Annex III: Womens Empowerment Indicators

Another key area of learning that staff identified from CAREs journey in
Burundi has been its work in identifying indicators for womens
empowerment. Teams for two projects -- Kirumara and Umwizero -- took part
in the research. The research was also linked to CAREs Strategic Impact
Inquiry on womens empowerment, a 3 year impact research initiative that
involved 30 countries with the specific goal of fostering a culture of critical
thinking in CARE, and with those we serve.
For this research, CARE aimed to draw its working definition of womens
empowerment from the voices of the women and communities it seeks to
serve. Through interviews and focus group discussions with men and women
from communities where CARE works, project staff explored local definitions
of womens empowerment as well as obstacles to empowerment. Community
debates were led by representatives from womens solidarity groups during
which participants discussed characteristics of empowerment, their dreams
and aspirations as well as barriers they faced against gender equity or
empowerment.
What were key themes about empowerment from womens
responses?
From the studies, a number of key themes emerged as critical to womens
empowerment:

Matrimonial stability - many women viewed legalized marriage as a

form of protection from abandonment and for their rights to be upheld.
However, the possible negative effects or harms from legalized
marriage are not yet clear and CARE must continue research on this
aspect of empowerment in order to understand the dynamics of
marriage for womens empowerment as well as possible harms that
may result from legalized marriage or civil unions.

Access to income - many women discussed the importance of

earning their own money as a key for greater empowerment and
independence from men. The research also found that not all women
had equal access to credit. This discovery called for greater research
on how age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, literacy and behaviors
may limit or preclude womens participation in groups or gain access to
credit.

Management of household resources - Typically men are

responsible for decisions on how household resources are allocated.
Thus, women felt that greater decision-making power was important
for them to gain respect and minimize household conflicts.

Involvement in community decision-making - In addition to

greater voice and participation in household decision-making, women
also expressed the desire to take greater responsibilities at the
community level. This involves both taking part in conflict resolution as
well as community development committees that would allow women
greater access to justice and productive resources.

Gender based violence - In Burundi, violence against women is both

pervasive and reinforced in local traditions and proverbs. Taboo
surrounding violence also prevents women from reporting violence in
their homes. In order to effectively counter violence, the study also
found that it is important to combat violence at multiple levels
(individual, household, community, regional and national) through
psycho-social support for women and couples to advocacy in
communities and national government against violence against
women.

Sexuality - Taboo also surrounds subjects related to sexual relations.

women and men both felt that it would be important for families to
empower women to discuss sex and family planning with her husband.
To reinforce more open communication between men and women, staff
must gain skills in facilitating sensitive conversations between men
and women. CARE must begin by questioning our own beliefs, attitudes
and behaviors in relation to sexuality.

Access to information and training - Finally, women also discussed

the importance of having access to information and training for their
empowerment. Among women, leaders attributed their skills to both
formal and non-formal education and training.

Reviewing CAREs work on womens empowerment, the studies found that

while projects have actively sought to build womens skills and knowledge to
excel, as well as helped them gain social capital through work with mobilizing
groups and training men on womens issues, CAREs work in Burundi has not
placed enough emphasis on changing the traditional gendered structures that
perpetuate womens disempowerment. Across responses,
What were the key lessons about indicators for womens
empowerment that came out of this research?
Beyond the indicators themselves, project teams reported a number of key
lessons about indicators from the research and reflection process:
1.

Diversity of indicators: Women are diverse. They have different

definitions for empowerment, often tied to their stations in life and how
society views or treats them as a result of these characteristics (by
ethnicity, class/wealth, age, etc). Furthermore, within Burundi, region also
plays an important role in defining what empowerment looks like in
communities. For example, in the plains of Burundi, polygamy is much
more common as compared to people living in the hills. As a result,
gender/power relations tied to polygamy play a more prevalent role in
womens lives within the plains and influence their views of
empowerment.

2.

Importance of Incorporating Womens Views: Furthermore, teams

expressed that one of the most important aspect for their own learning
came out of their conversations with women about their own definitions of
empowerment. CARE Burundis research on WE produced new
characteristics of empowerment that surprised staff. Staff had not
realized, for example, the significance of proper and clean clothing for
women as a characteristic of empowerment. Also, they did not know how

important gaining respect from others was for womens own sense of
empowerment until engaging women in conversations about
empowerment and how women would define it.
3.

Dynamic-ness of indicators: Many staff also commented on how

womens dreams of empowerment change over time. Particularly with the
changes linked to program interventions, womens views of empowerment
will necessarily change. While during baseline studies, women may
describe the ability to attend community level meetings as a measure of
empowerment, perhaps by mid-term they gain a new understanding of
empowerment as their aspirations change and women may describe the
ability to speak in community meetings or holding a position in local
government as examples of empowerment. In some cases, indicators for
empowerment developed in program design may no longer be pertinent
to womens lives as projects progress.
To capture the dynamism of empowerment, CARE conducts focus groups
of women on the definition of womens empowerment. CARE then
develops a baseline questionnaire, based on womens responses. Each
indicator question offers a spectrum of responses to illustrate different
levels of empowerment. For example, participation in decision-making
may have a number of responses that range from not able to attend
community level meetings to attends meetings and actively contributes
points of views verbally. The same questions with responses are asked
again over the course of the project to assess how womens levels of
empowerment have changed in relation to different domains. Analysis of
scores helps project and program teams to gauge changes in womens
lives and CAREs contribution to these changes.

