Research News

Poverty elimination can only be achieved by addressing the disproportionate burden of poverty borne by women. Eliminating gender inequality and achieving women's empowerment are essential to achieving all the Millennium Development Goals and so gender issues are increasingly integrated into projects across DFID's research portfolio. This includes research on removing barriers to women’s participation in economic activities, improving maternal health, and giving women a stronger voice.

Better livelihoods through agriculture
The livelihoods of most poor people will be linked to agriculture for the foreseeable future; this is particularly true for women. In East Africa, opportunities for women have opened up following the introduction of low cost, easy to grow fodder shrubs for cattle feed. Women in both male and female-headed households have taken up the technology, boosting milk yields and increasing household incomes by US$30-120 annually. Women farmers comprise 50% of those planting fodder trees at project sites. Spin-off opportunities have included employment in milk bars established with funds raised from milk sales derived from planting fodder shrubs. Listen to Regina Warima, a Kenyan farmer, describing how growing fodder shrubs has helped her feed her cows during the recent drought.

Women's health
In the field of health, DFID funds research committed to improving the health of mothers. For example, women's groups, which meet monthly to develop practical strategies to solve maternal and newborn health problems, have led to reductions in neonatal mortality by 30% in Nepal and 42% in India. Trials in several countries show that this low cost intervention may be replicated in other settings and effective even when access to health services is limited.

DFID will also invest in new research that tackles gender inequalities, one of the key drivers of the HIV epidemic. A new Research Programme Consortium on Tackling the Structural Drivers of the HIV Epidemic will generate evidence on how to tackle inequalities between women and men, gender norms related to masculinity and femininity, violence against women and gender-related barriers to accessing information and services. It will also identify interventions which are effective in reducing the vulnerability of adolescent girls. Addressing gender inequalities and other structural drivers of the HIV epidemic, such as stigma and discrimination, will make HIV prevention programmes more effective.

Women's empowerment
Other research is working to improve women's wellbeing and empower them in places where they may be vulnerable. For example, DFID funded research contributed to improved domestic violence legislation in Ghana. Research showed that often victims of domestic violence were unable to pay the costs of medical reports needed as evidence by the prosecution. The law was changed so that free medical treatment is now available to victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

Another major research programme is Pathways of Women's Empowerment, an international research and communications programme, lead by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), that links academics, activists and practitioners across the globe to explore ways to enhance women’s empowerment. Andrea Cornwall, Director of the Research Programme, will be visiting DFID on International Women’s Day to share key findings from the programme.

Research uptake
It is important that powerful messages like these from DFID funded research are widely disseminated and taken up by practitioners, citizens and policy and decision makers. As part of a drive to ensure uptake, DFID supports BRIDGE, a gender and development research and communications service. BRIDGE supports gender advocacy and mainstreaming efforts by bridging the gaps between theory, policy and practice. BRIDGE provides accessible and diverse gender information in print and online and its 'virtual bookcase', from where copies of all BRIDGE publications can be downloaded, received nearly a quarter of a million visitors in the year to April 2007 and 45% of unique visitors came from Southern countries.

DFID also funds research to test innovative and effective communication channels. This includes the television drama Makutano Junction, set in a typical peri-urban location in Kenya. Storylines draw on research findings from a range of DFID funded projects and address issues of direct importance to women and girls. An episode aired in 2009 included a storyline about abortion and viewers could request a follow up comic on the issue. Nearly 1500 viewers sent a text message into the programme requesting further information. Other issues tackled in the soap include girls’ menstruation, breastfeeding and gender based violence. The series is broadcast in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with regular viewing figures in Kenya of over seven million in 2009.

For International Women's Day, some DFID funded research programmes are launching new activities. For example, the Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts (WEMC) programme, led by City University of Hong Kong, is launching a series of postcards sharing WEMC’s learning on strategies and initiatives that empower women. Titled Women Empowering Themselves: Seeds of Change, the series starts with six postcards: two each from research communities in Indonesia, China and Pakistan.

This is just a snapshot of the wide range of research DFID funds to address issues of gender inequality and women’s empowerment. DFID's Research Strategy (2008-2013) summarises how gender fits into our overall research plans, and further information on these case studies and more can be found below.

Subscribe to the gender equality feed from R4D

Find out more about gender equality on the DFID website and read the DFID Research Strategy 2008-2013 Working Paper on Mainstreaming Gender in Research.

Here are some of the projects covering gender issues on R4D, including those featured above:

• Institute of Development Studies (IDS) - mobilising knowledge for development - integrated support to ID21, ELDIS, BLDS and BRIDGE (MK4D)
• Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts (WEMC)
• Pathways of Women's Empowerment
• Achieving MDGs 4 and 5: Strategic research to develop the evidence - base for policy for mother and infant care at facility and community level
• Initiative for Maternal Mortality Programme Assessment (IMMPACT)
• Television Drama Series: Makutano Junction
• HD4 Realising Rights: improving sexual and reproductive health for poor and vulnerable populations RPC

Case studies
Read the case study Fodder trees for milk and income based on the work of the World Agroforestry Centre (see related project records here and here), and view the picture feature Fodder shrubs deliver dairy success on New Agriculturist. Watch the YouTube video (see below) Fodder shrubs: milking success, in which Esther Karanja explains how opportunities for women have opened up following the introduction of low cost, easy to grow fodder trees for cattle feed, boosting milk yields and increasing household incomes by US$30-120 annually, and listen to Regina Warima, a Kenyan farmer, describing how growing fodder shrubs has helped her feed her cows during the recent drought.

See also the following case studies on R4D:

• Straight Talking to combat HIV among young African women
• A Small Dream
• Essential healthcare for newborn babies in Nepal
• Multiple micronutrient supplements and the prevention of newborn deaths
• Getting help with child birth can be costly
• Insecticide-treated nets prevent foetal loss in pregnancy
• Breastfeeding in the First Hour of Life Could Save Almost One Million Babies' Lives Each Year
• Give a Girl a Camera and Change Her Life...Communications Empower the Powerless!