1. Tapping Irrigation’s Potential for Women’s Empowerment: Findings from Ethiopia and Tanzania
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Simone Passarelli, October 13th, 2015, USAID
Photo credit: 2006 Freweni Gebre Mariam/IFPRI

2. U.S. Government Partners
Please include this slide in your presentation in the appropriate location. Notes: Feed the Future connects U.S. Government efforts targeted at global hunger and food security. Led by USAID, Feed the Future draws on the resources and expertise of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, State and Treasury; the Millennium Challenge Corporation; the United States African Development Foundation; the Peace Corps; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; the Office of the United States Trade Representative; and the U.S. Geological Survey.

3. Presentation Introduction to the project Background of the WEAI
Findings from Ethiopia and
Tanzania
Current research in Ghana
Conclusions and next steps
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4. About the project
The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small- Scale Irrigation, a project of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future Initiative, is a five- year project in Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania aimed at benefiting the region’s farmers by improving effective use of scarce water supplies through interventions in small-scale irrigation
Activities include field interventions with water management technologies, gender training, research on irrigation-nutrition-gender linkages, and provision of data and analysis of empirical models of irrigation impacts (IDSS)
You can see all partners in the project listed on this slide.

5. The ILSSI Survey
IFPRI’s activities include collection of survey data in all three countries, as well as analysis of irrigation linkages with gender, nutrition and health
IFPRI is conducting household surveys in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana at the baseline and endline of the ILSSI project
Topics of the survey include:
Crop & livestock inputs, production and practices
Household and women’s dietary diversity
Child health, diet, feeding and anthropometry
Household shocks, assets, credit
Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI)
IFPRI activities for ILSSI include collection and analysis of household data. So that we could increase our statistical power, we expanded the sample size beyond the households with which ILSSI is working to include additional communities. We only looked at communities with irrigation access, and surveyed half irrigators and non-irrigators for TANZANIA and GHANA

6. This slide shows the Feed the Future Results Framework
This slide shows the Feed the Future Results Framework. This diagram represents the ultimate goal of the FTF program: to sustainably reduce global poverty and hunger, and the ways we are hypothesized to get there. The two pathways are inclusive agriculture sector growth, and improved nutritional status of women and children. We argue

7. Here is a summary of the pathways through which the dimensions of empowerment contribute to greater agricultural productivity. Here we are showing the Gender Integration Framework from Feed the Future to demonstrate the relationship between empowerment and agricultural productivity. It is guided by the Feed the Future results framework shown in the previous side, which on the agricultural side has the goal of inclusive agricultural growth. The idea of inclusive growth is to include often marginalized populations, such as women and the poor, in the process of agricultural development.
The green arrows indicate direct links and pathways to productivity increases. Starred items indicate the domains that the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index measures.
Some of the dimensions directly affect households’ agricultural productivity, shown with the green arrows.
For example, [GIVE EXAMPLE] [ tech – seeds; decisions to use fertilizer
But the other components that indirectly promote agricultural productivity are also important.
For example, [GIVE EXAMPLE] [more time / control over time – able to attend trainings & increase human K or be in producer group that gets has better links to extension and gets more technology through extension]
Slide Credit: Feed the Future GIF Presentation

8. Gender-irrigation linkages
Potential Gender and Irrigation Pathways
Improved maternal and child nutrition through increased diversity and quantity foods and/or increased household incomes
Improved environmental conditions for better maternal and child health outcomes
Improved income generation, decision-making power, and time allocation for women
On the negative side, potentially:
Health:
Malaria
Pollution/contamination of water sources and environmental conditions
ALSO, time allocation, decision-making etc. depending on crops, technology, and intervention approach
See Domenech, 2015 paper in Global Food Security
These are some of the hypothesized pathways we believe link irrigation and gender. Some of these are more directly related to empowerment (and can be investigated through the WEAI), while others are related to gender and inclusive growth, such as nutrition, though we measure them through other indicators such as women and children’s dietary diversity.
[List and discuss]
However, not all of these pathways can be achieved automatically by adopting irrigation. For example, we often see irrigation associated with higher value crops, which can become a man’s domain. Therefore, to achieve inclusive growth and maximize benefits of irrigation, it is important to include and target women throughout the process of irrigation development.
Photo Source: IWMI, Ethiopia

