Cross-Cutting Theme on Gender

A new phase of the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project (GAAP2) provides evidence-based strategies for empowering women through 15 agricultural development projects. GAAP2 will also adapt and validate the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI). The WEAI community of practice has been expanding steadily—60 organizations in 39 countries now use the WEAI. In the Philippines, the Millennium Challenge Corporation is planning to use the WEAI to look at women’s empowerment along commodity value chains.

A new study in Bangladesh is examining the relationship between intimate partner violence and safety-net transfers. Preliminary results show that cash or food transfers, in combination with nutrition behavior change communication, can reduce verbal and physical abuse. The proposal for this work received an award from the World Bank and the Sexual Violence Research Initiative.

In Bangladesh, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a program called Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages, or ANGeL, which draws from IFPRI’s work on empowerment and includes specific behavior change communication strategies to maximize impacts on nutrition and empowerment.

A study on gender and risk management in the Sahel informed the World Bank’s risk management strategy as well as a six-country social-protection program, coordinated by the World Bank, that targets 500,000 households in West Africa.