IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v108y2018icp115-130.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women’s participation in environmental decision-making: Quasi-experimental evidence from northern Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Grillos, Tara

Abstract

Greater inclusion of women is widely believed to improve environmental decision outcomes. Pastoralism faces increased vulnerability to climate change, and pastoralist women are both disproportionately affected by severe drought and underrepresented in formal decision-making processes. Increased participation by women in decision-making thus promises to offer a win–win solution: greater gender equality as well as enhanced resilience to persistent drought. This quasi-experimental study evaluates an intervention that aimed to increase drought preparedness in northern Kenyan pastoralist communities through the empowerment of women at the household and community levels. It uses a difference-in-differences design combined with matching estimation to causally isolate effects of the intervention. At the community level, there was an increase in women's political awareness and participation in formal decision-making processes, but that participation did not translate into meaningful outcomes. At the household level, however, there was a large and positive effect on actions taken to better prepare for drought (which mostly took the form of pre-emptive livestock sales). Given the entrenched gender roles related to livestock sales in this setting, this finding is encouraging and warrants further research.

Suggested Citation

  • Grillos, Tara, 2018. "Women’s participation in environmental decision-making: Quasi-experimental evidence from northern Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 115-130.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:108:y:2018:i:c:p:115-130
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.03.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X18300998
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.03.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Irma Clots-Figueras, 2012. "Are Female Leaders Good for Education? Evidence from India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 212-244, January.
    2. Clots-Figueras, Irma, 2011. "Women in politics: Evidence from the Indian States," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 664-690, August.
    3. Agarwal, Bina, 2009. "Gender and forest conservation: The impact of women's participation in community forest governance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2785-2799, September.
    4. Duncan Thomas, 1990. "Intra-Household Resource Allocation: An Inferential Approach," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 25(4), pages 635-664.
    5. Agrawal, Arun & Chhatre, Ashwini, 2006. "Explaining success on the commons: Community forest governance in the Indian Himalaya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 149-166, January.
    6. Esther Duflo, 2003. "Grandmothers and Granddaughters: Old-Age Pensions and Intrahousehold Allocation in South Africa," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 17(1), pages 1-25, June.
    7. Duncan Thomas, 1993. "The Distribution of Income and Expenditure within the Household," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 29, pages 109-135.
    8. Puhani, Patrick A., 2012. "The treatment effect, the cross difference, and the interaction term in nonlinear “difference-in-differences” models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 85-87.
    9. Stephan Klasen, 2002. "Low Schooling for Girls, Slower Growth for All? Cross-Country Evidence on the Effect of Gender Inequality in Education on Economic Development," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 16(3), pages 345-373, December.
    10. Adolfo Morrone & Noemi Tontoranelli & Giulia Ranuzzi, 2009. "How Good is Trust?: Measuring Trust and its Role for the Progress of Societies," OECD Statistics Working Papers 2009/3, OECD Publishing.
    11. Duflo, Esther & Udry, Christopher R., 2003. "Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Cote D'Ivoire: Social Norms, Separate Accounts and Consumption Choices," Center Discussion Papers 28404, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    12. Susan Buckingham, 2010. "Call in the women," Nature, Nature, vol. 468(7323), pages 502-502, November.
    13. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo, 2004. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1409-1443, September.
    14. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz & Mark McGillivray, 2009. "Does Gender Inequality Reduce Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa and Arab Countries?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 21(2), pages 224-242.
    15. Grant Miller, 2008. "Women's Suffrage, Political Responsiveness, and Child Survival in American History," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 1287-1327.
    16. Goldman, Mara J. & Little, Jani S., 2015. "Innovative Grassroots NGOS and the Complex Processes of Women’s Empowerment: An Empirical Investigation from Northern Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 762-777.
    17. Udry, Christopher, 1996. "Gender, Agricultural Production, and the Theory of the Household," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(5), pages 1010-1046, October.
    18. Jackson, Cecile, 1996. "Rescuing gender from the poverty trap," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 489-504, March.
    19. Rachel Glennerster & Kudzai Takavarasha, 2013. "Running Randomized Evaluations: A Practical Guide," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10085.
    20. Clots-Figueras, Irma, 2011. "Women in politics," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 664-690.
    21. repec:adr:anecst:y:1993:i:29:p:06 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Agarwal, Bina, 2001. "Participatory Exclusions, Community Forestry, and Gender: An Analysis for South Asia and a Conceptual Framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(10), pages 1623-1648, October.
