A ‘How to’ guide to measuring women’s empowerment
Publisher: Oxfam GB
Date Published: 2023
Languages: English
The toolkit shares Oxfam GB's experience in measuring women's empowerment for their Effectiveness Reviews. The main tool is the Women’s Empowerment Index, based on a composite index. The framework developed for this index measures empowerment across three levels of change: personal, relational, and environmental. It emphasizes context-specific measurement and allows for a unique measure with flexible aggregation levels, focusing on individual-level analysis.
Main Contribution
The main contribution of this paper is to share Oxfam GB's experience in developing an approach to measuring women's empowerment over five years. The approach aims to provide a practical guide for evaluators and practitioners to understand this 'hard-to-measure' concept, making use of the measurement tools presented as guiding instruments that can be adapted to specific needs.
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Evaluators and practitioners who seek to understand and measure the concept of women’s empowerment.
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Oxfam’s approach can be used for impact evaluations of development projects, as well as for project design and monitoring. The index allows for evaluation of the extent to which projects have contributed to women’s empowerment.
GBV Prevention
The toolkit, through its specific indicator on the "Acceptability of Gender-Based Violence (GBV)," employs a preventive approach to combat GBV.
Here's how it works:
Raising Awareness: By presenting questions about the acceptability of GBV, the toolkit seeks to provoke thought and self-reflection among respondents. By asking women about their perceptions, the toolkit inherently challenges societal norms and raises awareness about the issue.
Highlighting Norms and Beliefs: The questions aim to shed light on deeply ingrained beliefs and cultural norms that might be perpetuating the acceptability of GBV. When these beliefs are surfaced and made explicit, it provides an opportunity for individuals and communities to confront and question them.
Data Collection for Intervention: The data generated from these questions can be pivotal for organizations and policy-makers. By understanding how widespread the belief in the acceptability of GBV is, they can design effective interventions targeting these beliefs.
Basis for Education and Outreach: The findings from the toolkit can serve as a foundation for educational and outreach programs. When you know the extent to which a population finds GBV acceptable, you can craft more tailored and effective awareness campaigns to shift these perceptions.
Distinguishing Acceptability from Prevalence: By focusing solely on acceptability rather than prevalence, the toolkit underscores that societal beliefs and attitudes towards GBV are a significant part of the problem, even if the act itself is not prevalent in certain communities. This recognition can steer interventions towards changing mindsets, not just behaviours.In essence, the DHS toolkit, by measuring the acceptability of GBV, acts as a mirror reflecting societal beliefs. When these beliefs are brought to light, they can be challenged, changed, and contributed significantly to GBV prevention.
Creating Normative Change
The text recognizes three levels of change for empowerment: personal (changes within the individual), relational (changes within relationships and power dynamics), and environmental (changes in broader societal norms and political/legislative frameworks). These levels interact with each other, and changes in one level can influence changes in the others.
How it could be adapted to the communities
The toolkit emphasizes context-specific measurement. While the theoretical framework remains consistent across different locations, the specific characteristics and indicators of empowerment can be adapted and tailored for each specific evaluation. This ensures that the measurement tool aligns with the unique characteristics of empowerment in a particular context.
Keywords
Women empowerment, Approach and methodology, Women's economic empowerment
