Ethiopia study to assess empowerment and gender dynamics in chicken production and marketing

Participants learning how to use the scoring method during an ACGG data collectors training in Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Annet Mulema).

Drawing on recommendations from the newly devised gender strategy, the African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG) project is set to study how empowerment or disempowerment and gender dynamics influence smallholder chicken production in Ethiopia.

The qualitative study, which will be carried out from 28 May to 24 June 2018, is expected to contribute to:

• enhancing the understanding of the local meaning of empowerment;
• strengthening the understanding of the gender dynamics of chicken trait preferences to inform decisions on the release of farmer-preferred genotypes;
• identifying the constraints of female and male farmers in access to services, inputs, and markets;
• improving understanding of how intrahousehold gender dynamics affect the distribution of benefits of improved chicken production;

In preparation for the rollout and data collection, the ACGG’s research team made up of four sub-national coordinators and 21 data collectors from Amhara, Oromia, the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’, and Tigray regions, underwent a four-day planning and training program on how to collect sex-disaggregated data in which they familiarized themselves with:

• the study objectives and design
• hypothesis and research questions
• research methods and participatory tools, and
• the fieldwork roadmap

To further practice and reflect on the research process and methodology, the research team engaged in a two-day pilot exercise in two nearby communities in Addis Ababa. The experience helped the team to get acquainted with the expected logistical challenges during the actual data collection and learn how to deal with them.

The research team will start data collection end of May 2018, and the team is expected to produce a draft report by the end of the data collection fieldwork. A similar study has been conducted in the other two ACGG countries – Nigeria and Tanzania. The results will aid the development of a comprehensive framework for the ACGG project to attain its goal of empowering women and men, and also inform selection of chicken strains that are socially and economically likable and thrive in the different agro-ecological environments. The study will also validate results from the quantitative study.

Annet Mulema, a gender expert at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) delivered the training with the support from ACGG gender focal person, Jabrail Hassen, and principal investigator Solomon Abegaz. The training was organized at the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research in Addis Ababa.