Assets: Keys to Prosperity
1 like4,229 views
The document discusses the importance of assets in enhancing well-being, particularly focusing on women's asset ownership and its impact on family outcomes such as education and nutrition. It highlights findings from the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project (GAAP), which examined how agricultural development affects men's and women's assets across various projects in Africa and South Asia. The study stresses that while projects can increase assets and participation, the distribution of benefits within households is complex, with implications for gender equity and agricultural research.
Assets: Keys to Prosperity
- 1. Assets: Keys to Prosperity Ruth Meinzen-Dick, IFPRI Nancy Johnson, IFPRI Jemimah Njuki, IDRC Agnes Quisumbing, IFPRI Addis Ababa, 12-14 April 2016
- 2. 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
- 3. Why focus on women’s assets? Intrahousehold literature shows the importance of women’s asset ownership for important individual and family outcomes like education and nutrition. Within households, it matters who owns the assets
- 4. Assets Well-being Livelihood strategy Full income Consumption Savings/ Investment Shocks Men WomenJoint Context: Ecological, social, economic, and political factors GAAP Conceptual Framework
- 5. FOR EXAMPLE: Men and women have different rights to own land and different access to irrigation, and therefore experience low levels of rainfall differently.
- 6. Assets Well-being Livelihood strategy Full income Consumption Savings/ Investment Shocks Men WomenJoint Context: Ecological, social, economic, and political factors GAAP Conceptual Framework Assets
- 7. Assets can be owned individually or jointly, but joint ownership does not mean an asset is owned EQUALLY.
- 8. Assets The jointness may not always be an equal division
- 9. Assets Well-being Livelihood strategy Full income Consumption Savings/ Investment Shocks Men WomenJoint Context: Ecological, social, economic, and political factors GAAP Conceptual Framework Assets Livelihood strategy
- 11. Assets Well-being Livelihood strategy Full income Consumption Savings/ Investment Shocks Men WomenJoint Context: Ecological, social, economic, and political factors GAAP Conceptual Framework Assets Livelihood strategy Shocks
- 13. Assets Well-being Livelihood strategy Full income Consumption Savings/ Investment Shocks Men WomenJoint Context: Ecological, social, economic, and political factors GAAP Conceptual Framework Full income Livelihood strategy
- 14. VEGGIES CASH CROPS/STAPLES Full income Livelihood strategy FULL INCOME is not only the cash that the family brings in (via cash crops and wage income) but also the value of crops for home consumption, and most importantly, the value of a family member’s TIME.
- 15. Assets Well-being Livelihood strategy Full income Consumption Savings/ Investment Shocks Men WomenJoint Context: Ecological, social, economic, and political factors GAAP Conceptual Framework Consumption Savings/inves tment Full income
- 17. Consumption Savings/inves tment Full income SAVINGS FUTURE LAND TITLE DOWRY INVESTMENT FARM EQUIPMENT FERTILIZER TO INCREASE YEILDS DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEM
- 18. Consumption Savings/inves tment Full income DOWRY FERTILIZER TO INCREASE YEILDS SAVINGS FULL INCOME Consumption Savings & Investment
- 19. Assets Well-being Livelihood strategy Full income Consumption Savings/ Investment Shocks Men WomenJoint Context: Ecological, social, economic, and political factors Men WomenJoint GAAP Conceptual Framework
- 20. Well-being Consumption Assets Savings/inves tment Education and food security enhance well-being Educating children, saving up for a daughter’s dowry so that she has assets in her marriage, or buying a plot of land as an investment all increase one’s well-being and stock of assets Having land can make one feel more secure, allowing one to invest and plan ahead even before they generate income or crops from that land. Health Nutritional status Empowerment GAAP Conceptual Framework
- 21. GAAP Conceptual Framework Assets Well-being Livelihood strategy Full income Consumption Savings/ Investment Shocks Men WomenJoint Context: Ecological, social, economic, and political factors
- 22. The Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project (GAAP) Sought to answer the question: What is the impact of agricultural development projects on men’s and women’s assets and the gender asset gap? Funded by BMGF from 2010-2014. Led by IFPRI and ILRI. Based on evidence from the evaluation of 8 projects in Africa and South Asia Projects were already doing evaluations; GAAP provided a top up to look at gender and assets
