Gender and Value Chain Development Workshop - Empowering Rural Women in Agriculture

2. Objectives of the workshop • To introduce participants to guiding concepts and a selection of tools needed to integrate a gender perspective in the different stages of the programme cycle of a VCD facilitation process/intervention • To introduce the gender and value chain coaching trajectory to generate interest and inform potential participants about it

3. Gender & Value Chain Development Coaching Trajectory – introduction to guiding concepts and strategies Rhiannon Pyburn and Anna Laven Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam March 2012

4. Gender & Value Chain Development learning trajectory (2008-present) • Dutch development professionals/organizations through APF to explore how to better address gender in VC work • Initial analytical framework and working paper 2009 • 2009-2010 short case collection from partners for discussion/analysis • June 2010 – preparatory meeting with emerging thinkers in this new feild • Nov/Dec 2010 writehsop in Nairobi - 25 cases • 2011-present preparation of the book chapters • 2012 book launches/coaching trajectories in 4 countries (Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya. Uganda) Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

5. Poverty & gender inequality in agriculture • Poverty is concentrated in rural areas; conditions in agriculture are especially hard for women. • Women represent at least half of the workforce in agriculture; often women’s work in agriculture is not visible, or is simply not valued. • Women often excluded from more profitable aspects of agricultural enterprises. • Women often have limited access to resources, such as land, credit and other services. • Women do unpaid work at home, face high levels of illiteracy and lack of bargaining power • Women do not reach their potential as workers, entrepreneurs or consumers. Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

6. The feminization of agriculture • Trend: women are being left to work in agriculture as men seek out paid work off-farm. Why? • Men are leaving their rural homes seeking paid employment in urban areas. In absence of their men, women are responsible for taking care of the family farm. • Rural women searching for additional income in agriculture, mainly as wage labourers in labour-intensive crops. • Feminization of agriculture does not automatically mean that women reap the fruits of their labour; this trend is also associated with the decreased viability of small-scale farming, in which smallholdings are less able feed the family working the land. Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

7. Risks for women in agricultural value chains • The work that women do is often insecure (e.g. women tend to be hired as seasonal labour for only a few months of the year). • Women are often perceived as a source of cheap labour. • The types of work that women do can push them into (even) more marginalized positions. • Productive work can become a serious burden for women who also have domestic responsibilities such as cooking, cleaning, fetching wood and taking care of the children. • Increased workload can come at the cost of other income-generating activities. • Household tensions may rise, especially for married women who try to exert greater bargaining power. . Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

8. Productive, reproductive & community • Women are involved in three categories of work - productive, reproductive and community: • Productive work – where people make things or provide services for money. • Reproductive work- domestic and care work such as cooking, cleaning, childcare and looking after sick relatives, subsistence agriculture, and collecting water, fuel and wild food. • Community work- helping neighbours, organizing social events, and so on. • Reproductive and community work tend to be unpaid and taken for granted Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

9. Gender equity in agricultural value chains • Three sets of arguments: • Social justice • Poverty • Business Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

10. Social Justice Argument • Social justice is the fair distribution of advantages, assets, and benefits among all members of a society • The denial of rights and opportunities based purely on an individual’s sex is incompatible with social justice. • Gender arguments focus on the equal distribution of these advantages, assets and benefits between men and women within a society. Useful for: • women organizations and other NGOs lobbying for gender equity and making governments, organizations and companies accountable • governments ensuring that their policies and regulations contribute to the achievement of human rights for everyone Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

11. Poverty Argument: “Fighting poverty is hard if you’re (gender) blind” • A striking majority of the poor in developing countries are women: approximately 70%. • Female poverty has various roots. In general, women face discrimination in their access to education, health services and employment opportunities, and in resource allocations and the right to own property. • Useful for: development organizations and other private and public actors interested in sound economic development Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

12. Business Argument: Gender inequity creates a missed business opportunity • Many women are disadvantaged due to their sex. As a result they do not reach their potential as workers, entrepreneurs or consumers • If women’s contribution the economy are hindered this results in high costs both in terms of economic and human development. • When over half the population is not able to work efficiently because of cultural, ideological or political constraints, economic growth is undermined • Useful for: businesses that are part of such agricultural chains. Investing in gender equity can smoothen both the operation of individual businesses as well as the overall chain. Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

