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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Emily Schmidt

Emily Schmidt is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. Her most recent research explores household livelihood strategies in Papua New Guinea, including linkages between agriculture, poverty, and nutrition outcomes among rural smallholder farmers.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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experts

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Jessica Heckert

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Jessica Heckert is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit.  She uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to address questions related to adolescent/youth well-being and work experiences, the impact of agricultural development interventions on women’s empowerment and other gender-related outcomes, and the intersection of household gender dynamics and health outcomes. In line with these research themes, she also works on the development of women’s empowerment metrics, including the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) and affiliated tools, as well as the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS). She has conducted work in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Djibouti, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania.

Jessica earned a PhD in demography and human development and family studies from Pennsylvania State University.

Languages: English, French, Haitian Creole, Spanish

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Publications

Resource thumbnail

Data Paper

SELEVER study data

2025
Gelli, Aulo; Becquey, Elodie; Ganaba, Rasmané; Leight, Jessica; Heckert, Jessica; Huybregts, Lieven; Toé, Laetica; Awonon, Josué; Diatta, Ampa D.; Diop, Loty
…more Santacroce, Marco; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Hein, Alain; Somé, Henri
Details

SELEVER study data

The SELEVER study was a cluster randomized controlled trial aiming to evaluate the effects of an inte-grated agriculture–nutrition intervention package (including poultry value chain development, women’s empowerment activities, and a behavior change communications strategy to promote improved diets and feeding, care, and hygiene practices) on the diets, health, and nutritional status of women and chil-dren in rural Burkina Faso (1). Four rounds of data collection were carried out in rural communities of three regions of Burkina Faso: Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-Ouest and Haut-Bassins between March 2017 and August 2020. The first round (Baseline) took place between March and June 2017 during the post-harvest season in a sam-ple of 1800 households. The second (Follow-up) and third (Follow-up 2) rounds took place during the lean season in 2017 (September-October) and 2019 (September-October) in a subsample of 1080 households. The last survey round (Endline) took place between March and August 2020 (including a break due to covid-19 restrictions).

Year published

2025

Authors

Gelli, Aulo; Becquey, Elodie; Ganaba, Rasmané; Leight, Jessica; Heckert, Jessica; Huybregts, Lieven; Toé, Laetica; Awonon, Josué; Diatta, Ampa D.; Diop, Loty; Santacroce, Marco; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Hein, Alain; Somé, Henri

Citation

Gelli, Aulo; Becquey, Elodie; Ganaba, Rasmané; Leight, Jessica; et al. 2025. SELEVER study data. Data Paper. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Burkina Faso

Keywords

Western Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Value Chains; Poultry; Women’s Empowerment; Maternal Nutrition; Water; Hygiene; Health; Child Nutrition; Health Communication; Dietary Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Sustainable Healthy Diets

Record type

Data Paper

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Unpacking power dynamics and women’s economic empowerment in polygynous households in Burkina Faso

2025Eissler, Sarah; Heckert, Jessica; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Sanou, Armande; Ganaba, Rasmané; Gelli, Aulo
Details

Unpacking power dynamics and women’s economic empowerment in polygynous households in Burkina Faso

Objective We aim to describe power distributions in polygynous households and consider how these matter for the production and allocation of food-generating resources in western Burkina Faso, where there is a high prevalence of polygyny. Background Recent studies on polygyny focus on its likely negative consequences and mechanisms for explaining these outcomes using data from large multitopic surveys. These approaches fail to consider the underlying dynamics in polygynous households. Method As part of a 5-year mixed-methods evaluation of a nutrition- and gender-sensitive poultry value chain intervention in western Burkina Faso, we conducted a thematic analysis of 24 gender-disaggregated focus group discussions (265 individuals) and 24 semi-structured interviews in six communities. They focused on gender and power dynamics, food production, and food allocation with a specific focus on polygyny. Results Relationships among co-wives are often cooperative, though not necessarily warm, and typically hierarchical. Monogamous and polygynous marriage may support women’s empowerment in different domains. Polygynous co-wives may be able to divide care work, but first wives often control how labor is divided. In monogamous marriages, wives often make decisions jointly with their husbands, while in polygynous marriages, most co-wives are left out of decisions. In polygynous households, women are better able to maintain control over their earnings. Conclusion We discuss these findings in terms of their implications for studying polygynous households in quantitative surveys and in terms of how to better design and target interventions for this population.

