August 2020 THE AFRICA GENDER INNOVATION LAB’S CORE GENDER INNOVATION LAB EMPOWERMENT INDICATORS The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) DEVELOPING A CROSS-COUNTRY MODULE TO conducts impact evaluations of development interventions in COMPLEMENT CONTEXT-SPECIFIC MEASURES Sub-Saharan Africa, seeking to generate evidence on how Authors: Aletheia Donald and Markus Goldstein to close the gender gap in earnings, productivity, assets To advance economic gender equality in Africa, we first need to know which development and agency. The GIL team is programs work to economically empower women. Better data on gender-informed currently working on over 70 development indicators is imperative for tracking our progress in promoting gender impact evaluations by more equality, designing interventions to address gender-based constraints and rigorously than 25 countries with the aim of building an evidence base evaluating their impact. Measurement of women’s economic empowerment requires with lessons for the region. a clear conceptualization of what empowerment is and is not. One guiding definition that we use at the Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) is economic empowerment as The impact objective of GIL is the ability and power to generate income and accumulate assets, and to control their increasing take-up of effective policies by governments, disposition. Beyond being clear on what is being measured, how it is measured also development organizations matters–and selecting the best tools for the task is no easy feat. and the private sector in order to address the underlying On the one hand, each project can benefit from a tailored approach to measurement causes of gender inequality since manifestations of women’s empowerment are inherently determined by in Africa, particularly in terms the project and context at hand. In impact evaluations, tailoring measurement to of women’s economic and reflect local economic arrangements and capture the specific pathway your project social empowerment. The lab is intending to affect can yield a more precise (and useful) picture of women’s aims to do this by producing economic empowerment. On the other hand, systematically tracking the same and delivering a new body of evidence and developing a indicators across projects can provide a broader understanding of the relationship compelling narrative, geared between intermediate and final empowerment outcomes, as well as between different towards policymakers, on empowerment domains, such as assets, mobility, time, attitudes, and aspirations. what works and what does Moreover, practitioners and policymakers have emphasized the need for a concise not work in promoting gender set of practical metrics that can be easily shared and used. equality. http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-gender-innovation-lab GIL’S APPROACH TO DEFINING THE INDICATORS The World Bank’s Africa GIL has been working to outcomes as compared to men (gender equality) were address this need by compiling and implementing a included. Third, we expected these indicators to change set of survey questions that can be deployed across as a result of interventions. For example, measuring contexts to measure key elements of women’s economic access to contraception outside of the household empowerment. We do not envisage using these core was excluded, as GIL-evaluated projects rarely aim to indicators to generate a single index, as the choice of change the provision of contraception at an institutional indicators was determined by their applicability across level. Fourth, we selected indicators that could be contexts and is not meant to provide a comprehensive captured without placing a heavy additional burden measure of economic empowerment. Given the on questionnaires. Since summing across all possible broad thematic and geographic scope of GIL impact income sources is time-intensive, both total household evaluations, the core indicators are meant to complement income and total woman’s earned income were dropped deeper project-specific measures of empowerment in from consideration. Finally, indicators that would allow each impact evaluation. Notable omissions from such researchers to capture information on multiple constraints a comprehensive measure include measures of income simultaneously were prioritized. and psychological dimensions of agency as well as community-level empowerment, and there are others as From this initial list, the team narrowed down the indicators well. Nevertheless, we hope this exercise will be valuable to those that they felt could be reliably measured across as donors, practitioners, and researchers grapple with all their survey contexts, for a total of 29 countries across how to develop foundational metrics to systematically Sub-Saharan Africa, including urban and rural locations track and understand impacts across programming – and could reliably be