9. The women’s empowerment in agriculture index
A survey-based tool developed by USAID, IFPRI, Oxford and the Human Development Initiative
The WEAI measures the empowerment, agency and inclusion of women in the agriculture sector using the 5 domains of empowerment (5DE) to the right and the Gender Parity Index
Production, resource, income, leadership and time use
Both of these scores are weighted and aggregated to create the WEAI
WEAI is on a scale from zero to one, with higher values = greater empowerment
The WEAI is a survey-based tool, asked of both the main male and female decisionmakers in a household used to determine inclusion of women in domains important to the agricultural sector. There are multiple domains of empowerment. Whereas previous measurements were only able to measure individual domains, the WEAI has the advantage of measuring five domains that are important in the agricultural sector. The five domains of empowerment in the agricultural sector measured in the WEAI include Production decision-making, access to productive resources, control over use of income, community leadership, and time allocation. These are measured through 10 individual indicators in the survey based tool, and weighted using the weighting scheme listed on the right. In addition to the domains, the WEAI calculated score also includes the Gender Parity Index. This component takes into account the male counterpart’s responses to the 10 indicators and calculates a how many women achieve parity with their husband, and for those who do not, how great is the gap of inadequacy.

10. The 5 domains of empowerment (5DE)

11. Baseline WEAI scores, published 2014
WEAI score: The overall WEAI score for Ghana is The 5DE and GPI scores are presented in Table 1 and discussed below. • 5DE score: The 5DE index value is Overall, percent of women have achieved adequate empowerment. Those who are not yet empowered (72.50 percent) have a mean 5DE score of • GPI score: The GPI is 0.81, and percent of the women in the survey have achieved gender parity. The average empowerment gap between the percent of women without gender parity and the males in their household is 0.27.

12. Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana survey
Northern Ghana Survey Sites
Ethiopia: 15 villages, including 4 ILSSI intervention villages, November - December 2014
Tanzania: 14 villages in Kilosa and Mvomero districts, 2 of which were ILSSI intervention villages, June – July, 2015
Ghana: 12 villages surveyed, 3 ILSSI villages and 9 WLE experiment with iDE, all in Upper East
Source: IFPRI EPTD 2016

13. Household Survey Sample
Ethiopia 
Tanzania
Ghana
No.
Percent
Non-irrigating households
185
42.1%
224
49.7%
261
31.5%
Irrigating households
254
57.9%
227
50.3%
577
68.9%
Total
439
451
838*
Number of ILSSI Intervention Households
118 84
88**
Irrigators: how do we define? Anyone who uses irrigation, so loose definition.
*Ghana numbers may change slightly
**Some Ghana ILSSI farmers were part of the same joint household

14. Weai modifications
Technically, we use a “Modified WEAI” for the ILSSI project in order to better capture linkages between irrigation and gender
Modifications to the original WEAI include:
Role in decisionmaking: on irrigated food crop and cash crop farming
Autonomy in decisionmaking: types of crops to grow for irrigated vs. non-irrigated
Productive capital: also includes irrigation tank/pond and irrigation equipment
Access to information/extension: on irrigation methods
Time allocation: time spent irrigating/working with equipment
Added response options on irrigation topics for various questions on credit, savings, group membership
Technically, we use a “modified WEAI” rather than the WEAI itself. We have included some
Source: Passarelli, 2015, Tanzania ILSSI Survey Training

15. The Survey: Example

16. Initial WEAI Results from Ethiopia and Tanzania
Irrigators
Gender Parity Index
Non-irrigators
Contributors to disempowerment
Ethiopia
0.82
.90
0.85
.91
Group membership
Leisure time
Speaking in public
Credit access
Control over use of income
Tanzania
0.88
.96
0.86
.92
Autonomy in production

17. Ethiopia: Constraints to disempowerment among Women irrigators/non-irrigators

18. DecisionMaking on Irrigation in Ethiopia
Women’s Responses: Ethiopia
Irrigators
Non-Irrigators
Input into decisions on
Input on income from
Irrigated food crop farming
Irrigated cash crop farming
Non-Irrigated food crop farming
Non-Irrigated cash crop farming
No Input 0% 2% 1% 3% -  4% 5%
Input into very few decisions
14%
15%
13%
16% 8%
27% 9%
23%
Input into some decisions
52%
53%
51%
49%
41%
36%
Input into most decisions
21%
Input into all decisions
11%
24%
25%
20%
Total
100%

