INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Data needs for measuring impacts on women’s assets and asset disparities

Nancy Johnson

Agnes Quisumbing

INTERNATIONAL LIVESTOCK RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Content

I. Defining asset-related impact indicators

II. Collecting gender disaggregated data on assets

I. Defining Indicators

Project proposes to measure impacts on

• Women’s assets

• Men’s assets

• Gender asset disparities

Need to specify what we mean by

• Assets

• “Women’s” assets (assets belonging to women and/or men)

• Asset disparities

• Changes in assets and asset disparities

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From capitals to assets

Broad definition of assets to include:

Natural capital

Physical capital

Financial capital

Human capital

Social capital

Political capital

Physical capital

Natural capital

Same asset, many capitals

Implications

Can’t possibly cover all assets so need to think carefully about which ones really matter, given the context and the objectives of the intervention being evaluated.

What does it mean to “own” an asset?

Use rights

Types of ownership

Decision rights

Use rights

Access

Extraction

Commercial exploitation

Decision rights

Management

Exclusion

Alienation

Claims to rights come from multiple sources, and can overlap and change

Sources and security of rights

Implications

Easy to focus on (and measure) “decision” rights but in some cases “access” rights can be important

For certain kinds of assets (eg land) may need to include type and security of rights along with quantity and value of asset as part of the indicator

• Contextual

information on sources of rights and what can strengthen and weaken them is important for evaluating projects (implementing them!)

Types of owners

Individuals

Partners (joint)

Groups (collective)

Implications

Need to include joint ownership option in surveys but it may need to be qualified

Some collectively-owned assets can be “individualized” but others not

How to measure assets & asset changes

Quantity/quality of specific asset(s)

Assets index

Value of assets

Type or security of rights

Asset disparities

Disparity is the ratio of women’s assets to men’s assets

How can the disparity be reduced?

• Increase women’s assets

• Decrease men’s assets

• Increase both, but women’s more

But remember, changes in rights is not always zero-sum

II. Methods for collecting gender-disaggregated asset data

Multiple methods, data sources and sequencing

Baseline surveys

Field implementation issues

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Data collection: national and community level

• Use of existing national-level data (DHS, national statistics), administrative data, existing studies

• Focus groups at community level, for example to get at local norms

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Quantitative methods: household level

Household and individual surveys, particularly panel surveys

Take advantage of existing gender-disaggregated data sets and build a panel

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Qualitative methods

Ethnography, case studies, life histories

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Q-squared: Integrated qual and quant

Sequenced and integrated qualitative and quantitative data analysis

• For example, quantitative surveys can be used to draw up the sampling frame for the life histories work or FGDs

How can questionnaire modules can be designed to look at asset accumulation from a gender perspective?

In what topics can data collection can be gender-disaggregated?

How can the same basic question (say, control of land and assets) be adapted to specific contexts, using survey modules on the same topic, but administered in different settings?

What issues of survey implementation are important?

What does a baseline questionnaire look like?Where can we insert/modify modules to look at

gender issues in a standard household survey?

Basic baseline information: in RED

Typical module with gender-disaggregated info ALWAYS collected: purple cells

Gender-disaggregated info SOMETIMES collected: orange cells

Specialized module with gender-disaggregated info ALWAYS collected: green cells

Basic and Extended Questionnaire Design of Socio-economic modules

Module Basic? Gender-

disaggregated

information?

About which hh member?

A Roster—very important, since all

Ids in subsequent modules will

come from here

Yes Yes All!

B Education of head and

household members

Yes Yes All

C Nonfood consumption Depends

on focus of

survey, but

ideal

Partly (clothing,

footwear)

All (typically collected at hh

level)

D Food consumption No (but see

section on

nutrition

modules)

All (typically collected at hh

level)

Contents of a household roster

ID Name Sex Age Reln to

head

Marital

Status

Education Main

occupat

ion

1

2

3

4

5

You can also add columns on literacy, migration status, etc.

Socio-economic modules (cont’d)

Module Basic? Gender-

disaggregate

d

information?

Which hh member?

E Land area and crops grown Yes Yes ID of person who manages the plot

ID of plot owner, if different from

manager

F Major Crop Production Yes, if

ag

survey

Yes ID of plot manager (household

member)

G Agricultural Wage Labor Possibl

y

Yes ID of laborer

H Other Income Possibl

y

Yes ID of people with other incomes,

businesses, ID of people sending

and receiving remittances

Socio-economic modules (cont’d)

Module Baseli

ne?

Gender-

disaggregate

d?

Which hh member?

J Assets Ideall

y

Yes ID of asset owner

K Group Membership Ideall

y

Yes ID of group member

L Savings Possi

ble

Yes ID of account owner

M Credit and Lending Ideall

y

Yes ID of borrower

Additional consumption, health, and nutrition-related modules

Module Baseline? Gender-disaggregated? Which hh member?

N 24-hour individual food

recall

Depends

on purpose

of survey

Yes all

O Dietary diversity Depends

on purpose

of survey

Yes all

P Reproductive health Depends

on purpose

of survey

Yes Women

Q Anthropometry and

morbidity

Ideally Yes all

Some of these indicators are more expensive to collect (e.g. 24-hour individual food recall) and will require highly trained enumerators.Sometimes a good dietary diversity survey will do the trick.

Additional gender-related modules

Module Baseline? Gender-disaggregated? Which hh member?

R Labor use and time use by

gender

Yes Yes Main male and female,

could also include children

depending on focus

S Domains of decisionmaking

authority, especially about

assets

Yes Yes Main male and female

T Control of cash income and

use of income

Yes Yes Main male and female

U Level of gender-related

conflict and violence

Ideally Typically only woman is

asked

Main woman

Caveat in fielding questions about domestic violence: Need to have trained enumerators with knowledge about services availableNeed to protect privacy of respondents and not subject them to greater risk

Engendering the asset module (simple)

ID of owner

ID of decisionmakeron sales

Asset (g)Number

ownedID of owner

ID of

decisionmaker for

sale

Animal

Cattle

Horses

Sheep/goats

Poultry

Pigs

Domestic assets

Cooker

Kitchen cupboard

Refrigerator

Radio

Television

DVD player

Cell phone

Chairs

Mosquito nets

Gas stove

Spades/shovels

Ploughs

What do you do when you don’t have a baseline?

Collect information on outcomes that are easy to recall and “lumpy,” such as land and assets, and do this retrospectively

Rely on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods

Use the appropriate impact measurement techniques

Field implementation issues

Who should be interviewed? “head of household?”

Should the head of household answer for all household members?

Different people will report different things—need to reconcile

Field implementation issues, cont’d

Privacy important, but especially important for asset issues (hidden assets)

Should field teams employ men and women? Examples:

• Pakistan and Bangladesh surveys have teams of men and women

• Surveys in the Philippines almost always employ women (trust and safety issues)

• Surveys in Guatemala City employ women to interviewer (safety issues)

• Most interviewers in our other surveys are men (small cadre of women to draw on)

Need to train and employ skilled qualitative field personnel

Concluding remarks

Context, context, context

Identify focus of study to avoid getting lost in details

Mixed methods: hh survey should ideally be informed by qualitative work; quantitative and qualitative work can be iterative

Learn from experience of others in the field, especially in the same country