4.

Inconsistency of empowerment indicators in womens lives

(private vs. public): The latest phase of SII research also highlighted
how womens levels of empowerment shift from one sphere of life to
another. One staff member mentioned that she felt women were much
more empowered in their communities than in their households.
Researchers from the study were surprised to find women leaders in the
community continued to tolerate violence from their husbands in their
homes and could not negotiate household management/use of resources
with husbands. This highlighted the importance of studying changes in
womens lives in their various roles and relations (public and private) in
order to effectively understand their empowerment.

What does this mean for CAREs work?

CARE Burundis approach toward measuring womens empowerment has
tried to take into account these findings within their work through a number
of methods.
5.

Development of Womens Empowerment Indicators: In each

project that works with women, CARE Burundi aims to include about 5
universal indicators for womens empowerment, which are still being
defined. These indicators will be selected based on the findings from its
womens empowerment indicators research (including baseline studies
such as the one cited above) as cross-cutting definitions/characteristics of
empowerment that women identified as important. By tracking similar

indicators across projects, CARE Burundi hopes to learn more about the
dynamics of womens empowerment across interventions as well as how
specific interventions interact with womens empowerment differently. In
addition, based on their own research with women, each project also
develops more tailored indicators for women specific to their work and
context.
6.

Room for Change: The SII highlighted the importance of monitoring

the evolution of womens views on empowerment. In order to remain more
closely informed with the community, CARE Burundi has:
1.1.

moved their field coordinators to be based in local target

communities

1.2.

incorporated appreciative inquiry (dialogues valorisants) with local

communities as part of their daily work.

From daily inquiries and interaction with women and community

members, field coordinators learn about changes in womens lives as well
as in their dreams/aspirations. Each month, project teams meet to discuss
progress and also identify patterns or important information arising from
appreciative inquiry. From these meetings, project teams draft monthly
reports on their work. During monitoring and evaluation, teams revisit
indicators for womens empowerment in light of monthly reports (and
inquiries with communities) and adjust indicators as necessary. While
normally CARE can adapt indicators following baseline studies, only one
project has been able to revise indicators after a mid-term review.
Remaining responsive to communities in how CARE views empowerment
provides a number challenges. While staff receive an orientation on
appreciative inquiry, not all staff fully understand how to (or simply fail to)
conduct appreciative inquiries. Furthermore, while CARE has collected a
multitude of womens stories through appreciative inquiry, they have not
been sufficiently collected or mined to deepen broader organizational
learning about womens lives and empowerment. Finally, beyond internal
challenges CARE faces in taking up knowledge from the community
through the dialogues, donors may also not be receptive to the changes
involved in adjusting indicators for empowerment with the shifting
realities around womens lives.
7.

Continued Research on Womens Empowerment: In order to

better understand womens empowerment, CARE Burundi has plans to
commit to further learning on womens empowerment and some
respondents discussed the need to continue to evolve CARE Burundis
understanding of womens empowerment. To challenge staff to reflect on
empowerment, CARE Burundi has begun to hold workshops for staff using
the Social Analysis for Action (SAA) guide to help staff identify their own
values, biases and blind-spots in regard to reflect more on sensitive issues
like sexual and reproductive health and gender.
Currently, the womens empowerment program team is researching a
number of gender-related initiatives as well. Namely, the team is exploring
methods in engaging men for womens empowerment and also the
dynamics surrounding legalized marriage. At present, some groups and

staff promote legalized marriage as an important aspect of womens

empowerment. However, the team sees the need to research the
relationship more closely to understand how legal/non-formal marriages
affect womens empowerment/well-being as well as that of their children.
8.

Preparing and Supporting Staff: In addition to supporting staff to

engage in sensitive and productive discussions on issues of
sexual/reproductive health and gender (which has been initiated through
the SAA), many respondents expressed the need to support staff to take
on more reflective and analytical roles in their work. For example, staff
mentioned the need for trainings on analysis skills to be able to draw key
lessons and patterns out of their observations and interactions with
women and communities. In addition to training needs, staff also saw time
as a key barrier against developing and using indicators that are pertinent
to womens empowerment and that adapt to changing definitions of
empowerment.

Furthermore, many people also mentioned the importance of debating

traditional practices and values in terms of human rights (i.e. practice of
dowry/polygamy, value of large families, male traditional roles in the
household, domestic violence) among staff. In order to promote and
understand womens empowerment, staff must confront and understand their
own values and biases.
Further Resources:
Rivuzimana, A. (2007). Les indicateurs dempowerment des femmes au nord
du Burundi. UMWIZERO Team, CARE International in Burundi.
Iredale, J. (2007). Draft report on the analysis of the Study on Empowerment,
UMWIZERO project. CARE International in Burundi.
Ntabahungu, J. (2007). Rapport de la dfinition de lempowerment dans le
contexte local ralis dans les communes de Gihanga, Mpanda, Mutimbuzi,
Makebuko et Giheta, pour le programme Kirumara. Kirumara Team CARE
International in Burundi.
Iredale, J. and Ntacobakimvuna, D. (2009). Le travail de CARE Burundi sur
lempowerment des femmes une rflexion. Program Learning and Quality
Team, CARE International in Burundi.