A systematic review explores the transformative impacts of agricultural projects on women's empowerment, emphasizing the critical role of women in food production and rural economies.
The review assesses various projects globally to understand how empowerment outcomes are linked to agricultural interventions, highlighting the multidimensional nature of empowerment.
Empowerment in agriculture goes beyond labor input, encompassing decision-making authority, resource access, income control, and policy influence, requiring holistic approaches for sustainable change.
The study uses rigorous inclusion criteria to measure empowerment indicators, emphasizing the importance of asset ownership and land tenure security in enhancing women's empowerment outcomes.
Successful projects focus on knowledge dissemination, capacity building, and gender-sensitive approaches, bridging the gap between productivity improvements and empowerment.
Collective action, social capital, and value chain interventions emerge as key factors in empowering women farmers, promoting economic independence and leadership roles.
The review underscores the need for gender-sensitive agricultural policies that address structural inequalities and calls for nuanced program design to prevent exploitation within value chains.
Challenges in measuring empowerment quantitatively are highlighted, advocating for interdisciplinary research designs to capture the nuanced dynamics of empowerment processes.
The review serves as a guide for practitioners, urging adaptive management strategies sensitive to socio-cultural contexts, and emphasizes the sustainability of empowerment gains post-project lifecycle.
As global stakeholders aim for resilient food systems, the review emphasizes the inseparable link between sustainability, equity, and empowerment in agricultural development initiatives.