Improving Data Concerning Women's Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Heckert ◽  
Madeleine Short Fabic
Keyword(s):  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Sub Saharan

scholarly journals Association between women’s empowerment and infant and child feeding practices in sub-Saharan Africa: an analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (17) ◽  
pp. 3155-3165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muzi Na ◽  
Larissa Jennings ◽  
Sameera A Talegawkar ◽  
Saifuddin Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Meal Frequency ◽  
Child Feeding ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Minimum Dietary Diversity

AbstractObjectiveTo explore the relationship between women’s empowerment and WHO recommended infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices in sub-Saharan Africa.DesignAnalysis was conducted using data from ten Demographic and Health Surveys between 2010 and 2013. Women’s empowerment was assessed by nine standard items covering three dimensions: economic, socio-familial and legal empowerment. Three core IYCF practices examined were minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet. Separate multivariable logistic regression models were applied for the IYCF practices on dimensional and overall empowerment in each country.SettingBenin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zimbabwe.SubjectsYoungest singleton children aged 6–23 months and their mothers (n 15 153).ResultsLess than 35 %, 60 % and 18 % of children 6–23 months of age met the criterion of minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet, respectively. In general, likelihood of meeting the recommended IYCF criteria was positively associated with the economic dimension of women’s empowerment. Socio-familial empowerment was negatively associated with the three feeding criteria, except in Zimbabwe. The legal dimension of empowerment did not show any clear pattern in the associations. Greater overall empowerment of women was consistently and positively associated with multiple IYCF practices in Mali, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. However, consistent negative relationships were found in Benin and Niger. Null or mixed results were observed in the remaining countries.ConclusionsThe importance of women’s empowerment for IYCF practices needs to be discussed by context and by dimension of empowerment.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN AGRICULTURE ON HOUSEHOLD FARM COMMERCIALIZATION OF MAIZE, POTATOES AND BEANS IN NORTHERN PROVINCE OF RWANDA

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olive Uwineza ◽  
Job Lagat ◽  
Risper M Berem
Keyword(s):  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Northern Province ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Government ◽  
Women's Role ◽  
Agriculture And Food

In Sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural commercialization is a major factor in household food diversification and household income. To move to agricultural transformation, Rwanda has focused on shifting from subsistence-based farming to market-oriented agriculture. Various studies have been conducted on agricultural commercialization, however, women’s role in the commercialization of agriculture has received little attention and none of the studies have associated it with women’s empowerment in agriculture. In Rwanda, women are principal players in agriculture and food security, therefore, it is important to understand the influence of their empowerment in agriculture on its commercialization. To investigate the relationship between women’s empowerment in agriculture and agricultural commercialization, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) was used to measure women’s empowerment in agriculture. A sample size of 252 households from Musanze and Burera districts in the Northern Province of Rwanda was used. It was obtained using the multistage and random sampling techniques. To analyze data, a fractional regression model was used. The results revealed that farm commercialization in Rwanda was positively and significantly influenced by WEAI score, farm size and the prices of maize, potatoes and beans. On the other hand, the index has a negative relationship with access to extension services. It is recommended that the government should strengthen policies of empowering women in agriculture.

scholarly journals Women’s Empowerment and HIV Testing Uptake: A Meta-analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys from 33 Sub-Saharan African Countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-286
Author(s):  
Sanni Yaya ◽  
Gebretsadik Shibre ◽  
Dina Idriss-Wheeler ◽  
Olalekan A Uthman
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Hiv Testing ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Wife Beating ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Women Empowerment ◽  
Testing Uptake ◽  
Sub Saharan

