2. Why the WEAI?
• Developed to measure the greater inclusion of
women in agricultural sector growth that has
occurred as a result of US Government
intervention under the Feed the Future (FTF)
Initiative
• Feed the Future defines it as:“the empowerment of
women in their roles and engagement throughout
the various areas of the agriculture sector, as it
grows, in both quantity and quality”
3. What is new about the WEAI?
• An aggregate index in two parts:
– Five domains of empowerment (5DE): assesses whether
women are empowered in the 5 domains of
empowerment in agriculture
– Gender Parity Index (GPI): reflects the percentage of
women who are as empowered as the men in their
households
• It is a survey-based index, not based on aggregate statistics or
secondary data, constructed using interviews of the primary
male and primary female adults in the same household
4. Bangladesh
• Important for the development of
theWEAI because it was one of
the three countries whereWEAI
was piloted
AND
• First timeWEAI was calculated
using a nationally representative
survey, IFPRI’s 2011-12
Bangladesh Integrated Household
Survey
5. Presentations in this session
1) Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture:What role for
food security in Bangladesh
2) Women’s Empowerment and Agricultural Productivity
in Bangladesh
3) The WEAI Global Synthesis Report: Cross-country
comparisons from 13 countries
