Women’s empowerment is recognized as crucial to agricultural transformation in developing countries. However, it can be complex to accurately assess the level of their empowerment in research. For example, some researchers target the head of households when seeking agricultural statistics using surveys—which tend to give a larger voice to male perspectives.

The Pro-WEAI tool is key in assessing the level of women’s empowerment. It provides a standardized way to measure women’s empowerment through agency and participation in decision-making for female farmers. Tanager, Laterite and 60 Decibels through the Impacting Gender & Nutrition through Innovative Technical Exchange in Agriculture (IGNITE) program deployed the Pro-WEAI tool with farmers in Ethiopia. The team worked with two IGNITE-supported institutional clients Digital Green and Sasakawa—and in the process learned some valuable lessons for future research.

Find out some of the recommendations by IGNITE for researchers who intend to use the Pro-WEAI in their projects. Read more here.