Gender Empowerment in Agriculture Interventions: What Are We Still Missing? Evidence From a Randomized-Controlled Trial Among Coffee Producers in Honduras 

(She/Her)

PhD Researcher

Faculty of Social Sciences

University of Münster

Karla is a development practitioner and researcher specialising in evaluation of sustainable development projects, programs, and policies, with a focus on Latin America
Salvadoran

About

A randomised-control trial, based on coffee producer communities in Western Honduras, that aims to evaluate the impact of a gender empowerment in agriculture intervention with organizations of coffee producers.  

Relevance of sharing the results and positive findings of the randomised-control trial and the intervention, as well as the recommendations for practitioners, including robust evidence of the heterogeneous effect of the project.

Key Findings

Timing of funding might significantly affect the results of this project. Funding follows short periods of only 1-2 years. Not enough time to implement actual transformation. Must focus on not doing short rounds of funding for this level of expected outcomes (women’s empowerment).
Timing of funding might significantly affect the results of this project. Funding follows short periods of only 1-2 years. Not enough time to implement actual transformation. Must focus on not doing short rounds of funding for this level of expected outcomes (women’s empowerment).
Timing of funding might significantly affect the results of this project. Funding follows short periods of only 1-2 years. Not enough time to implement actual transformation. Must focus on not doing short rounds of funding for this level of expected outcomes (women’s empowerment).

How to use

The findings and lessons learned from this research can be considered by practitioners and researchers when planning their interventions and designing their evaluation plans. For implementation, it is relevant to consider the importance of designing tailored interventions based on the group’s heterogeneity, and for evaluation, the importance of doing a proper selection of indicators and measurement tools, as well as the selection of the sample size (including replacement).
The findings and lessons learned from this research can be considered by practitioners and researchers when planning their interventions and designing their evaluation plans. For implementation, it is relevant to consider the importance of designing tailored interventions based on the group’s heterogeneity, and for evaluation, the importance of doing a proper selection of indicators and measurement tools, as well as the selection of the sample size (including replacement).

Want to read the full paper? It is available open access

Rubio-Jovel, K. (2021). ‘Gender Empowerment in Agriculture Interventions: What Are We Still Missing? Evidence From a Randomized-Controlled Trial Among Coffee Producers in Honduras’. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 5, 695390.

About this research

This research was funded by an external organisation, but detail has not been provided.

Recommended for

UN Sustainable Development Goals

This research contributes to the following SDGs

About this research

This research was funded by an external organisation, but detail has not been provided.

Recommended for

What it means

Based on these findings, this study concludes the need for tailored interventions based on different levels of individual characteristics at baseline.

This could be useful for any agricultural intervention that has a gender dynamic aspect.

Methodology

Randomised-control trial at community level. Carried out a survey with households. Created focus groups (split by gender) and interviewed cooperative leaders.

However, there was a high rate of migration of participants in the control and intervention communities. One must always plan an extra amount of samples to account for this.

Tracking compliance with intervention was not carried out effectively by the project staff.

Glossary

Heterogenous Effect
How an intervention can affect beneficiaries differently based on their own characteristics.

Let your research make a social impact

Jasmyn Spanswick prepared this research following an interview with Karla Rubio-Jovel.