Science Forum 2013 (www.scienceforum13.org) Breakout Session 7: Facilitating Research Uptake Jennifer Nielsen, Helen Keller International

1. EHFP AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
Jennifer Nielsen, PhD, Senior Program Manager for Nutrition & Health
Science Forum 2013 – 24 September

2. • ENA Training
• Community Health Worker
Support
• Ag orientation
CHW
Mothers’
Groups
HH Gardens
VMF-FFS
Village Model Farm
Farmer Field School
Demo-training-supplies
• Ag Training
• Ag Inputs
• ENA Training
• ENA Venue
• Market Linkages
• Value Chain
• Ag Inputs
• Ag Training
Agricultural
Extension
AGRICULTURE ELEMENT
• Market Linkages-Value Chain
• Ag Inputs
• Ag Training
HFs
Equity
• Food for Work
• Options for Landless
• Urban Gardening
• ENA Training
NUTRITION ELEMENT
• Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA)
• Coordination for HH messaging
• Linkages to Health Facilities (HF)
Key
• Project Provides
• Project Facilitates
HKI’S ENHANCED HOMESTEAD FOOD PRODUCTION MODEL
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

3. • Improve capacity among individuals
and communities to recognize and
meet nutritional needs of both
current and future generations.
• Create conditions for empowerment
and improved quality of life through
participatory approaches that foster
shared responsibility for ensuring
optimal food, health and care.
• Promote social inclusion & equity
NUTRITION, FOOD SECURITY & EQUITY GOALS OF EHFP

4. • Women’s knowledge, self-efficacy & HH support for adoption of
essential nutrition actions; the highest priority
• Skills, assets for nutrition-sensitive food production and
processing (to improve yield, nutrient and market value)
• Links to markets for surplus; skills for identifying & seizing
opportunities
• Increased control over production, income, investment decisions
• Right to land access
• Shared labor burden to protect family nutrition (women, infants &
young children)
DEFINING WOMEN’S “EMPOWERMENT” FOR EHFP

5. Photo © HKI / Keang Khim
EXPERIENCES IN ASIA

6. • Compared to control HH, women participants in EHFP were
significantly more likely to report non-traditional roles:
– Contribute importantly to HH production & income
– Participate in group meetings, visit parental home
– Decide how to use HH land
– Power to make (small) HH purchases
• Building women’s skills and assets for poultry production and
financial training for couples altered social norms
– Husbands accepted women’s control of poultry investments & income
– Husbands’ and in-laws’ respect for women’s increased contributions to HH grew
– Women’s exposure to valued training & education enhanced status in community
– PRA helped community reexamine norms
BANGLADESH 1993-2013: WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT MEASURES

7. • Addition of group marketing to address barriers women face to
income generation: marketing skills; pooling of surplus
BANGLADESH 1993-PRESENT: WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT MEASURES

8. • TRT women reported significantly greater ability to control assets
from poultry production
– Unadjusted OR 2.83 (1.17 – 6.85)
• Significant increases in TRT HH income
– Unadjusted OR for monthly income >4,000 NRs 1.39 (1.07 – 1.82)
• Significantly higher BMI and Hb concentration among TRT women
NEPAL RCT 2008-2012 : WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IMPACTS (AAMA)
Adjusted logistic regressions assessing effect on women’s nutrition
Binary outcome variable
Maternal underweight Maternal anemia
Treatment X time 0.63 (0.47 – 0.84)*
0.59 (0.45 – 0.76)*

9. Gender approach will target:
• Women’s lack of economic say
– Joint financial planning
– Dialogue on HH decision-making
• Women’s high work burden
– Increased male involvement in child care
• Alcohol abuse & violence
– Dialogue on community norms
CAMBODIA EHFP FISH ON FARMS 2012-2015: GENDER OBJECTIVES

10. Photo © HKI
EXPERIENCES IN AFRICA

11. • Impact evaluation showed relative
improvements in women’s assets
– Significant increase in TRT women’s assets and
in ratio of assets compared to men
– Significant increase in TRT women’s small
animal holdings
– TRT women’s control of production and income
derived from poultry
• Operations research found shifts in
community norms on land use
– Women’s access to land for homestead food
production
– Community opinions regarding women’s
capacity to produce and own or manage land
– Spill-over effect to non-beneficiary HH
BURKINA FASO RCT 2010-2012: IMPACT ON ASSETS
• Men continue to control large assets and own land
-- Land ownership by women increased modestly (from 2% to 10%)

12. • Collaboration with ICRISAT & Institut d’Economie Rurale
• Links research stations to smallholders with nutrition objectives
– Identify acceptable Fe- and ZN-rich varieties of sorghum & millet
– Promote women’s production, processing to increase bioavailability (malting,
fermenting), nutrition knowledge, recipes for complementary foods, support for
local value added and marketing
• Enhancing women’s traditional roles
– Conduct participatory research with women on improved varieties
– Helping women market improved seeds as well as packaged fortified
complementary food product for children 6-23 months
MALI BIOFORTIFICATION PROJECT:

13. Photo © HKI / George Pigdor
CONCLUSIONS

14. • EHFP and other nutrition-sensitive agriculture models that target
women for support make inroads on gender inequities, enhancing
improvements in food security, nutrition and health
• Income, assets, skills, nutrition knowledge & practice
• Status, respect, role definition, decision-making
• Gradual rather than radical change
• HKI’s sustained experience in each setting informs culturally
adapted strategies that work incrementally
• Gender equity third pillar with nutrition & agriculture (CHANGE)
• Model continually evolving and building on evidence base and local needs
• Partnerships and participatory models are fundamental
EMPOWERMENT ACHIEVEMENTS THROUGH EHFP

15. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR SUPPORT