completed· Gender· Livelihoods

Synthesis of IDRC’s use of women’s empowerment indicators

Women’s empowerment and gender analysis is one of the key priorities for IDRC. Yet, most projects supported by the Centre lack common methods and indicators to measure how they are contributing to women’s empowerment. It has been a challenge to measure how well different types of projects or project-implementation strategies contribute to empowering women. This synthesis will examine twelve recent IDRC-funded projects in the agriculture and food security sector, all of which have a strong gender focus, to assess two major tools: the Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) and the Women in Livestock Empowerment Index (WELI). The synthesis is expected to generate results and lessons on the projects’ achievements, and on the use of the tools, with key recommendations for their effective use in other programs. The information will also feed directly into the work at the CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) on women’s empowerment indices and their application across various projects and initiatives.