    23. Deepa Narayan & Lant Pritchett & Soumya Kapoor, 2009. "Moving Out of Poverty : Volume 2. Success from the Bottom Up," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11838.
    24. Seguino, Stephanie, 2000. "Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 1211-1230, July.
    25. Agarwal, Bina, 2010. "Does Women's Proportional Strength Affect their Participation? Governing Local Forests in South Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 98-112, January.
    26. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    27. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Report 2012 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2012]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4391.
    28. Razavi, Shahra, 1997. "Fitting gender into development institutions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 1111-1125, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tanvir Pavel & Syed Hasan & Nafisa Halim & Pallab Mozumder, 2018. "Natural Hazards and Internal Migration: The Role of Transient versus Permanent Shocks," Working Papers 1806, Florida International University, Department of Economics.
    2. Andrea Löther, 2019. "Is It Working? An Impact Evaluation of the German “Women Professors Program”," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-18, April.
    3. Mercy Mwambi & Jos Bijman & Patience Mshenga, 2020. "Which type of producer organization is (more) inclusive? Dynamics of farmers’ membership and participation in the decision‐making process," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(2), pages 213-236, June.
    4. Kansanga, Moses Mosonsieyiri & Kangmennaang, Joseph & Bezner Kerr, Rachel & Lupafya, Esther & Dakishoni, Laifolo & Luginaah, Isaac, 2021. "Agroecology and household production diversity and dietary diversity: Evidence from a five-year agroecological intervention in rural Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    5. Yurco, Kayla, 2024. "From grazing units to milking units: The gendered nature of intra-household livestock management and food security for pastoralists in Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beath, Andrew & Christia, Fotini & Enikolopov, Ruben, 2012. "Empowering women : evidence from a field experiment in Afghanistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6269, The World Bank.
    2. Sonia Bhalotra & Irma Clots-Figueras, 2014. "Health and the Political Agency of Women," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 164-197, May.
    3. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2019. "Does female empowerment promote economic development?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 309-343, December.
    4. Beath, Andrew & Christia, Fotini & Enikolopov, Ruben, 2013. "Empowering Women through Development Aid: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 107(3), pages 540-557, August.
    5. repec:lic:licosd:34113 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Nafisa Halim & Kathryn Yount & Solveig Cunningham & Rohini Pande, 2016. "Women’s Political Empowerment and Investments in Primary Schooling in India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 813-851, February.
    7. Bhalotra, Sonia & Brulé, Rachel & Roy, Sanchari, 2020. "Women's inheritance rights reform and the preference for sons in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    8. repec:esx:essedp:739 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Kose, Esra & Kuka, Elira & Shenhav, Na'ama, 2016. "Women's Enfranchisement and Children's Education: The Long-Run Impact of the U.S. Suffrage Movement," IZA Discussion Papers 10148, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Esther Duflo, 2012. "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1079, December.
    11. Francisco Pino, 2014. "Is There Gender Bias Among Voters ?Evidence from the Chilean Congressional Elections," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2014-53, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. Salahodjaev, Raufhon & Yuldashev, Oybek & Yusupov, Nurmuhammad, 2016. "Women Parliamentarians and Deforestation Around The World," MPRA Paper 70718, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Astrid Sneyers & Anneleen Vandeplas, 2013. "Girl Power in Agricultural Production: How Much Does it Yield? A Case-Study on the Dairy Sector in India," Working Papers id:5562, eSocialSciences.
    14. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    15. Sofia Amaral & Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Rudra Sensarma, 2015. "Public Work Programs and Gender-based Violence: The Case of NREGA in India," Discussion Papers 15-09, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    16. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clots-Figueras, Irma & Iyer, Lakshmi, 2013. "Path-Breakers: How Does Women’s Political Participation Respond to Electoral Success?," Economics Discussion Papers 9008, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    17. Peveri, Julieta & Sangnier, Marc, 2023. "Gender differences in re-contesting decisions: New evidence from French municipal elections," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 574-594.
    18. Baliamoune-Lutz, Mina, 2013. "The Effectiveness of Foreign Aid to Women's Equality Organizations in the MENA : Does Aid Promote Women's Political Participation?," WIDER Working Paper Series 074, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Yao, Yang & You, Wuyue, 2018. "Women’s political participation and gender gaps of education in China: 1950–1990," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 220-237.
    20. Hessami, Zohal & da Fonseca, Mariana Lopes, 2020. "Female political representation and substantive effects on policies: A literature review," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    21. Bruce, Raphael & Cavgias, Alexsandros & Meloni, Luis & Remígio, Mário, 2022. "Under pressure: Women’s leadership during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    22. Rosangela Bando, 2019. "Evidence-based gender equality policy and pay in Latin America and the Caribbean: progress and challenges," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-23, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:108:y:2018:i:c:p:115-130. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.