Scaling up Women's Agripreneurship Through Public-private Linkages in Rural Ghana

NCT03869853 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 108766
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 535
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Over one-third of rural Ghanaians live below the poverty line and women and children living in poverty are at the highest risk of poor nutrition and health. Sustained integrated approaches that increase agricultural productivity and value addition, diversify incomes, and enhance knowledge and skills among all stakeholders are required to improve the well-being of rural communities. There exists a unique opportunity, building on the results of the Nutrition Links (NL) project, to test sustainable district-level approaches that support women agripreneurs and address existing gender inequities in rural Ghana. This project will test different approaches to enhance the sustainability of activities that will (i) increase access to resources and services for agricultural production and, where relevant, value addition for women, (ii) facilitate access to markets that will enhance women's entrepreneurship, and (iii) help district partners integrate targets and activities to meet a common goal. The 3-y project will include quantitative and qualitative data collection to implement a trial to test a sustainable approach for engaging female agripreneurs in farmers' associations and improving their business successes, with different approaches to integrate new activities in district institutions' programs. The project will be guided by the team of institutions working together with district stakeholders to improve the quality of life of rural Ghanaian women agripreneurs and their families.

Conditions

Women's Health; Low Income Populations

Keywords

nutritional status; agripreneurs; women farmers

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Women's diet

  Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women dichotomous score developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (diverse: ate 5 out of 10 foods the previous day). Food list: 1. Grains, white roots and tubers, and plantains 2. Pulses (beans, peas and lentils) 3. Nuts and seeds 4. Dairy 5. Meat, poultry and fish 6. Eggs 7. Dark green leafy vegetables 8. Other vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables 9. Other vegetables 10. Other fruits Range: 0-10

  16 months

• Women's empowerment

  Pro -Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), developed by the International Food Policy Institute (empowered: adequate in 9 of the 12 indicators) 12 indicators: autonomy in income, self-efficacy, attitudes about domestic violence, input in productive decisions, ownership of land and other assets, access to and decisions on credit, control over use of income, work balance, visiting important locations, group membership, membership in influential groups, and respect among household members. Adequate: The definition of what is adequate for each indicator will be determined by local experts at beginning of project. Range: 0-12 (each indicator is dichotomous - adequate/not adequate)

  16 months

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Women's income from small business

  16 months

Study Arms (2)

intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Entrepreneurial stimulation and integrated education

Behavioral: Entrepreneurial stimulation and integrated education

control

EXPERIMENTAL

no intervention

Behavioral: control

Interventions

Entrepreneurial stimulation and integrated education BEHAVIORAL

one month cycle of stimulation of business with integrated education on nutrition, health, and gender empowerment

intervention

control BEHAVIORAL

no intervention

control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• women
• members of farmer associations in the three designated districts of the Eastern Region

You may not qualify if:

• non-member farmers
• For the control arm:
• women
• non-members of farmer association
• For the community surveys:
• residents in the communities where selected association members live
• residents of communities that do not have selected association members

Sponsors & Collaborators

• McGill University: lead
• University of Ghana: collaborator
• Heifer Project International: collaborator
• International Development Research Centre, Canada: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Ghana

Legon, Ghana

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Abdu A, Marquis GS, Colecraft EK, Dodoo ND, Grimard F. The Association of Women's Participation in Farmer-Based Organizations with Female and Male Empowerment and its Implication for Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Interventions in Rural Ghana. Curr Dev Nutr. 2022 Jul 25;6(9):nzac121. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzac121. eCollection 2022 Sep.

  PMID: 36110103 DERIVED

Study Officials

• Esi K Colecraft, DrPH

  University of Ghana

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Model Details: This is an economic-education intervention that implements one treatment arm (economic + nutrition/health/gender equity education) for comparison to a non-intervention control. The focus is to test an intervention that is feasible within the context of permanent institutions, thus the package components must be self-sustaining by the local institutions. The components of the stimulation package will be determined jointly with local partners after the initial baseline data collection. The control is made up of random selection of residents who are not members of the farmer-based organization.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 6, 2019
• First Posted: March 11, 2019
• Study Start: December 1, 2019
• Primary Completion: August 15, 2022
• Study Completion: September 15, 2022
• Last Updated: November 20, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-11

Locations

GH (1)