Conceptual Framework and Key

MessagesRuth Meinzen-Dick and Agnes Quisumbing

International Food Policy Research Institute

Washington DC

May 8, 2014

Source: Gender, Assets, and Agricultural Development Programs: A Conceptual Framework http://www.capri.cgiar.org/pdf/capriwp99.pdf

GAAP conceptual framework

Why focus on assets?

• Access to, control over, and ownership of assets are critical components of well-being

• Productive assets can generate products or services that can be consumed or sold to generate income

• Assets are stores of wealth that can increase in value

• Assets can act as collateral and facilitate access to credit, financial services, increase social status

• Assets give individuals the capability to be and to act

• Increasing control over assets enables more permanent pathways out of poverty compared to increased incomes or consumption alone

Assets

•Natural•Physical•Financial•Human•Social•Political

•Use•Control•Ownership

Assets

•Natural•Physical•Financial•Human•Social•Political

•Enable livelihoods•Resist shocks•Direct effect on well-being

Assets

•Natural•Physical•Financial•Human•Social•Political

•Enable livelihoods•Resist shocks•Direct effect on well-being

Jointness

Women’s Men’s

JOINT

Jointness

Women’s Men’s

JOINT

♀ Livelihood Strategies

•What are the livelihood options available to women and men? •What assets do those livelihoods require?•Are women (or men) precluded from good livelihoods by lack of assets?

Shocks

•What are the major shocks that affect women, men, and households?•How do women, men respond to shocks?•What role do assets play in responding to shocks?

♀ Full Income

• Includes cash and direct consumption• What affects the income women and men earn?• What affects the control of income within the household?

♀ Consumption

• Includes food and nonfood• How are women’s, men’s, and joint income used for different types of consumption by different family members? • What affects decisions on consumption? (Does control of assets play a role?)

♀ Savings/Investment

• Feeds back to + or – asset accumulation•How are women’s, men’s, and joint income used for different types of investment by different family members? • What affects decisions on investment?• Are there enough mechanisms for women to build assets?

Well-Being•Health•Nutritional status•Time use•Stress•Empowerment•etc.

Project intervention approaches

Partner Country Assets transferred Gender view of project

BRAC Bangladesh Cattle, goats, poultry birds, or land for

horticulture

Gender aware

CARE Bangladesh None Gender transformati

veHarvest Plus

Uganda Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) vines

Gender aware

HKI Burkina Faso Hens, seeds Gender transformati

veKickstart Kenya and

TanzaniaNone Gender blind

Landesa India Land titles, basic inputs (seeds)

Gender aware

Land O’Lakes

Mozambique Improved dairy cows and training inputs

Gender blind

CGIAR CSISA

India None Gender blind

Project Evaluation design GAAP contributionLandesa Propensity weighted

regressionQual work (FGDs, KIIs, life histories); input into quant survey module

BRAC CFPR-TUP

Randomized controlled trial (RCT)

Qual work; input into gender and assets modules in endline

CARE-SDVC

Propensity weighted regression

Qual work; input into gender and assets modules, additional modules for endline

LOL MSDDP

Early vs. late livestock recipients

Qual work (FGDs, KIIs, life histories); input into quant survey module

HKI-EHFP RCT Qual work; input into gender and assets modules

Harvest Plus REU

RCT Qual work, including social network analysis; input into gender and assets modules

CGIAR CSISA

Econometric approaches; Experimental auction

Qual and asset module in mid-line quant survey; Funding for analysis time to focus on social networks

KickStart Early vs. late pump buyers

Funding for qualitative work

Project approaches to evaluation

Two main findings that cut across projects

Gendered use, control, and ownership of assets affect the take-up of agricultural interventions

Agricultural interventions affect the gendered use, control, and ownership of assets

“if you build it, they will come” “If you have a good intervention, people will

participate”…not necessarily

For example, dairy value chain projects require having a cow!

Different approaches to this:

Target households that already have cows: CARE-Bangladesh

Transfer cows: BRAC-Targeting Ultra Poor

Transfer cows and provide training: LandOLakes Mozambique

Other projects (e.g. Kickstart treadle pumps) have market driven approaches—no subsidy on pump buying

Dissemination of seeds, new varieties, assume use or control rights over land (even if not ownership)

Who gets to come?

In LandOlakes program, training was initially given only to men. But women are heavily involved in dairy: cows suffered. Training expanded to 2 members per household.

Who within the household decides what to grow?

See presentation by Dan Gilligan and Neha Kumar!

Do men and women have equal control of resources that enable adoption?

Kickstart: Adoption of treadle pumps by women buyers was much lower than that of male buyers, owing to women’s limited financial resources.

Projects often propose solutions to the “need asset to adopt” problem

Landesa• West Bengal allocation of

microplots: • Allocate microplots to

households, prioritize female-headed households and widows

• Joint titling to primary male and female adult

• Odisha government land titling programs• Grant title to households

already occupying government land

• Distribute individual title to households residing on previously communally-titled land.

• Make sure woman’s name on patta

Burkina HKI Enhanced Homestead Food Production project• Make land available for

community gardens through agreements with land owners

Agricultural interventions can affect the gendered use, control, and ownership of assets

In HKI’s E-HFP, adoption of home gardens was high among participants and women maintained control over vegetable and chicken production, however men took over goats

Landesa’s Nijo Griha, Nijo Bhumi (NGNB) program in West Bengal increased women’s perceived tenure security as compared to control households where women’s names were not on titles (Santos et al 2013).

The Landesa West Bengal study found that where the woman’s name was on the land title, she was more likely to report participating in household food purchase and consumption decisions.

Photo credit: Supriya Chatterjee, Landesa

Preliminary conclusions Projects that unambiguously benefit households may have

mixed effects on individuals within those household, especially women (BRAC-TUP)

Many projects succeeded in increasing women’s assets, but narrowing the gender asset gap is harder

Strengthening women’s control of assets can enhance their participation in decisions about how assets are used (Landesa)

Preliminary conclusions

Assets and related livelihood strategies can increase demands on time, especially for women (CARE-BD)

Women have a hard time maintaining control of income from assets (most)

Intangible benefits, especially related to norms, are important for women and may signal longer term changes (CARE-BD, BRAC, HKI)