The Efficacy of Women Empowerment Initiatives in Agricultural Development of Mugamba Region, Burundi
Abstract
The global catastrophe of hunger is getting worse every day. According to recent figures, severe nutritional deprivation affects almost 9.2% of the global population. Recent statistics suggest that more than a billion people in Asia, 676 million people in Africa, and 188 million people in Latin America suffer from starvation. Despite dominating the agricultural sector, women suffer disproportionately from hunger. The effectiveness of programs aimed at empowering women in the agricultural development of Burundi's Mugamba region is investigated in this study. We adopted a cross-sectional study using mixed methods to enable concurrent triangulation. The results show that women's agricultural productivity is highly impacted by limited access to land, with a mean score of 3.2007 and a standard deviation of 1.37476. Just 41.4% of women in the Mugamba region are empowered across five domains, indicating a lack of meaningful empowerment. We recommend strategic adjustments to indicators that lead to disempowerment, such as non-farm earning options and educational initiatives, development of the infrastructure as well as close oversight and assessment of empowerment. Meaningful involvement of more women in agriculture can lead to increased child nutrition and food security as well as other positive socio-economic impacts such as increased household income. Furthermore, there is a need for targeted legislation and financial assistance to women in Burundi's agricultural industry. To fully comprehend the significance of women's empowerment in this particular setting, more research is required
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References
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