Use of Outcome Mapping to Understand Empowerment

The presentation given at the CARE / OMLC hosted webinar in October 2014. The presentation focusses on the use of OM in the CARE Pathways Program.

CARE’s approach to women’s empowerment and gender equality recognizes the importance of challenging the roots of gender inequality and intervening to the intra-household level, and deliberately addressing social norms, in part through the engagement of men and community leaders. While CARE has a number of promising tools for engaging communities around gender dialogues, monitoring for changes in intra-household dynamics or in gender norms at the community level during implementation is notoriously difficult. Changes in power relations are dynamic and not straightforward. Skills, assets, and economic engagement are recognized as catalysts for women’s empowerment, but they do not always translate directly into greater bargaining power within the household or the community. Programs may also have unintended outcomes—both positive and negative—or associated repercussions (such as increased violence), for which it is crucial to monitor. On the other hand, awareness-raising may lead to changes in attitudes about gender norms (such as tolerance of violence); but surveys of attitudes do not necessarily capture the extent to which people’s actual behaviors and practices are changing.

Outcome Mapping is a qualitative methodology that puts people at the center. It defines outcomes as changes in behavior, and it helps measure contribution to complex change processes. To better understand how its agriculture intervention is shaping intra-household relations and social norms at the community level, CARE’s Pathways to Empowerment Program applied key concepts from the Outcome Mapping framework in its qualitative mid-term review. The mid-term was carried out with the participation of Pathways staff. This presentation discusses the OM approach, and how Pathways applied the methodology for a richer understanding of the “mini-indicators” of behavior change toward empowerment. Pathways Malawi, Tanzania, and Mali will share their experiences and highlight some of the implications and lessons learned for use of this approach in monitoring for and understanding gender changes.