Measuring women’s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern Bangladesh using a project level women’s empowerment in fisheries index (pro-WEFI)

Gender equality and women’s empowerment have been increasingly emphasised in food production systems, including fisheries and aquaculture. Accurate assessment and understanding of the state, progress and changes in women’s empowerment in the sub-sectors is required. We applied the project level Wome...

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Autores principales: Adam, Rahma, Rajaratnam, Surendran, Sufian, Farha, Njogu, Lucy
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169543
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author Adam, Rahma
Rajaratnam, Surendran
Sufian, Farha
Njogu, Lucy
author_browse Adam, Rahma
Njogu, Lucy
Rajaratnam, Surendran
Sufian, Farha
author_facet Adam, Rahma
Rajaratnam, Surendran
Sufian, Farha
Njogu, Lucy
author_sort Adam, Rahma
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Gender equality and women’s empowerment have been increasingly emphasised in food production systems, including fisheries and aquaculture. Accurate assessment and understanding of the state, progress and changes in women’s empowerment in the sub-sectors is required. We applied the project level Women’s Empowerment in Fisheries and Aquaculture Index (pro-WEFI), which is based on the project-level women’s empowerment in agriculture index (pro-WEAI) to standardize the measurement of women’s agency and empowerment in fisheries and aquaculture. Drawing on a survey conducted in north-western Bangladesh, we examined quantitative pro-WEFI data collected from 217 households engaged in aquaculture. Only 33% of the women and 48% of the men in the sample achieved empowerment in aquaculture, attaining scores of 0.75 and above. The mean disempowerment score (1-3DE) revealed that both women and men failed to achieve adequacy on average in nearly 28% of the indicators. Nearly 40% of the dual adult households did not attain gender parity with women achieving lower adequacy scores than men from the same household. Women’s disempowerment was primarily driven by lack of autonomy in their use of income (18.5%), inability to visit important locations (17.4%), and inadequate access to and decision making on financial services (13.4%). Our findings emphasize the significance of conducting comprehensive assessments of women’s empowerment in aquaculture initiatives and its various domains and indicators inform the development of targeted and effective interventions. By identifying domains where gender inequality is most pronounced, projects can better design interventions to create targeted impacts in critical areas.
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spelling CGSpace1695432025-10-26T13:02:45Z Measuring women’s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern Bangladesh using a project level women’s empowerment in fisheries index (pro-WEFI) Adam, Rahma Rajaratnam, Surendran Sufian, Farha Njogu, Lucy aquaculture fisheries gender equality women's empowerment fish Gender equality and women’s empowerment have been increasingly emphasised in food production systems, including fisheries and aquaculture. Accurate assessment and understanding of the state, progress and changes in women’s empowerment in the sub-sectors is required. We applied the project level Women’s Empowerment in Fisheries and Aquaculture Index (pro-WEFI), which is based on the project-level women’s empowerment in agriculture index (pro-WEAI) to standardize the measurement of women’s agency and empowerment in fisheries and aquaculture. Drawing on a survey conducted in north-western Bangladesh, we examined quantitative pro-WEFI data collected from 217 households engaged in aquaculture. Only 33% of the women and 48% of the men in the sample achieved empowerment in aquaculture, attaining scores of 0.75 and above. The mean disempowerment score (1-3DE) revealed that both women and men failed to achieve adequacy on average in nearly 28% of the indicators. Nearly 40% of the dual adult households did not attain gender parity with women achieving lower adequacy scores than men from the same household. Women’s disempowerment was primarily driven by lack of autonomy in their use of income (18.5%), inability to visit important locations (17.4%), and inadequate access to and decision making on financial services (13.4%). Our findings emphasize the significance of conducting comprehensive assessments of women’s empowerment in aquaculture initiatives and its various domains and indicators inform the development of targeted and effective interventions. By identifying domains where gender inequality is most pronounced, projects can better design interventions to create targeted impacts in critical areas. 2025-01-10 2025-01-21T10:43:09Z 2025-01-21T10:43:09Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169543 en Open Access application/pdf Rahma Adam, Surendran Rajaratnam, Farha Sufian, Lucy Njogu. (10/1/2025). Measuring women’s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern Bangladesh using a project level women’s empowerment in fisheries index (pro-WEFI). PLoS ONE.
spellingShingle aquaculture
fisheries
gender equality
women's empowerment
fish
Adam, Rahma
Rajaratnam, Surendran
Sufian, Farha
Njogu, Lucy
Measuring women’s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern Bangladesh using a project level women’s empowerment in fisheries index (pro-WEFI)
title Measuring women’s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern Bangladesh using a project level women’s empowerment in fisheries index (pro-WEFI)
title_full Measuring women’s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern Bangladesh using a project level women’s empowerment in fisheries index (pro-WEFI)
title_fullStr Measuring women’s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern Bangladesh using a project level women’s empowerment in fisheries index (pro-WEFI)
title_full_unstemmed Measuring women’s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern Bangladesh using a project level women’s empowerment in fisheries index (pro-WEFI)
title_short Measuring women’s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern Bangladesh using a project level women’s empowerment in fisheries index (pro-WEFI)
title_sort measuring women s empowerment in aquaculture in northwestern bangladesh using a project level women s empowerment in fisheries index pro wefi
topic aquaculture
fisheries
gender equality
women's empowerment
fish
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169543
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