Gender Equity in Development

Improved accuracy

Gender-related outcomes are often difficult to measure accurately and precisely with traditional survey techniques, which reduces policymakers’ and practitioners’ ability to understand the full impact of policies to boost women’s empowerment. AidData seeks to improve the measurement of gender-related outcomes by characterizing measurement error through a combination of on-the-ground survey techniques, remote sensing, and behavioral games. By understanding the extent and nature of measurement error in surveys and how it relates to gender, we can provide recommendations on how to reduce it moving forward. 

Improved efficiency

Measuring women’s empowerment with traditional survey techniques may be insufficient in contexts where it is too costly to implement or it is unsafe or difficult for women to participate freely in surveys. AidData seeks to investigate where and when satellite imagery, remote sensing, and machine learning can supplement on-the-ground measurement of women’s empowerment. The goal of this work is to understand which gender-related outcomes can be measured entirely or partially through remote sensing and machine learning and under what conditions.

Empowerment and hidden bias

Bargaining within households impacts a woman’s control over resources, her personal independence, and her risk of experiencing intimate partner violence. Development programs frequently lack baseline and follow-up data to evaluate whether their projects made a difference in women's bargaining power. Unfortunately, even when data does exist, it may reflect a hidden gender bias, due to intra-household dynamics.

AidData and its local partners seek to combine on-the-ground survey techniques, remote sensing, and behavioral games to understand the extent of measurement error in self-reporting, and how development projects intentionally and unintentionally impact household bargaining and intimate partner violence.

Farming and land rights

Women’s land rights are often curtailed by local laws and customs that limit a woman’s ability to own property in her name, include her name on titles with her husband, and choose the types of crops to grow. What's more, women lack equitable access to arable land, formal training, and agricultural inputs.  

By combining household surveys and high-resolution satellite imagery, we can better understand how property rights, relationships, levels of empowerment, and access to agricultural inputs might impact a range of outcomes—from crop yields for to household bargaining power—providing insights for programs and policy makers.

Employment, mobility, and security

When commuting to work, women endure threats to their health and safety and spend more time and money than men do. Helping women overcome these and other barriers to employment not only increases resources within their households, but may also increase their bargaining power and reduce intimate partner violence.

By improving data on the ground and leveraging remote-sensed data, our research team seeks specific insights that help programs focus their resources on improving a wide range of outcomes—whether the goal is helping women gain access to marketable skills or improving public safety so that they can return home safely.