Improving food and nutrition security by enhancing women’s empowerment in Ethiopia

Last registered on March 24, 2025

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Improving food and nutrition security by enhancing women’s empowerment in Ethiopia

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0013918

Initial registration date

July 01, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

July 01, 2024, 1:16 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

March 24, 2025, 5:29 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Ethiopia

Region

Oromia

Primary Investigator

Name

Robert Lensink

Affiliation

University of Groningen

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Kritika Saxena

PI Affiliation

University of Groningen

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Temesgen Belissa

PI Affiliation

Haramaya University

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Abdeta Wakoya

PI Affiliation

University of Groningen

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2024-06-10

End date

2025-03-31

Keywords

Agriculture, Finance & Microfinance, Gender, Health

Additional Keywords

Women's Empowerment, Food Security

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

In this study we test how psychology based empowerment training for women changes their psychological well-being, women’s empowerment, their decision for adoption of nutrition dense maize seeds in Ethiopia, and ultimately food security. We test this through setting up a randomized control trial as well as a Becker-de Groot Marshak (BDM) experiment in the Oromia region in the country. Specifically, we test whether removing internal constraints for female farmers through psychology training on empowerment can improve women’s empowerment, their psychological well-being, their health, improved seed adoption, and household food security. We further test the effect of relieving external constraints through provision of subsidy to purchase improved seeds and lastly the joint effect of the training and subsidy on the outcomes of interest.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Belissa, Temesgen et al. 2025. "Improving food and nutrition security by enhancing women’s empowerment in Ethiopia." AEA RCT Registry. March 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13918-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name

Haramaya University

Type

none

URL

https://www.haramaya.edu.et/

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We adapt the existing training programme of women’s empowerment developed by Agriculture Growth Program phase 2 with support from Global Affair Canada, to ensure that women farmers can benefit equally with men from agricultural developments to improve their livelihoods, nutrition and food security. We adapt training modules on self-esteem, goal setting, trust, and leadership for the psychological training in our study based on stakeholder discussions, focus group discussions and relevance of the topics to female farmers in the region of our study. Our adapted version of the training is the appendix. We will also layer the intervention with the activities of the ‘Integrated Seed Sector Development’ (ISSD) program in Ethiopia. In east Ethiopia the ISSD project promotes the adoption of seeds of improved varieties of nutrition-dense and high-yielding crops. For this study we will provide (partly subsidized) quality protein maize (QPM) through Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) auction process (Becker et. al. 1964) to all farmers in the sample. Seed production is leveraged through seed producing cooperatives (SPCs) at the local level.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2024-07-01

Intervention End Date

2024-07-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS), . Food availability, Dietary Diversity, Sanitation Index, Physical health Index, Emotional Health Index, General Self-Efficacy (GSE) Scale, Pro-WEAI Index

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Women’s empowerment is measured by constructing IFPRI’s Pro-WEAI Index from responses obtained from both women and men. The construction of the index will follow the guidelines provided by IFPRI. The index will be based on 5 domains: (1) Production; (2) Resources; (3) Income; (4) Leadership; and (5) Time.
Dietary diversity scores are calculated by summing the number of food groups consumed by the individual respondent and the reference child (under 5 years of age) over the 24-hour recall period. Consumption of food based on major food groups as proposed by FAO.
Food availability how many times in the past year the household was able to provide food for its own consumption. This is the sum of all months the household was able to purchase/buy/was donated food.
The HFIAS module yields information on food insecurity (access) at the household level. The variable is calculated for each household by assigning a code for the food insecurity (access) category in which it falls. The categories are coded as 0 = Food Secure, 1=Mildly Food Insecure Access, 2=Moderately Food Insecure Access, 3=Severely Food Insecure Access. The computation of this variable will follow the guidelines developed by USAID.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Willingness to Pay (WTP) for QPM

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We randomize the selected household in our study at the village level stratified at the kebele level. There are 64 villages in the Ada’a district and 66 in Lume district. Half of the villages in each district will be randomized into our treatment group and the other half in our control group. Our study will therefore have the following two groups:

Group 1: Treatment group - All female farmers from this group will get the psychology training and the opportunity to play the BDM auction process to buy the QPM seeds at a subsidized price.

Group 2: Control group - All female farmers from this group will only get the opportunity to play the BDM auction process to buy the QPM seeds at a subsidized price.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization is done on computer using STATA.

Randomization Unit

Its is a cluster randomization. Randomization is at village level clustered at Kebele level.

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

1200 households from 120 villages from 10 Kebele each in Ada'a and Lume districts in Oromia (64 villages in Ada'a and 66 villages in Lume).

Sample size: planned number of observations

1200 households from 120 villages

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

299 farmers from 33 villages in treatment group and 287 farmers from 31 villages in control group in Ada'a. 325 farmers from 35 villages in treatment group and 283 farmers from 31 villages in control group in Lume.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Simple calculations for MDES than suggest that the MDES of the training we will be able to detect varies between 0.17 and 0.27. Note that the MDES we will be able to detect may turn out to be somewhat lower, especially for the ANCOVA estimates, as the variance of the Ancova estimator is lower than that of the post treatment estimator (as long as the autocorrelation is positive). Moreover, we will take into account control variables (as well as STRATA dummies) which will also improve the precision. However, if there will be substantial non-compliance (which we don’t expect), the MDES will be higher.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB