Weagov Nigeria Pilot Study Findings And Policy Implications

WEAGov assesses the state of women’s voice and agency in national agrifood policymaking. Like IFPRI’s Kaleidoscope Model, it adopts a policy process approach, looking at every stage of the policy cycle — from why certain issues become salient and how policy solutions to address them are designed, to the organizational strategies and budgetary outlays that shape policy implementation, to how policies are assessed against their objectives. Within each of these stages, WEAGov examines whether women are being considered, whether their voices are included, and whether they are influencing actions and decisions.

Women’s equal participation and leadership in political and public life can boost a country’s long-run economic growth, foster social inclusion, and help countries reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Beyond these important outcomes, women’s inclusion in public life is a basic human right: women deserve a role in making decisions, controlling resources, and shaping policies. Despite the importance of women’s voices and their empowerment in policy and decision-making processes, it is far easier to lament their absence than to define and measure them. We know that political empowerment, measured in terms of the share of women in government ministries and parliament, is low and is the weakest dimension in the Global Gender Gap. Yet such national statistics, while important and informative, risk mismeasuring women’s participation and influence in public life and do not give policymakers and advocacy organizations traction on specific gaps and opportunities for increasing women’s voice in policymaking. With this situation in mind and focusing on agrifood systems, which are crucial for delivering the SDGs, we developed an assessment framework—Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood Governance (WEAGov)— to assess women’s voice and empowerment in national policy processes in agrifood systems. This paper presents the first pilot-testing of WEAGov in Nigeria. In this paper, we present how the WEAGov tool works in the Nigerian context, analyze the data, and provide diagnostic on the status of women’s voice and empowerment in the agrifood policy process. As discussed in this paper, the pilot-testing in Nigeria provides useful lessons toward improving the measurement for future use and provides valuable policy insights on critical entry points for increasing women’s voice and empowerment in the national agrifood policy process.

Inclusive governance and policies can promote adaptation to climate change as well as resilience of women in the agrifood system. The Women's empowerment in Agrifood Governance (WEAGov) is a diagnostic tool developed by IFPRI to help evaluate the extent to which women are empowered across the policy cycle related to agrifood systems. WEAGov provides a way to identify gaps and opportunities to raise women’s voice and agency at different stages of the policy cycle, and provides a basis for monitoring progress in women’s empowerment in agrifood systems governance over time. The workshop described here took place on May 11, 2023 in Abuja, Nigeria and included policymakers, researchers, and private sector representatives. The workshop familiarized stakeholders with the WEAGov assessment framework and collected valuable inputs and feedback on a recent WEAGov pilot study conducted in Nigeria. While participants largely validated the WEAGov indicators, they recommended key areas for improved measurement which will be incorporated into the assessment framework.

While thousands of books on baking are in print aimed at food service operators, culinary art instruction, and consumers, relatively few professional publications exist that cover the science and technology of baking. In Bakery Products: Science and Technology, nearly 50 professionals from industry, government, and academia contribute their perspectives on the state of baking today. The latest scientific developments, technological processes, and engineering principles are described as they relate to the essentials of baking. Coverage is extensive and includes: raw materials and ingredients, from wheat flours to sweeteners, yeast, and functional additives; the principles of baking, such as mixing processes, doughmaking, fermentation, and sensory evaluation; manufacturing considerations for bread and other bakery products, including quality control and enzymes; special bakery products, ranging from manufacture of cakes, cookies, muffins, bagels, and pretzels to dietetic bakery products, gluten-free cereal-based products; and specialty bakery items from around the world, including Italian bakery foods. Blending the technical aspects of baking with the freshest scientific research, Bakery Products: Science and Technology has all the finest ingredients to serve the most demanding appetites of food science professionals, researchers, and students.

Agriculture dominates the rural economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG). More than five million rural dwellers (80% of the population) earn a living from subsistence agriculture and selling crops in domestic and international markets. Many aspects of agriculture in PNG are described in this data-rich book. Topics include agricultural environments in which crops are grown; production of food crops, cash crops and animals; land use; soils; demography; migration; the macro-economic environment; gender issues; governance of agricultural institutions; and transport. The history of agriculture over the 50 000 years that PNG has been occupied by humans is summarised. Much of the information presented is not readily available within PNG. The book contains results of many new analyses, including a food budget for the entire nation. The text is supported by 165 tables and 215 maps and figures.

In this paper, the authors describe the adaptation and validation of a project-level WEAI (or pro-WEAI) that agricultural development projects can use to identify key areas of women’s (and men’s) disempowerment, design appropriate strategies to address identified deficiencies, and monitor project outcomes related to women’s empowerment. The 12 pro-WEAI indicators are mapped to three domains: intrinsic agency (power within), instrumental agency (power to), and collective agency (power with). A gender parity index compares the empowerment scores of men and women in the same household. The authors describe the development of pro-WEAI, including: (1) pro-WEAI’s distinctiveness from other versions of the WEAI; (2) the process of piloting pro-WEAI in 13 agricultural development projects during the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, phase 2 (GAAP2); (3) analysis of quantitative data from the GAAP2 projects, including intrahousehold patterns of empowerment; and (4) a summary of the findings from the qualitative work exploring concepts of women’s empowerment in the project sites. The paper concludes with a discussion of lessons learned from pro-WEAI and possibilities for further development of empowerment metrics.

The introduction of the Chorleywood Bread Process was a watershed in baking. It sparked changes in improver and ingredient technology, process and equipment design which have had a profound impact on baking processes and the structure of the industry. Written by two of the world’s leading experts on the process, this important book explains its underlying principles and ways of maximising its potential in producing a wide range of baked products.After a brief review of the basic principles of bread making, the book outlines the development and fundamental characteristics of the Chorleywood Bread Process. The following group of chapters review the key steps in the process, beginning with ingredient quality and quantities. Other chapters consider dough mixing and processing. Building on this foundation, the authors then review common quality defects and how they can be prevented or resolved. The book then considers how knowledge-based software systems can help to manage the process. The concluding chapters review the range of bakery products that can be produced using the process, how it can best be applied in different kinds of bakery and likely future developments.The Chorleywood Bread Process is a standard work for all bakers around the world wishing to maximise the potential of the process, and for scientists, technologists and students wanting a better understanding of the process and its place in commercial bread making. The first book to describe the Chorleywood Bread Process Reviews ingredient quality and quantities Considers how knowledge-based software systems can help manage the process

Secure Electronic Voting is an edited volume, which includes chapters authored by leading experts in the field of security and voting systems. The chapters identify and describe the given capabilities and the strong limitations, as well as the current trends and future perspectives of electronic voting technologies, with emphasis in security and privacy. Secure Electronic Voting includes state-of-the-art material on existing and emerging electronic and Internet voting technologies, which may eventually lead to the development of adequately secure e-voting systems. This book also includes an overview of the legal framework with respect to voting, a description of the user requirements for the development of a secure e-voting system, and a discussion on the relevant technical and social concerns. Secure Electronic Voting includes, also, three case studies on the use and evaluation of e-voting systems in three different real world environments.