Year published

2025

Authors

Eissler, Sarah; Heckert, Jessica; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Sanou, Armande; Ganaba, Rasmané; Gelli, Aulo

Citation

Eissler, Sarah; Heckert, Jessica; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Sanou, Armande; Ganaba, Rasmané; and Gelli, Aulo. Unpacking power dynamics and women’s economic empowerment in polygynous households in Burkina Faso. Journal of Marriage and Family. Article in press. First published online December 30, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.13063

Country/Region

Burkina Faso

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Gender; Households; Nutrition; Value Chain Analysis; Women’s Empowerment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.13063 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Effet de l’insécurité (conflit armé) sur l’autonomisation des femmes au Burkina Faso

2024Heckert, Jessica; Sow, Doulo; Tranchant, Jean-Pierre; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Paz, Flor; Gelli, Aulo
Details

Effet de l’insécurité (conflit armé) sur l’autonomisation des femmes au Burkina Faso

Le présent synopsis est un résumé succinct des résultats et conclusions de l’analyse des effets de l’in sécurité (conflits armés) au Burkina Faso sur de multiples domaines de l’autonomisation des femmes mesurés dans l’indice d’autonomisation des femmes dans l’agriculture au niveau du projet (pro-WEAI, acronyme Anglais). En utilisant les données de la première phase du projet « Soutenir l’Exploitation fa miliale pour Lancer l’Elevage de la Volaille et valoriser l’Economie Rurale » (SELEVER), l’étude a exa miné si une proximité accrue avec les événements violents affectait l’autonomisation et si le pro gramme SELEVER contribuait à protéger l’autonomisation des effets négatifs du conflit durant la phase1.

Year published

2024

Authors

Heckert, Jessica; Sow, Doulo; Tranchant, Jean-Pierre; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Paz, Flor; Gelli, Aulo

Citation

Heckert, Jessica; Sow, Doulo; Tranchant, Jean-Pierre; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Paz, Flor; and Gelli, Aulo. 2024. Effet de l’insécurité (conflit armé) sur l’autonomisation des femmes au Burkina Faso. CGIAR Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168567

Country/Region

Burkina Faso

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Conflicts; Women’s Empowerment; Agriculture; Poultry; Rural Economics

Language

French

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Brief

Events

69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69)
IFPRI at External Event

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March 10 to 21, 2025

69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69)

The sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place on March 10 to 21, 2025. The main focus of the sixty-ninth session will be on the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the […]

5th Global Food Security Conference
IFPRI at External Event

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April 9 to 12, 2024

5th Global Food Security Conference

Conference: April 9-12, 2024 – 7:30 AM- 6:00 PM CET. Building on the momentum from the UN Food System Summit and recognizing that the 2030 target year of the Sustainable Development Goals is on the horizon, this 5th Global Food Security Conference will bring together science, business, and policy to address this need.

Introducing the new Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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February 22, 2024, 9:00 – 10:30 am

Introducing the new Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)

Virtual Event: February 22, 2024 at 9:00am-10:30am EST. This event will present the WEMNS metric, review the development of the tool, and discuss its use to advance women’s empowerment. A panel of stakeholders from government and national statistical offices and from multilateral organizations will discuss the potential of WEMNS for promoting and monitoring women’s empowerment as part of national statistical surveys.

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News

July 11, 2023 | Press Release

Women key to crop success in low-income countries

This post is a slightly modified version of the original press release issued by the University of Edinburgh. Empowering women farmers in low and middle-income countries can lead to greater crop diversity helping to improve year-round supply of healthy foods, suggests a new article published in The Lancet Planetary Health by a group of authors including […]

July 11, 2023 | In the News

Editorial: Empower women to grow (The Lancet Planetary Health)

“Almost half of the world’s agricultural workers are women and women farmers produce up to 80% of the food grown in LMICs. Despite their large contribution to agricultural labor, fewer than 20% of landowners globally are women,” writes The Lancet Planetary Health in an editorial featuring a new article co-authored by IFPRI’s Lilia Bliznashka, Aulo Gelli, and […]

August 03, 2020 | In the News

The campaign #RuralWomen, Women with Rights begins (Diario Rotativo) 

Diario Rotativo (Mexico) published an article on the campaign to recognize rural women, on July 30 the campaign #RuralWomen, Women with Rights. Rural women,  breadwinners during the health crisis, have added to their productive activities, the care, and attention to children who do not go to school, a gigantic overload of unpaid work. IFPRI along with many NGOs and […]

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