Women’s empowerment and its association with household food security in Burkina Faso: a 2021 DHS-based analysis

BACKGROUND: Burkina Faso faces a worsening food insecurity crisis driven by insecurity, displacement, and climate change. Women who play a key role in food production and nutrition face barriers that limit their ability to ensure household food security. Empowering women through greater informed decision-making may strengthen household resilience and improve food outcomes. This study aims to investigate the association between women’s empowerment dimensions and household food security status in Burkina Faso using data from 2021 DHS. METHODS: This study analyzed data from the 2021 Burkina Faso Demographic and Health Survey, focusing on 12,869 married or cohabiting women aged 15–49. Since the Household Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) is measured at the household level, the household data were merged with the individual women’s data. Key empowerment indicators included decision-making power, access to Information and Communication Technology (ICTs), a bank (or other financial institution) account ownership, and attitudes toward gender-based violence. Ordinal logistic regression, accounting for the survey’s complex sampling design, was used to assess associations with household food insecurity. RESULTS: Only 32.9% of women in Burkina Faso lived in food-secure households, while 67.1% experienced some level of food insecurity. In the adjusted model, women’s higher education found to strongly associated with food security (OR = 10.29; 95% CI: 6.65–15.91), followed by secondary level education (OR = 2.10; 95% CI: 1.84–2.40). Access to ICTs remained positively associated with better food security; women with the highest ICTs score had over eight times the odds of being in a less food insecurity category (OR = 8.18; 95% CI: 6.47–10.33). Conversely, women with the highest acceptance of gender-based violence had higher odds of better food security (OR = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.67–0.92). In the unadjusted model, women with score 1 decision-making power were significantly more likely to experience better food security (OR = 1.36; 95% CI: 1.20–1.54), though this association lost statistical significance after adjustment. Also, wealth was also a significant predictor; women from the richest households had markedly higher odds of being food secure compared to those from the poorest households (OR = 7.91; 95% CI: 6.56–9.52). CONCLUSION: Women’s empowerment, particularly through education and access to ICTs, is significantly associated with amended household food security in Burkina Faso. Strengthening these dimensions may be a key strategy for addressing food insecurity and promoting broader well-being among women and their families.