implemented by any survey firm. aiming to empower women economically. The indicators excluded through this process included To begin, GIL drafted and validated an initial list of psychological dimensions of agency such as motivational indicators and associated survey questions, based on autonomy, self-efficacy and sense of freedom and control a thorough review of the literature and over a hundred over one’s life. Once the final list of indicators was decided existing questionnaires. GIL then held a series of on, several potential survey questions were identified for team consultations to deliberate and distill the list of each indicator, and then the team voted on the preferred core indicators, ensuring that the indicators could be question formulation. implemented across all evaluations in our portfolio. These indicators were piloted for 18 months across Informed by the literature review and team discussions, this initial list also took into account the following our impact evaluations, followed by a team stocktaking considerations: exercise. Though a few of the survey questions were tweaked as a result, the indicators worked well First, the majority of indicators – in particular final across contexts and none of them were changed.1 outcome indicators – were chosen to capture economic However, a need emerged for additional guidance in advancement (“power to”), given the need to identify the implementation of certain questions, resulting in an scalable solutions for women’s economic empowerment accompanying enumerator manual. in Africa, which serves as the Gender Innovation Lab’s mission. Second, both indicators on women’s What follows is the list of selected indicators and their empowerment in absolute terms, as well as their relative associated survey questions: An example is the question that asks whether anyone in the household currently has a mat to sleep on. The question was intended to capture 1 whether anyone has an asset permitting a household member to not sleep on the bare ground, but it emerged in the feedback session that in some Sub-Saharan African countries a bed is the first sleeping-related asset households acquire, before a mat. The question was thus changed from mat to mat or bed. INDICATORS 3. INDIVIDUAL SAVINGS UNIT OF In the past 12 months, have you, personally, saved or INDICATOR SOURCE OBSERVATION set aside any money by … ? 1=Yes, 2=No 1. Food Security Household Rwanda Land Tenure 1.1 Gender Equality in Regularization Household Food Access Questionnaire A: Using an account at a bank, a credit union, savings 2. Asset Ownership Household A-WEAI and credit co-operative, [insert local examples], or 2.1 Gender Equality in another type of formal or semi-formal financial institution Control over Assets 3. Individual Savings Individual FINDEX* (Adapted to B: Using an informal savings club (like [insert local include semi-formal financial institutions) example]), or a person outside the family 4. Access to Funds Individual FINDEX 4. ACCESS TO FUNDS 5. Economic Participation Individual LSMS (Tanzania) 6. I  nput into Productive Individual A-WEAI* (Adapted to include Imagine that you have an emergency and you need to Decisions reproductive control) pay [insert 1/20 of GNI per capita in local currency]. 7. Freedom of Movement Individual C-Change Compendium How possible is it that you could come up with [insert  ender Equality 8. G Household Own in Occupational 1/20 of GNI per capita in local currency] within the next Aspirations for Children month? 1= Very possible, 2= Somewhat possible, 3=  ack of Acceptance 9. L Individual DHS Towards Domestic Not very possible, 4= Not at all possible Violence 10. Sharing of Housework Household Roadmap via IMAGES 5. ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION 11. Happiness Individual World Values Survey In the last 7 days, did you work as an unpaid apprentice even if just for one hour? 1=Yes, 2=No ASSOCIATED SURVEY QUESTIONS In the last 7 days, did you work as an employee for 1. FOOD SECURITY a wage, salary, commission or any payment in kind; In the past 7 days, did any member of your household including doing a paid apprenticeship, domestic work or skip any meal because of a shortage of food in the paid farm work even if just for one hour? 1=Yes, 2=No household? 1=Yes, 2=No In the last 7 days, did you run a non-farm business of On average, how many meals did members of your any size for yourself or the household, even if just for household skip in the past 7 days? one hour? 1=Yes, 2=No When food is in short supply (meaning there is not enough In the last 7 days, did you help in any kind of non-farm for everyone), in what order are household members business run by this household, even if just for one generally served/fed? Please rank the following groups hour? 1=Yes, 2=No (tied rank allowed): 1= Male adults, 2= Female adults, 3= Male children, 4= Female children In the last 7 days, did you work on household agricultural 2. ASSET OWNERSHIP activities (including farming, raising livestock or fishing, Does anyone in your household currently have any whether for sale or for household food) even if just for [ITEM]? Mats/matelas or bed, bicycle, motorcycle/ one hour? 1=Yes, 2=No scooter, mobile phone, radio, television. 