Background: There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that women’s empowerment can help achieve better health behaviours and outcomes. However, few have looked at the impact of women’s empowerment on HIV testing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study investigated the association between women’s empowerment and HIV testing among women in 33 countries across SSA. Methods: Cross-sectional data from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys (2005-2018) of 33 countries in SSA were used. Confounder adjusted logistic regression analysis was completed separately for each of the 33 DHS datasets to produce the adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) for the association between women empowerment and HIV testing. The regression analysis strictly accounted for the three design elements (weight, cluster and strata) to produce an estimate representative of the respective countries. Finally, an Individual Participant Data (IPD) meta-analysis approach was used to statistically pool the effect of women empowerment on HIV testing. Results: There was a wide variation in the percentage of women who were empowered among the countries studied, with only a few countries such as South Africa, Angola and Ghana having a high prevalence of negative attitudes toward wife beating. HIV testing was higher in Angola, Lesotho, Uganda and South Africa. While participation in one or two of the three decisions had been marginally associated with lower odds of HIV testing across the SSA regions (0.89; 95%CI: 0.83, 0.97); the corresponding prediction interval crossed the null. Being involved in the three decisions (0.92; 95%CI: 0.84, 1.00) and disagreement to wife-beating (0.99; 95%CI: 0.94, 1.05) had no statistical relationship with HIV testing uptake. Conclusion and Global Health Implications: The two indirect indicators of women empowerment could not predict HIV testing uptake. Further studies are recommended to establish the nature of the relationship between HIV testing and women’s empowerment that is measured through standard tools. Key words: • HIV/AIDS prevention • Women • Empowerment • Gender equality • Global health • Sub-Saharan Africa   Copyright © 2020 Yaya et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in this journal, is properly cited.

scholarly journals Do gender wage differences within households influence women’s empowerment and welfare? Evidence from Ghana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Danquah ◽  
Abdul Malik Iddrisu ◽  
Ernest Owusu Boakye ◽  
Solomon Owusu
Keyword(s):  
Gender Wage Gap ◽  
Wage Gap ◽  
Structural Parameters ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Household Welfare ◽  
Wage Differences ◽  
Sub Saharan

Using household data from the latest wave of the Ghana Living Standards Survey, this paper utilizes machine learning techniques to examine the effect of gender wage differences within households on women’s empowerment and welfare in Ghana. The structural parameters of the post-double selection LASSO estimations show that a reduction in household gender wage gap significantly enhances women’s empowerment. Also, a decline in household gender wage gap results meaningfully in improving household welfare. Particularly, the increasing effect on women’s welfare resulting from decreases in household gender wage differences is much higher than for the household welfare. The findings showcase the need to vigorously adopt policies that both increase the quantity and quality of jobs for women and address gender barriers that inhibit women from accessing these jobs opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.

scholarly journals Association of Women’s Empowerment With Anaemia and Haemoglobin Concentration in Children in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Multilevel Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calistus Wilunda ◽  
Milkah Wanjohi ◽  
Risa Takahashi ◽  
Elizabeth Kimani-Murage ◽  
Antonina Mutoro
Keyword(s):  
Haemoglobin Concentration ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Hb Concentration ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The relationship between different dimensions of women's empowerment and childhood anaemia in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is unclear. We assessed the associations between women’s empowerment and anaemia and haemoglobin (Hb) concentration among children using data from 72,032 women and their singleton children aged 6-59 months from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2006 and 2019 in 31 SSA countries. Of the included children, 65.8% were anaemic and the mean Hb concentration was 102.3 g/dl (SD 16.1). The odds of anaemia in children reduced with increasing empowerment in the dimensions of attitude towards violence [quintile (Q1) vs. Q5, OR 0.80; 95% CI 0.71–0.89, Ptrend <0.001], decision making (Q1 vs. Q5, OR 0.68; 95% CI 0.59–0.79, Ptrend <0.001), education (Q1 vs. Q5, OR 0.80; 95% CI 0.72–0.89, Ptrend <0.001), and social independence (Q1 vs. Q5, OR 0.89; 95% CI 0.79–1.00, Ptrend <0.015). Similarly, children’s mean Hb concentration increased with increasing women’s empowerment in all the above dimensions. In conclusion, women empowerment was associated with reduced odds of anaemia and higher Hb concentration in children. Promotion of women's empowerment may reduce the burden of childhood anaemia in SSA.

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