy and food prices
Gender dimensions
Women’s status and intrahousehold decisions & resource allocation
Women’s ability to manage young child care
Women’s own nutritional status and intergenerational implications for nutrition
Source: Headey, Chiu and Kadiyala (2012); Kadiyala et al (2014)

12. Household assets and livelihoods
Food
prices
Food consumption
Food expenditure
Non-food expenditure
Nutrient intake
Child nutrition outcomes
Household assets and livelihoods
Health status
Mother’s nutrition outcomes
Health care expenditure
Female employment / resources
National nutrition outcomes
Income (agricultural and non-agricultural)
Caring capacity & practices
Female energy expenditure
Food production
Nutrition knowledge
National economic growth
Source: Headey, Chiu and Kadiyala (2012); Kadiyala et al (2014)

13. Household assets and livelihoods
Food
prices
Food consumption
Food expenditure
Non-food expenditure
Nutrient intake
Child nutrition outcomes
Household assets and livelihoods
Health status
Mother’s nutrition outcomes
Health care expenditure
Female employment / resources
National nutrition outcomes
Income (agricultural and non-agricultural)
Caring capacity & practices
Female energy expenditure
Food production
Nutrition knowledge
National economic growth
Source: Headey, Chiu and Kadiyala (2012); Kadiyala et al (2014)

14. Contribution of WEAI indicators to women’s disempowerment in Nepal
Source: Malapit, Kadiyala et al. JDS (2014)

15. WEAI and Nutrition outcomes in Nepal
Overall women’s empowerment was associated with maternal nutrition
Control of income by women was positively associated with child height-for-age Z (HAZ) scores
Lower gender parity was associated with children’s diet quality and HAZ
Women’s empowerment protective against lower production diversity
Diet quality
HAZ
Source: Malapit, Kadiyala et al. JDS (2014)

16. A systematic review of women’s time allocation and nutrition
Exclusion criteria
High income country
Language
Urban focus
Non-human
Study type (book reviews etc.)
No time use
No agriculture or no nutrition
Source: Johnston, Stevano et al. (2015)

17. A mixed methods review
Source: Johnston, Stevano et al. (2015)

18. Key findings (1)
Women play a key role in agriculture and this is reflected in their time commitments to these activities, whether as farmers or farmworkers
Women are important actors in the uptake and response to agricultural interventions
Agricultural interventions tend to increase women’s, men’s and children’s time burdens.
Source: Johnston, Stevano et al. (2015)

19. Agriculture, time use and nutrition: Key findings (2)
Indicators of food consumption and nutrition could worsen due to time burdens of women
But non-maternal care givers are important
Sometimes the income effect dominates
Differentiating factors:
Seasonality
Income and socio-economic status
Household composition and household members
Nature of our focus on nutrition and food consumption/security
No clear-cut nutritional impact
Source: Johnston, Stevano et al. (2015)

20. Strategies employed and policy implications
New technologies and services to reduce time burden
Incentives to employers to provide meals for farmworkers and their children
Joining-up with health interventions for vulnerable members
Managed by reducing time for feeding and cooking
Focus on the health of women
New technologies to reduce the time burden
Provision of services that alleviate women’s reproductive burden
Managed by extending the working day
Provision of technologies and services that alleviate reproductive burden
Joining-up with health interventions for most vulnerable members
Interventions that target smaller households
Managed by devolving tasks to other women and children
Increase accessibility and affordability of healthier food
Interventions to change purchasing patterns in target groups
Managed by substituting purchased food
Seasonality
Socio-economic status

21. If there is magic bullet, this is it!!
Lancet 2013

22. Gender in your research: Some overarching questions
What are the practical implications of the different roles and status of women and men in the research area for the feasibility of the research and its effective design?
How will the research take into account the different roles of women and girls, men and boys?
How will the research affect women and men?
What is the strategic potential of the research for enhancing the status of women and girls and promoting greater opportunities for them?
How can the research contribute, long-term, to the significant involvement of women and their empowerment as leaders?
Source: IFPRI, Gender checklist