13. Analytical Framework • Value Chain Empowerment – the chain empowerment matrix • What’s missing? • Gender and Development concepts • A new framework

14. Value Chain Development Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

15. Chain Empowerment matrix Who does what in the chain? Who determines how things are done? (KIT et al., 2006) Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

16. Chain Empowerment through Upgrading • Upgrading as a chain actor: Farmers do what they do better. For example, farmers become crop specialists with a clear market orientation. • Upgrading by adding value through vertical integration:Farmers enter into activities further up the chain. For example, farmers move into joint processing and marketing in order to add value. • Upgrading by developing chain partnerships: Farmers build long-term alliances with buyers, centred on shared interests and mutual growth. • Upgrading by developing ownership over the chain: Farmers become owners of chain enterprises. For example, farmers build direct linkages with consumers or become shareholders in a retail company. Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

17. A Gender lens on Chain Empowerment • The concept of ‘upgrading’ highlights options available to small rural entrepreneurs for obtaining better returns (create value) and controlling this value. • But inequality is not only about income and control over income but about inequality in terms of the opportunities available for expanding one’s capabilities. Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

18. Juanita’s ‘empowerment’ through upgrading in the mango chain Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

19. Through a gender lens- what’s missing? • Constraints to Empowerment through Upgrading. The matrix shows a shift in a farmer’s activities or governance in the chain. But we don’t see the challenges or obstacles involved. What constraints do farmers face in trying to improve their positions? How do they overcome these constraints? • Diversity. We get a sense of the ‘who’ in a general sense: “Who does what in the chain?” and “Who determines how things are done?”. But, we do not see the individuals involved – which farmers are upgrading? Are the farmers who successfully upgrade men or women, old or young, are they from a particular ethnic group or class?   • Outcomes. We simply do not know whether outcomes are different for women than for men or how outcomes vary for different categories of farmers. What happens when women do more chain activities? Do they enjoy more recognition and respect for their contributions? Does their income increase? Or do they simply have more work to do and less time to meet household and community obligations? Because we cannot see the outcome of the strategy, the matrix does not help us to design interventions, including those that are potentially gender equal or ‘pro poor’. Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

20. Through a gender lens- what’s missing? (2) • Changes beyond the chain – household and institutional levels. The framework looks at the value chain in isolation without considering the context. • Empowerment. It looks at farmer empowerment only in terms of activities and governance within the value chain. We can enrich this concept through exploring what a gender perspective has to say. • e.g. Kabeer distinguishes three levels of empowerment: • “Deeper” (structural relations of class, ethnicity, gender) • Intermediate (institutional rules and resources) • Immediate (individual resources, agency and achievements) Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

21. Aicha the sesame farmer to explain structure and agency Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

22. Two key gender concepts • Agencyis the capacity of an agent (an individual person or other entity) to act independently, to make their own free choices and to impose those choices on the world. These agents engage with social structures. • Structurerefers to institutions that either limit or create the opportunities available to individuals. Institutions can be both formal and informal. Informal institutions include: social class, values, religion, customs, and ways of doing things (habits) etc; while formal institutions refer to laws and regulations. Furthermore, structures can refer to different levels (local, national, regional, international) and to different domains (economic, political, social and cultural). Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

23. A new framework • Additional Objectives:   • 1) To support the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of value chain interventions that contribute to gender equality in a given context; • 2) To understand how gender equality contributes to pro-poor and economically efficient value chain development. Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

24. A new framework • Doing better and being seen • Women smallholders become visible as crop specialists and their contributions are recognized and valued • 2. Choosing and being capable of moving up: Women choose to move into activities further up the chain, and they control the income that they earn. They gain the skills required and are confident. • 3. Constraints to women’s leadership are removed: Developing chain partnerships and removing constraints to participation in decision-making. Rules, regulations and policies are gender sensitive. • 4. Women take up positions of leadership. Women both possess the capacities and have the opportunity to co-own enterprises and build direct linkages with other chain actors, including consumer markets. Rules, regulations and policies support women’s leadership. Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

25. Five Strategies 1: Mitigating resistance by building on tradition 2: Creating Space for Women 3: Organizing for Change 4: Standards and Certification 5: Improving business: improving women’s positions Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

26. Where the 5 strategies fit in the value chain 4 1&2 5 3 Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl

27. More on the strategies, when and how to use them, at the book launch in May! Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.kit.nl