1=Yes, 2=No 6. INPUT INTO PRODUCTIVE DECISIONS Who would you say owns most of the [ITEM] (i.e., How much input do you have in making decisions about who can sell, mortgage, rent out, give away, purchase [Income you earn; How household income is spent; new?) 1= Self, 2= Partner/Spouse, 3= Other Male HH Major household expenses; Childbearing; Children’s Member, 4= Other Female HH Member, 5= Other non- education]? 1= No input or input into few decisions, HH member. More than one answer option allowed if 2= Input into some decisions, 3= Input into most or all ownership is exactly equal between multiple members. decisions To what extent do you feel you can make your own personal 11. HAPPINESS decisions regarding [Income you earn; How household Taking all things together, would you say you are: 1=Very income is spent; Major household expenses; Childbearing; happy, 2=Rather happy 3=Not very happy, 4=Not at all happy Children’s education] if you want(ed) to? 1= Not at all, 2= Small extent, 3= Medium Extent, 4= High Extent IMPLICATIONS AND NEXT 7. FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT STEPS FOR RESEARCH Have any of the following happened to you in the past Moving forward, GIL aims to use the core indicators to draw 12 months? 1=Yes, 2=No broad lessons on final and intermediate impacts across our thematic areas of agriculture, private sector development, Husband/other family member prevented you from property rights, social norms and youth employment. We visiting your relatives or friends. plan to write a report utilizing this cross-evaluation data and then release the data to the public within the next two years. Husband/other family member prevented you from working outside the home. Measuring women’s economic empowerment in locally 8. OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATIONS FOR CHILDREN relevant ways across an entire continent is a difficult challenge. As outlined in this brief, GIL’s strategy consists of What is your desired future occupation for your sons? a modular approach, focused on developing core indicators 1= Join family farming, 2= Run family business, 3= to be implemented across all projects (“going broad”), Professional such as teacher/doctor, 4= Join armed with each project team complementing the indicators with forces, 5= Government job, 6= Private sector job, 7= intervention- and context-specific questions on women’s Do not want child to work outside home, 9996 = Other. economic empowerment (“going deep”). This approach What is your desired future occupation for your daughters? is accompanied by a nascent third arm on methods research (“going forward”), aimed at developing and testing 9. ATTITUDES TOWARDS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE alternative forms of measurement to generate evidence on In your opinion, is a husband justified in hitting or beating which measurement method is most appropriate given the his wife if she burns the food? 1=Yes, 2=No policy and research question at hand. In your opinion, is a husband justified in hitting or beating To do this, GIL has formed the Measures for Advancing his wife if she neglects the children? 1=Yes, 2=No Gender Equality (MAGNET) initiative in partnership with the Living Standards Measurement Study team at the World 10. SHARING OF HOUSEWORK Bank, International Food Policy Research Institute, the If you disregard the help you receive from other International Rescue Committee and Oxford University. household members, how do you and your spouse/ The initiative has produced a trio of papers summarizing partner divide the following tasks? 1= I do everything, what we know about the relative quality of measurement 2= Usually me, 3= Shared equally or done together; 4= methods in women’s agency, time use and control over Usually partner, 5= Partner does everything assets: three complicated but crucial dimensions of women’s empowerment. The partners plan to conduct a A: Preparing food B: Cleaning the house and washing clothes series of measurement experiments across countries to fill C: Taking care of children the knowledge gaps identified in the papers. This work has been funded in part by the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment through experimentation and knowledge creation to help governments and the private sector focus policy and programs on scalable solutions with sustainable outcomes. The UFGE is supported with generous contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Markus Goldstein Aletheia Donald mgoldstein@worldbank.org adonald@worldbank.org The first draft of this policy brief was released in August 2020.