Resilience to food insecurity and households' head gender: insides from food assistance in Malawi

This research aims at investigating the impact of food assistance programmes on the resilience to food insecurity levels of rural agricultural households headed by females that are beneficiaries of the project “The R4 Rural Resilience Initiative” of the World Food Programme and Oxfam America’s, implemented during the period 2015-2016. During the empirical analysis, first, resilience and food security levels are estimated using the Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis II methodology of the Food and Agriculture Organization. Second, a reflective and reflexive method are used for a descriptive performance assessment of female vs male-headed households, before and after the project implementation. Finally, matching and difference-in-difference techniques, with an emphasis on gender, are used for impact evaluation. The performance analysis shows positive and significant effects of the project participation on male and female-headed households, being these effects on male-headed larger than in their counterparts. The impact evaluation shows a negative and significant relationship between female headed households’ programme participation and the variation of the outcome variables, but a positive and significant relationship between program participation and the levels of resilience and food security of female-headed households.