@article{30984d0e2a0c41cbb995985dfb28eb0f,
title = "The burdens of participation: A mixed-methods study of the effects of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture program on women's time use in Malawi",
abstract = "Development programs often rely on women's participation. However, there is little evidence of whether development programs that engage women's unpaid labor – particularly in care work – add to their time burdens. We tested this hypothesis on a nutrition-sensitive agriculture program delivered through community-based preschools in Malawi. The mixed-methods study was conducted over one year using data from 1,168 female caregivers from a cluster-randomized control trial. A longitudinal binomial logistic regression model was used to estimate the proportion of time spent caregiving in a 24-hour period (expressed as minutes) at baseline and then separately for each treatment group at 6-months and 1-year post-randomization. In addition, two rounds of 38 qualitative in-depth interviews (n = 76) were conducted with women, men and adolescent girls to explore their perceptions of program activities, time use and gender attitudes. We found that the program quantitatively increased daily caregiving time for participating women by approximately 30 min. However, this effect occurred only during the lean season when preschool scale-up investments increased. Qualitatively, program-related tasks were not considered burdensome. Moreover, participants saw contributions as important investments in their children's development. These findings add to limited evidence of the impacts of nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs and early childhood interventions on women's time use. Measuring women's participation through mixed-method evaluations can aid interpretation to avoid harm and to better understand the tradeoffs of women's time.",
keywords = "Agriculture, Gender, Malawi, Nutrition, Time use, Unpaid care",
author = "Amy Margolies and Elizabeth Colantuoni and Rosemary Morgan and Aulo Gelli and Laura Caulfield",
note = "Funding Information: This work was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). Funding support for this study was provided by a Nutrition Embedding Evaluation Program (NEEP) grant from PATH and the Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition (IMMANA) grant, both funded by the Government of the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and A4NH. Additional funding was provided to the corresponding author by the Department of International Health Tuition Scholarship and a Health Systems Program Doctoral Award, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This study was implemented in a partnership between Save the Children, Chancellor College – University of Malawi and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). We would like to thank the following staff at Save the Children for linkages with policy and program implementation: Aisha Twalibu, Natalie Roschnik, Helen Moestue, Peter Phiri, and Lexon Ndalama. We want to thank Wadonda, LLC, our Malawian research teams and in particular, Kenan Kalagho, Mischeck Mphande, Gift Mbwele, Judith Ndalama, Patrick Msukwa, Bridget Masanche, Monice Kachinjika, Wilfred Banda and Alick Mwale. We also thank the IFPRI-Malawi office and Hazel Malapit and Agnes Quisumbing at IFPRI for their support. The opinions expressed here belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of A4NH, CGIAR, IFPRI, PATH, FCDO or Johns Hopkins University. Funding Information: This work was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). Funding support for this study was provided by a Nutrition Embedding Evaluation Program (NEEP) grant from PATH and the Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition (IMMANA) grant, both funded by the Government of the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and A4NH. Additional funding was provided to the corresponding author by the Department of International Health Tuition Scholarship and a Health Systems Program Doctoral Award, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2023",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106122",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "163",
journal = "World Development",
issn = "0305-750X",
publisher = "Elsevier BV",
}