Development Works Number 5, December 2012 | Page 4

to put her in the “empowered” category on the Index.
As these women, their neighbors, and thousands of others participate in Feed the Future programs intended to reduce hunger in rural areas, they will be scored again on the
Index to help determine whether and how changes occur—
and how their empowerment status influences their success
in farming and their children’s nutritional status.
Bread for the World Institute staff visited Bangladesh in
April 2012 to see how U.S. development assistance is enabling rural communities to improve nutrition, especially
among young children. For all the country’s progress, malnutrition is still its major development challenge. While
nutrition programs have interlocking components designed
to bring change over time, two examples of activities that
visitors can show up and watch are “courtyard talks” and
monthly growth monitoring sessions.
Young women accompanied by babies and toddlers come

how programs need to support women’s leadership and full
participation—plus a plan to provide this support.

Empowerment and Reducing Hunger

Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World

The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index was
launched in 2012 by Feed the Future in cooperation with
the U.S.-based International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI) and the U.K.-based Oxford University Poverty and
Human Development Initiative. The Index evaluates the effectiveness of agriculture programs by tracking changes in
different aspects of female farmers’ decision-making power.
Examples of what goes into “empowerment” scores include
influence in decisions as to what to plant, if and when to
buy or sell assets, and how to organize work schedules.
Women’s empowerment scores are compared to those of
men in the household, since there are situations where no one
has a particularly high empowerment score and other cases
where there is a sharp “empowerment gap” between men and
women. The Index was piloted in Guatemala, Uganda, and
Bangladesh. They were chosen so data from three continents
could help verify that the idea of measuring something called
“empowerment in agriculture” made sense.
Americans rarely hear much about Bangladesh beyond
the occasional news story about widespread flooding. But
while it’s a poor country already coping with climate change,
Bangladesh has also achieved steady economic growth, become self-sufficient in rice production, and is on track to
lower child mortality by two-thirds by 2015, as called for in
the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.
Aysha, Seema, and Naju are three young Bangladeshi
farmers, ages 25-35, who participated in the pilot phase of
the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index. Aysha
had an arranged marriage at the age of 13 and has two children. She says that although she and her husband discuss
matters related to their land or livestock, he makes the final decisions on all issues. Seema left school at 12 because
her mother died. She considers empowerment the ability to
work, gain assets, and send her three children to school; she
does not believe that women should aspire to influential positions. Aysha’s and Seema’s scores on the Index indicated
that they are disempowered overall and also less empowered
than their husbands.
Naju, who is divorced with one child, says that ideally,
both husband and wife should be involved in making decisions. Naju has a high school diploma, but her fatherin-law did not allow her to continue in college after she
married. She says that men make the important decisions
in Bangladeshi society, but also believes that women who
work and make decisions as farmers are powerful because
they themselves grow crops. Naju’s score was high enough

to courtyard talks to learn, from facilitators and each other,
about the nutrients people need and ways of making sure
their children get foods that contain them. Every participant in one such meeting could name local foods that are
rich in vitamin A, for example. (If anyone forgot, she could
turn to the group’s set of laminated nutrition cards, which
are labeled by nutrient and show photos of good sources).
Growth monitoring sessions—familiar to many American
parents as well—verify that a baby is gaining enough weight
to stay on his or her growth curve. Fortunately, mild to
moderate malnutrition generally shows up on the curve before it is clearly visible to parents or health professionals, so
it can be detected and treated earlier.
Long-term investments in agricultural productivity, with
a particular focus on female farmers, will have a transformative impact in developing countries, helping them to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals and build
more resilient and empowered communities.
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World Bank/Arne Hoel

Tohomina Akter, 18 and part of an effort to help prevent stunting
by cultivating vegetables, picks amaranth in Barisal, Bangladesh.