IFAD Research Series 74: Women’s empowerment, food systems and nutrition

She is co-developer of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) and the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) and is co-editor of the book Gender in Agriculture: Closing the knowledge gap. [...] Overview and objectives Food systems are the sum of actors and interactions along the food value chain, from input supply and the production of crops, livestock, fish and other agricultural commodities to transportation, processing, retailing, wholesaling and the preparation of foods to their consumption and disposal (Fan and Swinnen 2020). [...] The Index is composed of two sub-indices: the Five Domains of Empowerment (5DE), which reflects the extent of women’s empowerment as measured by the five domains; and the Gender Parity Index (GPI), which reflects women’s empowerment in relation to the lead male decision maker in their household. [...] Our analysis of the links between women’s empowerment and nutrition improves on existing analyses by: (1) using a standardized measure of women’s empowerment, the WEAI; (2) examining the correlates of women’s empowerment and gender equality with a range of household-, woman- and child-level nutrition outcomes in six countries in Asia and Africa (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Ghana, Mozambique and T. [...] 10 Women’s empowerment, food systems and nutrition 3.2 Insights from value chain studies in four countries in Asia and Africa What factors in different value chains, contexts and countries are conducive to greater empowerment of women and greater gender equality? To answer this question, we examine the correlates of women’s and men’s empowerment and gender equality using data from the four countri.