ACDI/VOCA is proud to launch the second edition of the Intervention Guide for the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index. This updated edition provides practical guidance to donors and implementers of agricultural development programs on interventions for each of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) empowerment domains. It uses an inclusive market systems and gender-responsive approach. Report co-author and gender consultant Michelle Stern explains that “the guide helps projects identify the right interventions that will both position women to access project resources and participate meaningfully in targeted markets.”
The WEAI Intervention Guide started out as an internal guidance document for ACDI/VOCA’s Feed the Future (FTF) programs. ACDI/VOCA later developed the guide for a broader audience, with funding from USAID’s Leveraging Economic Opportunities project and guidance from USAID’s Bureau for Food Security. We released a first edition in March 2015, and consulted with USAID and other partners to improve it.
To be more user-friendly and effective, the 2016 revised Intervention Guide for the WEAI includes:
- gender analysis questions for each domain
- more than 100 links to additional resources, toolkits, and case studies
- guidance on how to mitigate risks
- techniques for how to facilitate these activities through market actors
- tips on how to communicate about social and behavior change
- examples of output and outcome indicators to monitor activities on an ongoing basis
- clarity on how the guide complements other Feed the Future resources, such as the Gender Integration Framework
“There are numerous resources toolkits and case studies available for women’s empowerment in agriculture,” said Gender Technical Advisor, Lindsey Jones-Renaud. “This Intervention Guide brings them together into one convenient space. One day we hope to turn it into a web-based portal.”
The report team did a review of empirical literature to support the WEAI Intervention Guide. “We found that rigorous empirical studies about what types of interventions and activities could lead to greater empowerment, particularly within the inclusive market systems approach, are limited,” said report co-author and economist, Dr. Marya Hillesland. “As more projects use the WEAI to evaluate the impact of these interventions, development practitioners will be able to identify what works and scale up investment in women’s empowerment in agriculture activities,” added Stern.
Many ACDI/VOCA projects are already implementing recommendations from this guide, and they–as well as partner organizations–have contributed examples to the guide to improve project implementation and impact. Jenn Williamson–ACDI/VOCA’s Director of Gender Mainstreaming and Women’s Empowerment–notes, “We hope that projects, USAID staff and partner organizations will not only find the guidance and suggestions useful, but we invite them to share their ideas and examples of successful interventions.”
View the full guide: Intervention Guide for the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index.
