The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (or WEAI) is the first-ever measure to directly capture women’s empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector.
Developed by USAID, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, this innovative tool tracks women’s engagement in agriculture in five areas:
Unlike any other tool, it also measures women’s empowerment relative to men within their households, providing a more robust understanding of gender dynamics within households and communities.
Feed the Future uses the index to monitor program performance and track changes in women’s empowerment that occur as a direct or indirect result of Feed the Future interventions. The initiative also uses the index for impact evaluations to examine the effectiveness of different approaches and how they impact women and men.
Data for the WEAI will be collected every two or three years in all 19 Feed the Future focus countries. Baselines were collected in 2011 and 2012. Check out the new WEAI baseline report for a comprehensive analysis of 13 countries.
The A-WEAI preserves the same five domains of empowerment ad the original WEAI: production, resources, income, leadership. and time use. However, it reduces the number of indicators from 10 to six.
Last year we launched an innovative tool to measure women’s empowerment in agriculture. Last month, we celebrated its one-year anniversary. This month, we’re highlighting how you, yes you, can access data from the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index and the tool itself.
Read MoreWomen play a critical and potentially transformative role in agricultural growth in developing countries, but they face persistent obstacles and economic constraints limiting further inclusion in agriculture. The Women’s Empowerment…
Read MoreWomen play a critical and potentially transformative role in agricultural growth in developing countries, but they face persistent obstacles and economic constraints limiting further inclusion in agriculture. The Women’s Empowerment…
Read MoreWomen play a critical and potentially transformative role in agricultural growth in developing countries, but they face persistent obstacles and economic constraints limiting further inclusion in agriculture. The Women’s Empowerment…
Read MoreIn Nigeria, one woman is leading her community to use sustainable farming methods, as well as technology, to thrive. A group of women farmers in Nigeria play a pivotal role…
Read MorePhoto Credit: West Africa Trade and Investment Hub February 24 marks the grim second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The invasion not only brought suffering to millions of Ukrainians,…
Read MoreSource: USAID On this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, learn about the contributions and challenges these researchers face Every year, International Day of Women and Girls…
Read MoreWomen have always worked in agrifood systems, but these systems have not always worked for women. That’s because barriers have stood in their way, preventing them from making their fullest contributions. Last year, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) “Status of Women in Agrifood Systems” report showed us just how slow progress has been in closing the gender gap in agriculture over the past decade. Their access to irrigation, livestock, land ownership and extension services has barely budged over the past decade. Also, they are facing these challenges at a time of immense global shocks.
Read More
