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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2021, Vol. 20 Issue (4): 1092-1106    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(20)63436-0
Section 4: Poverty alleviation through social safety net programs Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Does empowering women benefit poverty reduction?  Evidence from a multi-component program in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China
GU Rui, NIE Feng-ying 
Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, P.R.China
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摘要  

消除贫困是国际发展议程的核心内容,受到世界各国政府的重视。然而,传统的减贫政策主要针对男性,容易拉大男女之间的生产力和收入差距,加剧性别不平等。本文的目的是探讨一个多模块项目对妇女赋权和减贫的影响,并进一步探讨赋权妇女在减贫中的作用。本研究使用的数据来自于2014年底在中国内蒙古自治区乌兰察布市9个贫困县的农户调查,样本为900户。回顾性问题用于重建基线数据和构建面板数据。同时根据研究需要,样本容量也会进一步缩小,以便更好地识别妇女受益者。为了控制选择偏差,采用倾向得分匹配、逆概率加权和双重差分倾向得分匹配等方法对项目效果进行了分析和稳健性检验。结果表明,该项目同时对妇女赋权和减贫产生了积极的影响。被赋权的妇女也对减贫产生了积极影响,妇女受益者为提高家庭收入和改善生活水平做出了贡献。




Abstract  
Ending poverty is a top priority of the international development agenda, and governments worldwide have attached great importance to poverty alleviation measures.  However, poverty reduction policies have mostly focused on men, which has widened the gap in productivity and income between men and women and increased gender inequality.  This paper aims to determine the impacts of a multi-component program on women’s empowerment and poverty reduction, and explore the role empowered women play in poverty reduction.  The dataset used in this study was collected in nine poor counties of Ulanqab City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China at the end of 2014, yielding a sample of 900 households.  Recall questions were used to reconstruct the baseline data and build a panel dataset.  Smaller groups of rural households were further identified to better target the women in the beneficiary group.  To control the selection bias, propensity score matching, inverse probability weighting, and the difference-in-differences matching method were used to analyze the effect of the program and undertake robust checks.  The results show that the program has positive effects on women’s empowerment and poverty reduction simultaneously.  Empowering women also has positive effects on poverty reduction, and the women who were the beneficiaries have contributed to increasing the incomes and living standards of households.   Training, microfinance, and associations are common means or strategies to empower women to address poverty.  This paper provides new empirical evidence that women can benefit from a gender-focus program through portfolio intervention such as training, cooperatives, and credit.  Empowered women further improve the livelihoods of poor households and help lift them out of poverty.  The results suggest that researchers and policymakers need to pay more attention to poverty issues from the perspective of gender. 
Keywords:  women        empowerment        poverty reduction        Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region  
Received: 18 June 2020   Accepted:
Fund: This work was supported by the People’s Republic of China Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Rural Advancement Programme led by IFAD, the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (71661147001) and the Special Fund for Basic Scientific Research in Agricultural Information Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2020JKY040).
Corresponding Authors:  Correspondence NIE Feng-ying, Tel: +86-10-82109901, E-mail: niefengying@caas.cn   
About author:  GU Rui, Tel: +86-10-82109968, E-mail: gurui@caas.cn;

Cite this article: 

GU Rui, NIE Feng-ying . 2021. Does empowering women benefit poverty reduction?  Evidence from a multi-component program in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 20(4): 1092-1106.

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