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Rural poverty and livelihoods

Does social capital build women’s assets? The long-term impacts of group- based and individual dissemination of agricultural technology in Bangladesh

Social capital helps women in Bangladesh to invest in their own and their children’s nutritional status

Authors: N. Kumar; A.R. Quisumbing
Publisher: CGIAR System-wide Program on Property Rights and Collective Action , 2010

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In Bangladesh, rural households headed by women are more likely to be among the poorest. This paper investigates the long–term impact of agricultural technologies, disseminated using different implementation modalities, on men’s and women’s asset accumulation in rural Bangladesh, and asks the folowing questions:

  • what are the long–term impacts of each of the interventions on men’s and women’s asset accumulation at the household level?
  • what are the long-term impacts of the interventions on the gender asset gap within households?
  • what factors underlie the differential impact of the interventions on the above mentioned household and individual-level outcomes?
The authors conclude that implementation modalities are important in determining the impact of new technologies on men’s and women’s asset accumulation. Women’s assets increase more relative to men’s when technologies are disseminated through women’s groups. Therefore, social capital, as embodied through women’s groups, not only serves as a substitute for physical assets in the short run, but helps to build up women’s asset portfolios in the long run.