19. Crop choice and decision making in Ethiopia
Wife involved in plot decisions
Crop Type
Non-Irrigators
Irrigators
Number of Plots
Starch
53%
43%
1,863
Pulse 8% 7%
286
Vegetable
292
Fruit 5%
239
Inedible Cash Crop
21%
28%
989
Fallow
/cover 6%
212
Oil crop 1% 2% 56
Total
100%
3,937
Do women have higher involvement in non-irrigated crops? Looks at decisionmaking by women and jointness. All crops? Displaced by irrigation, but they do have high say in irrigated crops? Same for jointness—most of this is jointness

20. Household Food Security and Nutrition
Ethiopia
Tanzania
Non-irrigators
n=185
Irrigators
n=284
p-value of two-sided ttest
n=224
n=227
Mean
Household food insecurity access scale
5.78
4.04
0.000
3.92
2.58
0.0004
Female dietary diversity score
3.69
3.58
0.293
3.71
4.20
0.0010
Household dietary diversity
5.69
6.06
0.002
4.88
5.63
0.0002
Household Food Security and Nutrition
We see a statistically significant difference in means for household food insecurity and household dietary diversity for non-irrigators and irrigators. However, the difference in female dietary diversity is not statistically significant in Ethiopia.

21. IFPRI Activities in ETH/TZA/GH Include:
Household survey of ILSSI, all countries
Additional Activities:
WLE-iDE Irrigation Experiment in Ghana
Focus Group Discussions, all countries
Gender Training, all countries
Pro-WEAI Activity in Ghana
The two bullets you have already discussed
A Confidence Group meeting with iDE Staff in Ghana
Photo:Simone Passarelli

22. Ghana WLE Experiment
Partnering with iDE-Ghana to encourage adoption of motor pumps among random set of farmer groups
Through iDE’s agricultural extension program, farmers are organized into Trust Groups of 5 members, receive agricultural training and are encouraged to save towards investments
In intervention villages, half of trust groups are randomly selected to receive access to credit for a motor pump, to be shared among 5 members for irrigation, and the remaining villages will receive credit access at endline
Randomization allows us to observe differences in nutrition, agricultural and gender outcomes in populations with similar levels of motivation to irrigate
Onion production in one of the communities involved in the iDE Experiment
Photo Credit: Simone Passarelli, IFPRI

23. Ghana WLE Experiment Design

24. Conclusions and next steps
The ILSSI study has provided a baseline we can use to observe change across groups and over time
Irrigation and gender may indeed be linked: however, whether this relationship is beneficial for outcomes or not remains inconclusive
Women’s empowerment is not automatic with irrigation adoption, but should be implemented purposefully and in a gender-sensitive way if one expects to see impacts for gender equity—otherwise could even be negative!
The relationship between irrigation and gender likely depends on a multitude of factors, such as crop type, household structure, local extension system biases, and existing intra-household decisionmaking structures that are difficult to tease out with our sample size
Irrigation can widen the empowerment gap between men and women,

25. Next Steps
We are using individual empowerment scores to observe the relationship between irrigation and empowerment
We are looking at the relationship between the domains of empowerment, and plot-level decisionmaking, and the types of irrigation technologies and crop choices of a household
We are currently preparing a paper on the relationship between irrigation and maternal and child nutrition

26. Upcoming ILSSI Papers
Passarelli, S., Mekonnen, D., Bryan, E. and C. Ringler. “Tapping Irrigation’s Potential for Food and Nutrition Security: Evidence from Ethiopia and Tanzania.”
Bryan, E., Passarelli, S., Mekonnen, D., Domenech, L. and C. Ringler. “Small-Scale Irrigation and Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Linkages.”
Paper on constraints to irrigation adoption using data from FGD’s, TBD authorship

27. Thank you!

28. WEAI Results: Countrywide, Tanzania and Ethiopia
H: count of amount of population that is disempowered
A: of those who are disempowered: look at how disempowered they are: it’s the average of the inadequacy score, excluding those who are empowered, look at intensity of disempowerment (the higher it is, the worse it is)
MO: don’t really interpret, because just headcount*in
-5DE: careful making cross-country comparisons, designed to monitor changes over time
adequacy, so just looks at intensity
-GPI: the HGPI is the headcount of women who do not have gender parity, and the I-GPI is the gap—of the women who do not have gender parity, they have X% less parity than men (how much more empowered women would need to be to achieve gender parity). Bigger is better for the GPI
-To get the WEAI: (using the weighting scheme of .9 and .1) to get the WEAI: 5DE*.9 + GPI*.1=WEAI.