Evaluation 2017, Washington D.C. Afrina Choudhury, Steven M. Cole and Cynthia McDougall

1. Measuring gender transformative
change: case examples from
Bangladesh and Zambia
Evaluation 2017, Washington D.C.
Afrina Choudhury, Steven M. Cole and Cynthia McDougall

2. Contents of the presentation
• Bangladesh Case
• Zambia Case
• Project Evaluation Designs
• Findings
• Reflections on measuring gender transformative change

3. Case 1:
Testing a gender transformative approach together with a fish
harvesting technology for women
Bangladesh

4. Project focus
• Aquaculture for Income and Nutrition (AIN)
project implemented in 18 villages in Southwest
Bangladesh
• Piloted fish harvesting technology designed for
women to enable frequent harvesting of nutrient-
rich mola from homestead ponds
• Piloted gender consciousness raising exercise to
reduce normative barriers to women at
household level
• Piloted community gender exercises to reduce
normative barriers at community level

5. Research questions
What is the impact of combining a multi-
scale gender transformative approach
together with a women-targeted
technology (i.e. gill net) on women’s
empowerment and on technology
adoption?

6. Case 2:
Testing a gender transformative approach together with improved
post-harvest fish processing technologies
Zambia

7. Project focus
• 6 fishing camps in Barotse Floodplain, western Zambia
(252 project participants)
• Design/test improved fish processing technologies with
people in fishing camps to help reduce post-harvest losses
• Design/test a gender transformative communication (GTC)
tool in 3 out of 6 fishing camps to help address gender
constraints that prohibit especially women from participating
in and benefiting from fishery value chain activities
• Implement a practical gender approach (PGA) in all 6
camps to accommodate gender norms that often limit
women’s participation in project-related activities

8. Research questions
Left picture: a prototype solar tent dryer that the project introduced in the fishing camps.
Through PAR, group members modified the technology (right pictures) to fit the local context and their needs.
How does a gender accommodative approach compare to a gender
transformative approach in terms of influence on women’s empowerment
outcomes in a post-harvest fish loss reduction intervention?

9. Project evaluation designs and findings

10. Project evaluation designs
Bangladesh
• Gill net piloted with 155 women from 18 villages
• HH GTA piloted in 86 households across 10
villages
• Community GTA piloted in the same 10 villages
with 251 community members
• Control group of 50 women who did not
participate in any of this research activities
• Baseline (December 2015) and endline
(December 2016) assessments carried out in all
18 villages
• Longitudinal empowerment data on 193 HHs
and attitude survey with 458 community
members
Zambia
• Practical gender approach carried out in all
6 fishing camps
• Drama skits piloted (mid-2016) in 3 out of
the 6 fishing camps
• Baseline (June 2015) and endline
(December 2016) assessments carried out
in all 6 fishing camps
• Longitudinal data on 80 of the 250 project
participants

11. Main evaluation tools
Bangladesh
Adapted WEAI and WEFI Empowerment Survey (ES)
Gender Attitude Survey (AS)
Zambia
Adapted WEAI: Women’s Empowerment in Fisheries
Index (WEFI)
Dimensions Empowerment +Attitude
Survey
Resources: Critical
consciousness
Pa: Self-efficacy
Pb: Self-confidence
Resources: Assets C: Land & ponds
L: Credit
Hb: Time allocation
Family I: Gendered perceptions
K: Mobility
Decision making Ja: Decision making
Leadership Na: Leadership
Collective action Nb: Group membership
Women’s Empowerment in Fisheries Index (WEFI)
Module Content
1 participation in value chain activities and inputs into decisions about the
activities and income generated
2 ownership of key value chain assets
3 access to extension services
4 confidence speaking in public about fisheries-related issues
5 gender attitudes
6 time use

12. Preliminary findings: Bangladesh
• GTA integration has helped explore and
address the social and gender attitudes and
beliefs that prescribe women’s roles
• Technologies conducive for women +GTA
strategies can prompt independent
involvement and decision making
• Women report the positive influence the
involvement of their spouse, family and
community members had on their adoption
• Data show positive change in empowerment
outcomes especially aquaculture-related
decision making, consumption, gender
attitudes and self-efficacy
A man will be considered less of a man if his wife catches fish
Either a man or a women could successfully operate or manage a fish pond
0
20
40
60
80
100
Baseline Endline Baseline Endline
Intervention Control
Percent
Strongly agree Partially agree
0
20
40
60
80
Baseline Endline Baseline Endline
Intervention Control
Percent
Strongly agree Partially agree Disagree

13. Changes in gender attitudes: Zambia
*Women and men were asked to respond “agree” = 1,
“partially agree” = 2, or “disagree” = 3 to eight statements
that reflected current gender norms and practices such as
“women should not get involved in fishing fulltime, this is a
man’s responsibility” and “women should primarily be the
ones who clean and process fish” and “men should primarily
be the ones who control the earnings obtained from the sale
of fish.” Responses to each statement (8 total) were
summed to arrive at a total score.
Higher scores indicate more gender equal attitudes.
Gender attitude scores* Baseline Endline p-value
Total 18.68 22.67 0.0000
PGA 18.97 21.18 0.0286
PGA+GTC 18.47 23.76 0.0000
Women 19.76 23.06 0.0000
PGA 20.07 22.17 0.1014
PGA+GTC 19.55 23.60 0.0000
Men 17.87 22.39 0.0000
PGA 18.20 20.62 0.0913
PGA+GTC 17.60 23.88 0.0000

14. Women’s empowerment: Zambia
• More women who participated in PGA+GTC made larger contributions to decisions
about income from fish processing and trading
45
65
94 94
0
20
40
60
80
100
Processing Trading
baseline
enline
Women who made larger inputs into decisions about
income from fish processing and trading (%)
• More women who participated in PGA+GTC
increased their involvement in fishing
5
75
0
20
40
60
80
baseline enline
Women who fished over the past 12 months (%)

15. Changes in men’s asset ownership status: Zambia
• Amongst men who participated in PGA+GTC, a significant shift was observed in their
fishing gear ownership status from sole ownership to joint ownership with their spouse
50
40
19
76
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Outright Jointly with spouse
baseline
enline
Men who own fishing gear (%)

16. Reflections on Measuring Gender Transformative (GT)
Change

17. Reflections on measuring GT change
• Required pretesting, piloting prior to implementing, day to day refining
• Modules had to be dropped and/or modified for adaption of WEAI
• The WEAI had to be contextualised to aquaculture in Bangladesh and
fisheries in Zambia
• Social change takes time to unfold and longitudinal designs as well as
attitude surveys provided a glimpse of how changes in attitudes over
time could result in changes in behaviours

18. • Adding the gender attitudes scale to the WEFI added a useful layer of casual
information related to gender transformative change
• Gender capacities of partners were low to begin with and it took time to develop their
capacities using a blended learning hands on approach. Gender exercises had
insightful realisation impacts on partners in Bangladesh.
• The WEFI has been mentioned in the gender evaluation of the CG as a useful
adaptation of the WEAI. WEFI overall has proven useful in understanding various
domains of empowerment in a fisheries context.
• The goal was not to develop an index but to get an understanding of the differences in
the levels of empowerment indicators across the different nodes. Merging quantitative
with qualitative helps substantiate the data.
Reflections on measuring GT change

19. Thank You