1. Gender in value chains
June 15, 2012
Graham Thiele, Gordon Prain, Anne Rietveld,
Holger Kirscht and Sarah Mayanja
CRP RTB
2. Summary
Many value chains complex gender based division of labour
• women playing major roles as processors and traders
• gender “invisible” for researchers, planners, policy
makers
Value chain development (VCD)- poor job at handling
gender
Why do value chains matter?
Why does gender matter in VCD?
Why are VCD methods gender blind?
What should we do?
3. Value chain
Policy makers:
local govts.
Input provider Farmer Wholesaler Processor Retail
Customer
Service providers: INIAs, NGOs,
Extension services
4. Why do value chains matter?
Improve market Driver of innovation
access and small process eg poundability
farmers
livelihoods
Deliver improved
nutritional benefits
5. Value chain development (VCD)
“strengthen the relations between
smallholders and other chain
actors, including input providers,
buyers, and processors, for the
development of new or increased
value adding to existing product
lines”
Donovan and Stoian
6. Why does gender matter in VCD?
1. Women and men differentiated roles/
demands, if not addressed undermine
effectiveness Eg cassava poundability
2. Social justice: equal distribution of
advantages, assets and benefits
between men & women
3. Business: gender inequity is missed
business opportunity
4. RTBs: women key roles in post harvest
and processing - bulkiness and
perishability
7. Poundability: who cares?
Why does gender matter in VCD?
1. Equitable and inclusive development should
include gender, at very least shouldn’t
worsen gender inequity
2. Women and men have differentiated roles,
and demands which if not properly
addressed undermine effectiveness of VCD
• Eg poundability of cassava key trait
highly preferred by women
3. RTBs: women play key roles in post harvest
and processing linked with bulkiness and
perishibility
14. Toolbox
Toolbox
• GIZ, RUTA and CATIE have made
a major effort to gather some 100 tools
that, this way or
another, deal with value chain development from
a gender perspective (see http://ruta.org/toolbox/
Some favourable gender
).
linked outcomes
15. Review of VCD guidelines: ICRAF 2012
Methodological guideline
Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) (Bernet, Thiele & Zschocke 2011)
l
e al VC Analysis
wer
Making VC Work Better for the Poor: A Toolbook for Practitioners of
y
(M4P 2008)
d the
Value Chain Development for Decent Work lude and Muzira 2009)
(Herr
ValueLinks Manual (GTZ 2008) e c onc
W
n: “ lind”
ova r b
Guidelines for rapid appraisals of agrifood chain performance in development
countries
n Don ende
(da Silva asode Souza Filho 2007)
J and lly g
ba sica
Chain-wide learning for inclusive agrifood market development (IIED 2008)
Using a value chain approach to design a competitiveness strategy (USAID no date)
Participatory Market Chain Analysis for Smallholder Producers (Lundy et al. 2007)
The operational guide for the making markets work for the poor (M4P) approach
(DFID 2008)
16. Why are methods gender blind?
1. VCD emphasizes exploiting a market
opportunity rather than equity or
strengthening household livelihoods
2. VCD seeks to improve the articulation of
VC and sharing of benefits among existing
actors not bringing in new actors
3. Lack of practical tools and proven
experience for gender-responsive VCD
4. Few gender specialists have worked on
VCD
17. What should we do?
1. Gender overlay on existing methods
2. Gender analysis
3. Toolkits: gender tools at different
stages of VCD
• resolve ‘blockages’ and
‘engender’ the chain
4. Pursue change jointly across CRPs
not piecemeal VC by VC
• link with existing initiatives
21. Wrap up
1. Misfit between importance of gender and
VCD methods
2. Options to improve methods
3. Quick fix not enough
4. Gender aware VCD specialists
– CRPs collaborate to build capacity
5. Build on practical experience, real
examples and comparative case studies
(meta analysis):
•role for CRP 2 on value chains?
