IFPRI and its partners are pleased to announce that Jessica Ham (University of Georgia), Brooke Krause (University of Minnesota), Christopher Manyamba (University of Pretoria), and Greg Seymour (American University) have been awarded a Ph.D. dissertation research fellowships on the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI). The first of its kind to directly capture women’s empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector, the purpose of the Index is to understand why women in developing countries face persistent obstacles and economic constraints to inclusion in the agriculture sector though they play a critical role in agricultural growth.

Released on February 28, 2012, the Index is a partnership among IFPRI, the US Government’s Feed the Future initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) of Oxford University. Read more about the Index here.

The threefold goal of the fellowship is to strengthen understanding and evidence of the WEAI; expand understanding of WEAI dynamics through complementary qualitative and ethnographic work; and support promising researchers interested in gender and agriculture. Research proposals supported under this call must be focused entirely or mostly on one or more of 19 Feed the Future countries, listed here.