Dr. Susan Kaaria, Senior Gender Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, recently published a new blog about using qualitative methods to understand women's empowerment. Susan is an external advisor on the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project Phase 2 (GAAP2) Portfolio, a collection of twelve projects seeking to adapt and validate a survey that measures women's empowerment in agricultural development projects. Dr. Kaaria works on one of the twelve projects, the UN Joint Programme on accelerating progress towards the economic empowerment of rural women in Ethiopia (JP-RWEE). Susan and her team have also written an extended research note on their qualitative work in Ethiopia, available here.
You can access the full blog here.
Sneak peek: In the Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia, rural women and men define an empowered person as one who has knowledge, can meet their socially constructed roles, has income-generating activities, and can use improved agricultural technology. Equally important dimensions of an empowered woman include good conduct, acceptance within the community, ability to participate in community issues, and ability to use family planning.
These are some of the findings of a study that assessed how the strategies and interventions of the UNJP RWEE Programme have contributed to the empowerment of rural women in the Adami Tulu and Yaya Gulele districts of Ethiopia. The programme accelerates economic empowerment by enhancing women’s access to both financial and non-financial services.
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