Do We Contribute to Women's Empowerment? Insights From a Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Project Implemented in Nong, Laos

Background The gender-gap in power is still persistent around the globe. Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) interventions have been implemented to increase women's empowerment as a goal in itself, and as a pathway to food and nutrition security (FNS). However, contradicting evidence exists on whether the interventions, besides food security, realize women's empowerment. Furthermore, the concept of women's empowerment has different meanings across different cultures, regions, and countries. Objective To assess the understanding of, and perspectives on, women's empowerment among different stakeholders in the context of an NSA project in Laos, and to assess whether this project contributes to women's empowerment and FNS. Methods Semistructured interviews were conducted with local implementers of NSA interventions (n = 13) and senior program managers and advisors (n = 5). Six focus group discussions were conducted with community members (n = 46). Results Our findings reveal that community members had a materialistic understanding and local implementers an instrumental understanding, in contrast to senior program managers and advisors, who had an egalitarian understanding of women's empowerment. The level of women's empowerment in Nong was considered low by all respondents. Furthermore, respondents reported that the NSA interventions had a positive impact on FNS, but not on women's empowerment. Conclusions In a community in which both women's empowerment and FNS are low, working with women may contribute to FNS, but not necessarily contribute to women's empowerment. Nevertheless, from an emic perspective, women do feel more empowered as the interventions contributed to increased household capacity to address FNS. Plain language title Does our project lead to having enough food and improved women’s status in communities living in rural, mountainous areas in Laos? Plain language summary Many women around the globe, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, belong to the most disempowered groups of society as they experience economic and social disadvantages relative to men. Previous studies have demonstrated that empowering women can result in increased food and nutrition security (FNS), as well as economic growth. Therefore, this study investigated whether Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) projects improved women's empowerment (WE) and FNS in remote villages in Laos. The study's findings indicated that while NSA projects did increase FNS, they had