Strikingly similar gender gaps across countries
Initial findings from the cash-based transfers & gender impact evaluation window
By Emma Frankham, Kristen Mccollum, and Marc-Andrea Fiorina — and colleagues from the CBT & Gender Window & WFP Gender Office
In September 2021, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Office of Evaluation and the World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation department held a virtual event that shed light on initial descriptive findings from its Cash-Based Transfers and Gender Impact Evaluation Window.
This Window examines to what extent do interventions using cash-based transfers contribute to, or compromise, progress towards gender equality outcomes or the empowerment of women and girls, and under what conditions.
The first round of evaluations focuses on the impacts of providing women with cash-based transfers and opportunities to work outside the household, through the WFP’s Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) programming on making progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment.
WFP’s Kenya, Rwanda, and El Salvador country offices have completed baseline (El Salvador, Rwanda) or pilot (Kenya) data collection. In Kenya’s pilot, 275 households from 16 villages were surveyed. Whereas in Rwanda and El Salvador, more households were surveyed because they had moved beyond the pilot stage of the impact evaluation: 1,170 households from 78 villages in Rwanda, and 1,372 households from 75 villages in El Salvador. The respective Country Offices have begun implementing the intervention in Rwanda and El Salvador.
This blog presents a summary of initial observations made when comparing surveys from the three countries. Only households with both male and female heads were selected for the survey, and we interviewed every female head of household and, when possible, the male head of household. In-depth surveys asked questions covering a range of food security and gender outcomes, including time use, attitudes, agency (who gets to make decisions), food consumption scores, and well-being.
Key takeaways
1. Gender gaps are strikingly similar across countries
Gender gaps in time use, agency, and attitudes between men and women are similar across contexts. For example, as shown in the graph below, women across all three countries typically spent more time on chores and less time on leisure or paid work when compared with male heads of households. There is little gender difference for self-employed work. Although, in Kenya, women were more likely than men to spend time in self-employment.
In El Salvador, Kenya and Rwanda, women spend much more time on chores and less time on leisure and other work than men.
2. Compared to unemployed women, employed women have more agency over their time use and have more progressive attitudes
The theory of change underlying the evaluations suggests that women may gain agency through engaging in work outside the household. The descriptive data illustrates an interesting correlation. For example, on average, employed women exhibit more gender-equal attitudes and perceptions of norms about time use than unemployed women (illustrated in the graph below). Within the household (“Time Use Index” and “Attitudes Index”), employed women tend to have a more gender-equitable view of both: i) who decides women’s time use, as well as ii) attitudes towards who gets to decide (have agency over) time use. Similarly, employed women perceive their fellow community members to have more equitable attitudes about how women should spend their time (“Perception of Community Norms”). They also perceive their community as having more equitable attitudes about whether women should decide the use of their own time (“Perception of Community Attitudes”).
We don’t know yet whether female employment actually causes women to have more agency in these areas, or whether these women are employed precisely because they have more agency in the first place, which may allow them to seek out employment opportunities. One key aim of the CBT and Gender Window is to develop this causal understanding of how programming decisions may impact women’s agency.
In El Salvador, Kenya, and Rwanda, employed women’s attitudes and their perceptions of community norms are more beneficial to women: with more equal use of time, and attitudes and norms that are more gender-equal.
3. Employed women experience higher rates of intimate partner violence (psychological, physical, or sexual) versus unemployed women*
We don’t know whether female employment causes higher rates of intimate partner violence, or whether factors influence both the likelihood of female employment and intimate partner violence. However, the results from Window evaluations will allow us to have a causal understanding of how programming decisions may have implications for beneficiary protection. With support from in-country WFP Gender and Protection Officers, OEV has established a protocol to safely and ethically collect intimate partner violence (IPV) outcome data in the set of gender equality outcomes for the Window.
As John Loeser, a Young Professional (Economist) at the World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation department, notes:
This, in particular, highlights the importance of measuring IPV when we test shifting the targeting of Food [Assistance] for Assets towards women within these multiple-headed households.
In El Salvador and Rwanda, intimate partner violence is more common in households where women were employed.
* These findings apply to the El Salvador and Rwanda baseline results. Information on intimate partner violence was not collected during the pilot for households in Kenya.
How will we build on these initial findings to learn more about women’s empowerment?
As we start to collect information from households participating in programmes that complement cash transfers with other activities, we’ll be able to:
a) Understand the impacts of intentionally targeting women heads of households to receive cash and opportunities to work, compared to the status-quo programming approach (and a control group, who has not yet received the programme). Impacts are measured along a range of women’s empowerment indicators, including agency and attitudes, and across countries.
Because we’ll be collecting this comprehensive set of indicators [and] because we’re shifting this targeting and we’re doing so in a controlled manner, this is enabling us to answer these questions and inform these global and regional scale-up decisions for increasing targeting of women.
— John Loeser, DIME
b) Assess how any differences between countries affect (if at all) the impacts of targeting female heads of households with cash transfers and opportunities to work outside the home.
A brief based on the pre-analysis plan for the Window describes in further detail the goals of the Window. In the words of Jonas Heirman, Impact Evaluation Team Leader at the WFP’s Office of Evaluation, the overarching goal is to consider:
What are the decisions that we make every day, and how can they be made in a more strategic and conscious way to actually target these women’s empowerment and gender outcomes?
We are seeking three more countries for this set of impact evaluations. If you are interested in finding out more contact Felipe Dunsch or Kristen McCollum at the WFP’s Office of Evaluation.
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