Cultivating collaboration through joint participation: Evidence from a video-based nutrition-sensitive agricultural extension program in Ethiopia

Abstract

Micronutrient deficiency, or hidden hunger, remains a significant problem affecting more than two billion people globally. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) is recommended as a means of ensuring that investments in agriculture also translate into nutritional gains. NSA is a multisectoral approach that requires coordination and cooperation across what are often gendered domains of control inside and outside of the home. In Ethiopia, agriculture is usually treated as men’s domain and nutrition women’s, with programming generally targeting recipients based on their assumed domain of control. Using evidence from a study of a video-based NSA program in Ethiopia, this article provides an in-depth qualitative examination of if and why targeting both men and women with NSA information is preferred by female and male farmers. Findings indicate that the participation of men and women within the same household not only reduces inequalities in access to information but also changes whether and how conversations about household production and consumption happen. Household investments in NSA often involve risk-taking and may require the labor of both men and women. NSA interventions that provide information to both women and men ease information sharing frictions, including those related to intrahousehold gender inequality, and encourage consensus building and the joint assessment of potential benefits and risks. The findings from this study indicate that dual targeting is important for the promotion of NSA and addressing micronutrient deficiency because of the potential benefits related to intrahousehold collaboration.