The Pre-Conference Methods Workshop, “Women’s Economic Empowerment and Development: Issues in Measurement and Defining Causal Impact,” took place on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 from 2:00pm – 5:30pm.

The objectives for the workshop included:

• Define women’s economic empowerment
• Discuss the complexity involved in measuring women’s economic empowerment and debate how this should be operationalized in practice
• Discuss existing evidence on the causal impact of policies and programs on women’s economic empowerment as well as evidence gaps
• Discuss existing evidence on how women’s economic empowerment improves development outcomes at both a micro and macro level, focusing on causal evidence.

Takyiwaa Manuh, Director of the Social Development Policy Division at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, introduced the workshop and stressed the role and importance of women’s economic empowerment for development.

Sarah Baird, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, framed the issue, defining empowerment and highlighting key challenges around measurement and impact. View slides here.

Amber Peterman, Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, discussed issues for measuring women’s empowerment. She explored the design, definition, conceptualization, and operationalization of indicators measuring women’s empowerment and decision-making through three case studies: Gender and land ownership, Women’s decision-making, and the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index. View slides here.

Niklas Buehren, World Bank Africa Region Gender Practice, presented a conceptual framework in terms of impact evaluation and how it helps to inform policy. Nik introduced an impact evaluation of the Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents program in Uganda, related to women’s economic empowerment, to encourage participants to think about evaluation related to scenario. View slides here.

Participants broke into small groups to work on a set of case studies, answering questions related to motivation, measurement and impact evaluation.

Download the agenda.

Required Pre-Reading:

• Oriana Bandiera et al., “Women’s Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa,” (2014).
• Sabina Alkire et al., “The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index,” World Development 52 (2013): 71-91.
• Paul J. Gertler et al, Impact Evaluation in Practice (The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2011): 3-30.

Chapters 1 and 2 for those less familiar with impact evaluation methods.

Other Relevant Publications:

• Daniel Ayalew Ali, Klaus Deininger, and Markus Goldstein, “Environmental and gender impacts of land tenure regularization in Africa: Pilot evidence from Rwanda,” Journal of Development Economics 110 (2014): 262-275.
• Sarah Baird et al. (2013). Girl Power: Cash Transfers and Adolescent Welfare. Evidence from a Cluster-Randomized Experiment in Malawi. The National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 19479.
• Carinne Brody et al, The Effects of Economics Self-Help Group Programs on Women’s Empowerment: A Systematic Review, Protocol (Oslo: The Campbell Collaboration, 2013).
• Mayra Buvinic and Rebecca Furst-Nichols, Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment: Companion to A Roadmap for Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment (United Nations Foundation and ExxonMobil Foundation, 2013).
• Cheryl Doss et al, “Gender inequalities in ownership and control of land in Africa: myth and reality,” Agricultural Economics 46, no. 3 (2015): 403-434.
• Paul J. Gertler et al, Impact Evaluation in Practice (The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2011).
• Anne Marie Golla et al, Understanding and Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment: Definition, Framework and Indicators (International Center for Research on Women, 2011).
• Naila Kabeer (2012). “Women’s economic empowerment and inclusive growth: labour markets and enterprise development.” Centre for Development Policy and Research Discussion Paper 29/12.
• Amber Peterman, Julia Behrman, and Agnes Quisumbing (2010). A Review of Empirical Evidence on Gender Differences in Nonland Agricultural Inputs, Technology, and Services in Developing Countries. International Food Policy Research Institute Discussion Paper 00975.
• Amber Peterman et al, “Understanding the Complexities Surrounding Gender Differences in Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria and Uganda” Journal of Development Studies 47, no. 10 (2011): 1482-1509.
• Amber Peterman et al (2015). “Measuring women’s decision making: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen.” International Food Policy Research Institute Discussion Paper (forthcoming).
• Jos Vaessen et al, The Effect of Microcredit on Women’s Control over Household Spending in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review (Oslo: The Campbell Collaboration, 2014).