By Agnes Quisumbing at the 2019 ReSAKSS Annual Conference

1. Measuring women’s empowerment: towards a women’s
empowerment metric for national statistical systems
Agnes Quisumbing, IFPRI

2. Why do we want to measure
empowerment? Why on a national scale?
• Sustainable Development Goal 5 SDG5: Achieve gender equality
and empower all women and girls
• But to monitor progress towards women’s empowerment and gender
equality, we need indicators
• What’s measured, matters
• CAADP: requires 5DE (5 Dimensions of Empowerment from
Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) in Biennial
Report
• Can our statistical systems produce these indicators? Are there
better indicators to use?

3. Overview
• Measuring empowerment using the WEAI
• WEAI versions
• Limitations of the WEAI
• Opportunity to develop a Women’s Empowerment Measure for
National Statistical Systems for 50 x 2030:
• What do YOU want to measure?

4. The various material,
human, and social
resources that serve to
enhance one’s ability to
exercise choice
The capacity to define one’s own
goals and make strategic choices in
pursuit of these goals, particularly
in a context where this ability was
previously denied
The achievement
of one’s goals
Agency
AchievementsResources
What is empowerment?
(Kabeer 1999)
What does empowerment mean in the African context?

5. Starting point: the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
(WEAI)
• Developed by USAID, IFPRI & OPHI
• Launched in 2012
• Measures inclusion of women in the agricultural
sector
• Survey-based index - interviews men and women in
the same household
• Designed to look at decisionmaking and control over
livelihoods, resources, and income (both sole and
joint), mostly in agriculture, and in population-based
surveys

6. Where in the world is WEAI?
2019: 55 countries, WEAI and relatives
19 population-based surveys, 99 organizations, including academic orgs
and NGOs

7. WEAI achievements
• Some form of WEAI-based empowerment metric collected in 55 countries by 99
organizations
• Governments interested in using WEAI at the national level
• CAADP: requires 5DE in Biennial Report
• Bangladesh: collected and used WEAI to inform national-level outcomes
• Ethiopia: expressed interest in using WEAI for national programs
• Rwanda: A-WEAI
• IADB using it in impact evaluations in Nicaragua and Bolivia, mainstreaming it in land
titling projects in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru

8. Adapting WEAI for project use in GAAP2 (Gender, Agriculture,
and Assets Project Phase 2)
• Demand from organizations for a WEAI suitable for project use;
supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, A4NH
• Portfolio of 13 agricultural development projects: develop and
pilot a WEAI for project use and use it in impact evaluations
• Elements that are relevant to 50 x 2030
• Portfolio approach
• Responsiveness to projects’ needs in design of instruments
and protocols
• A lot of consultation and triangulation across methods
• Standardized metric developed

9. Evolution of WEAI Metrics
WEAI A-WEAI Pro-WEAI
Core
Health &
Nutrition
Livestock
Market
Inclusion
WEAI A-WEAI
 

10. Lessons learned from the WEAI and pro-
WEAI development process
• Involvement of stakeholders from the start
• Need for clarity of concepts
• Importance of cognitive interviewing
• Consequences of sampling decisions (e.g. not interviewing men,
project-based vs. population-based sampling)
• Importance of independent validation (Emory work on psychometric
validation) for index validity and shortening questionnaire
• Importance of qualitative work to ground concepts and interpret results
• Importance of openness, transparency, and flexibility

11. Feedback from GAAP2 partner projects piloting pro-WEAI: Problems and solutions
Feedback Response Comments
Need a shorter questionnaire Working on it (see next slide) Shorten questionnaire based on
psychometric validation
Implementing tool as stand-alone
vs integrated survey has cost and
logistics implications
Integrating in existing
questionnaire
Test integrated WEAI vs original
Translation Need to consider systematically Can partially address in cognitive
interviewing
Questionnaire easy to understand
and use
Qualitative methods provided
insight and were useful
Need systematic way to address
contradictions between qual
and quant (not a bad thing, but
strengthens the work)
Qual helped to identify what
constraints were not relevant in
particular contexts

12. Proposed Process for Developing WEMNS
Compare Qxs
(lessons
learned)
Consult
stakeholders
Draft short
form
Stakeholder
review
Add to
existing Qxs
(IFAD)
Conduct CIs (4
50x2030 cos)
Conduct
surveys
Validate short
formDisseminate
short form

13. Proposed Process for Developing WMENS
• Assess lessons learned; compare questionnaires
• Consult stakeholders
Stocktaking exercise with country governments, in collaboration with the 50x2030
partners: what aspects of women’s empowerment are most relevant for their
own development priorities?
• Draft short form
• Stakeholder review
• Add to existing questionnaires (IFAD or LSMS)
• Cognitive interviewing
• Conduct surveys (ideally population-based sample)
• Validate short form—disseminate short form (after validation)
• Develop index or scale
• Repeat

14. We are eager to hear from you!
Photo: Grameen Foundation