- 23. Projects had diverse interventions and approaches to gender Project implementer Country Main agricultural intervention Approach to gender at start of project* Landesa India Land transfer and regularization Gender aware BRAC Bangladesh Land and livestock transfer Gender aware CARE Bangladesh Increasing production and income Gender transformative Land O’Lakes Mozambique Cow transfer Gender blind Helen Keller International Burkina Faso Land and tools transfer Gender transformative HarvestPlus Uganda Increasing access to planting material of micronutrient food Gender aware IRRI India Increase awareness and availability of agricultural technologies Gender blind KickStart Kenya and Tanzania Marketing of pumps Gender blind
- 24. And approaches to evaluation Project implementer Evaluation design (Quantitative) Landesa Propensity-weighted regressions BRAC Randomized controlled trial CARE Propensity-weighted regressions Land O’Lakes Early vs. late cow recipients Helen Keller International Randomized controlled trial HarvestPlus Randomized controlled trial Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia Comparator control villages KickStart* Early vs. late pump buyers
- 25. 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
- 26. “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: Land O’Lakes 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)
- 27. Who gets to come? In Land O’lakes program, training was initially given only to men because they own cows. But women play an important role in dairying, so the cows suffered. Training was expanded to 2 members per household. Photocredit:LandO’Lakes-Mozambique:MSDDP
- 28. Who within the household decides what to grow? The HarvestPlus REU project in Uganda found that the probability of orange-flesh sweetpotato (OSP) adoption was highest for parcels over which there was joint control but where women took the lead in deciding which crops were grown. The probability of adopting OSP was lowest for parcels exclusively controlled by men. Photocredit:HarvestPlusUganda
- 29. 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. Photocredit:KickstartInternational
- 30. 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
- 31. Agricultural interventions can affect the gendered use, control, and ownership of assets Project increased household assets, and projects that targeted women increased women’s assets. Photocredit:HKI’sEnhancedHomestead FoodProduction(E-HFP)
- 32. This was true even for projects that did not distribute assets. Men were also able to build assets through projects, even those that targeted women. Photocredit:AkramAli,CAREBangladeshSDVCproject
- 33. In some cases, increases in assets were associated with greater participation in decisionmaking, but not all. Photocredit:SupriyaChatterjee,Landesa
- 34. Both projects in Bangladesh increased women’s assets but contributed to a shift towards women working inside the home. Photocredit:BRAC
- 35. Most projects, especially livestock projects, were associated with increases in labor of women and other household members. Photocredit:LandO’Lakes-Mozambique:MSDDP
- 36. All projects reported increased production and income, however women were usually not able to maintain control of income when output was sold. Photocredit:AkramAli/CAREBangladesh)t
- 37. Project beneficiaries reported a range of intangible benefits including self esteem, family unity and mobility. They also noted shifts in community attitudes about gender, including women’s ability to own assets such as land. Photocredit:LandO’Lakes-Mozambique:MSDDP
- 38. Conclusions Projects that unambiguously benefit households may have mixed effects on individuals within those household, especially women In general projects provide evidence supporting the conceptual framework, however the outcomes are complex and often imply trade offs More research is needed to understand and measure how assets affect and are affected by agricultural development, in different contexts
- 39. Implications for agricultural research Our findings from GAAP can be used to inform agricultural research and development to enhance uptake and impact. Agricultural research has typically focused on increasing yields and productivity, and only more recently, poverty reduction An assets perspective highlights asset-related barriers to adoption of agricultural technologies; a gender-assets perspective focuses on differences in barriers than men and women face A gendered perspective also sharpens the focus on well-being, more broadly defined, and links agricultural research to health and nutrition outcomes that we also want to improve