Abstract
Women's empowerment is essential to improve nutrition in low and middle-income countries. We investigated the empowerment of women in agriculture in association with household production and the dietary diversity of children 12–59 months old and their mothers in Timor-Leste. Using the Abbreviated Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI) we analyzed 156 dual-adult rural households applying multivariable regression models. We found that the dietary diversity scores of empowered women and their children were higher than among those disempowered. The associations between different measures of empowerment and dietary diversity were larger and more significant among women than children. Food production diversity was consistently associated with children's improved diets. We found small gender gaps in decisions on production, access to resources, and control over income, similar to findings in other Southeast Asian countries. Nutrition-sensitive policies and programmes in Timor-Leste could gain from prioritizing women's empowerment and promoting agriculture diversification strategies as valuable investments to improve the diets and wellbeing of mothers and children.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102102 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Food Policy |
| Volume | 102 |
| Early online date | 29 May 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was funded by Charles Darwin University doctoral candidate funding allocation and the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) Foundation, Italy, through the BCFN YES! grant. GBP was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. JB was supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council ( NHMRC ) Translating Research into Practice Fellowship ( 1168333 ). Open access publication fees were provided by Charles Darwin University. Research partners and funders had no role in the study design, data collection, and analysis, or writing of this manuscript.
Funding Information:
We are thankful to the study participants, local communities and leaders, the enumeration team and local facilitators, as well as to the research partners, the Timor-Leste Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) and Catholic Relief Services Timor-Leste (CRS), for their support and for making this research possible. We especially thank Dra. Joanita da Costa Jong, National Director of Veterinary, and the General Directorate of Livestock and Veterinary of the MAF, for enabling the institutional support and regional engagement. We are grateful for the community relations and logistics support provided by the CRS team and local implementers. We thank USAID’s Avansa Agrikultura project for funding the translation of the A-WEAI questionnaire, then reviewed by a Technical Advisory Group formed by Sebastiana Pereira (Avansa Agrikultura), Dra. Joanita da Costa Jong (MAF), and Augusto Ximenes (CRS), whom we recognize and particularly thank. We would like to acknowledge the enthusiasm, hard work and cultural knowledge of the enumeration team, coordinated by Domingas do Rosario Pereira, recruited through the Centru Feto Haburas Dezenvolvimento (CFHD) NGO in Baucau. The authors kindly thank Prof. Robyn G. Alders AO for her institutional liaison and comments. We particularly thank and acknowledge Dr. Mirjam Kaestli who provided expert statistical advice. Finally, we also thank the reviewers for their excellent and valuable comments.
Funding Information:
We are thankful to the study participants, local communities and leaders, the enumeration team and local facilitators, as well as to the research partners, the Timor-Leste Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) and Catholic Relief Services Timor-Leste (CRS), for their support and for making this research possible. We especially thank Dra. Joanita da Costa Jong, National Director of Veterinary, and the General Directorate of Livestock and Veterinary of the MAF, for enabling the institutional support and regional engagement. We are grateful for the community relations and logistics support provided by the CRS team and local implementers. We thank USAID's Avansa Agrikultura project for funding the translation of the A-WEAI questionnaire, then reviewed by a Technical Advisory Group formed by Sebastiana Pereira (Avansa Agrikultura), Dra. Joanita da Costa Jong (MAF), and Augusto Ximenes (CRS), whom we recognize and particularly thank. We would like to acknowledge the enthusiasm, hard work and cultural knowledge of the enumeration team, coordinated by Domingas do Rosario Pereira, recruited through the Centru Feto Haburas Dezenvolvimento (CFHD) NGO in Baucau. The authors kindly thank Prof. Robyn G. Alders AO for her institutional liaison and comments. We particularly thank and acknowledge Dr. Mirjam Kaestli who provided expert statistical advice. Finally, we also thank the reviewers for their excellent and valuable comments. This research was funded by Charles Darwin University doctoral candidate funding allocation and the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) Foundation, Italy, through the BCFN YES! grant. GBP was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. JB was supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Translating Research into Practice Fellowship (1168333). Open access publication fees were provided by Charles Darwin University. Research partners and funders had no role in the study design, data collection, and analysis, or writing of this manuscript. Data cannot be shared publicly because it was collected on assurance of anominity. Data are available from the Menzies School of Health Research Ethics Committee (contact via [email protected]), linked to Charles Darwin University, for researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
