Empowerment in agricultural value chains: Mixed methods evidence from the Philippines

Empowerment in agricultural value chains: Mixed methods evidence from the Philippines
Author: Hazel J. Malapit
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2019-10-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Download Empowerment in agricultural value chains: Mixed methods evidence from the Philippines Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Women’s participation and empowerment in value chains are goals that concern many development organizations, but there has been limited systematic, rigorous research to track these goals between and within value chains (VCs). We use the survey-based project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) to measure women’s and men’s empowerment in the abaca, coconut, seaweed, and swine VCs in the Philippines. Results show that most women and men in all four VCs are disempowered, but unlike in many other countries, Filipino women in this sample are generally as empowered as men. Pro-WEAI results suggest that respect within the household and attitudes about gender-based violence (GBV) are the largest sources of disempowerment for both women and men, followed by control over use of income and autonomy in income-related decisions. Excessive workload and lack of group membership are other important sources of disempowerment, with some variation across VCs and nodes along VCs. Across all four VCs, access to community programs is associated with higher women’s empowerment, and access to extension services and education are associated with higher men’s empowerment. Our results show that, despite the egalitarian gender norms in the Philippines, persistent gender stereotypes influence men’s and women’s empowerment and VC participation.

Chain Empowerment

Chain Empowerment
Author: Kit Publishers
Publisher: Kit Pub
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010-06-29
Genre: Agriculture
ISBN: 9789460220913

Download Chain Empowerment Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This is a book of hope for Africa's smallholder farmers. It shows how they can earn more from their crops and livestock by taking control over the value chains they are part of -- chains that link them with consumers in Africa's towns and cities, as well as in other countries. The book is written in easy-to-understand language and is richly illustrated with line drawings. The book describes two basic strategies that groups of farmers can use to improve their incomes: vertical and horizontal integration. Vertical integration means taking on additional activities in the value chain: processing or grading produce, for example. Horizontal integration means becoming more involved in managing the value chain itself -- by farmers' improving their access to and management of information, their knowledge of the market, their control over contracts, or their co-operation with other actors in the chain. This book contains 19 case studies showing how groups of farmers throughout Africa have adopted one or both of these strategies to improve their incomes. It shows how development organisations have helped them do this -- how they have succeeded, and how they have sometimes failed. It shows the need to invest in improving the quality of existing products, developing new products, establishing market linkages, and building farmer organisation and capacity. The book provides numerous insights for those striving to empower smallholder farmers to develop markets. It will be of particular interest to government policymakers and staff involved in agricultural development, non-government organisations, university faculty and students, trainers, evaluators, and donors seeking ways to promote agriculture in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.

Women’s Empowerment and Nutrition

Women’s Empowerment and Nutrition
Author: Mara van den Bold
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2013-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

Download Women’s Empowerment and Nutrition Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Many development programs that aim to alleviate poverty and improve investments in human capital consider women’s empowerment a key pathway by which to achieve impact and often target women as their main beneficiaries. Despite this, women’s empowerment dimensions are often not rigorously measured and are at times merely assumed. This paper starts by reflecting on the concept and measurement of women’s empowerment and then reviews some of the structural interventions that aim to influence underlying gender norms in society and eradicate gender discrimination. It then proceeds to review the evidence of the impact of three types of interventions—cash transfer programs, agricultural interventions, and microfinance programs—on women’s empowerment, nutrition, or both. Qualitative evidence on conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs generally points to positive impacts on women’s empowerment, although quantitative research findings are more heterogenous. CCT programs produce mixed results on long-term nutritional status, and very limited evidence exists of their impacts on micronutrient status. The little evidence available on unconditional cash transters (UCT) indicates mixed impacts on women’s empowerment and positive impacts on nutrition; however, recent reviews comparing CCT and UCT programs have found little difference in terms of their effects on stunting and they have found that conditionality is less important than other factors, such as access to healthcare and child age and sex. Evidence of cash transfer program impacts depending on the gender of the transfer recipient or on the conditionality is also mixed, although CCTs with non-health conditionalities seem to have negative impacts on nutritional status. The impacts of programs based on the gender of the transfer recipient show mixed results, but almost no experimental evidence exists of testing gender-differentiated impacts of a single program. Agricultural interventions—specifically home gardening and dairy projects—show mixed impacts on women’s empowerment measures such as time, workload, and control over income; but they demonstrate very little impact on nutrition. Implementation modalities are shown to determine differential impacts in terms of empowerment and nutrition outcomes. With regard to the impact of microfinance on women’s empowerment, evidence is also mixed, although more recent reviews do not find any impact on women’s empowerment. The impact of microfinance on nutritional status is mixed, with no evidence of impact on micronutrient status. Across all three types of programs (cash transfer programs, agricultural interventions, and microfinance programs), very little evidence exists on pathways of impact, and evidence is often biased toward a particular region. The paper ends with a discussion of the findings and remaining evidence gaps and an outline of recommendations for research.

Information Logistics for Organizational Empowerment and Effective Supply Chain Management

Information Logistics for Organizational Empowerment and Effective Supply Chain Management
Author: Nozari, Hamed
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2023-12-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Download Information Logistics for Organizational Empowerment and Effective Supply Chain Management Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Information Logistics for Organizational Empowerment and Effective Supply Chain Management delves into the profound impact of information technology on modern businesses and supply chains. As the world becomes increasingly reliant on the virtuous triangle of the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence (AI), industries face both challenges and opportunities. This book explores the multifaceted effects of information logistics on supply chain performance, considering various dimensions and key indicators. With a focus on empowering supply chains, the book uncovers procedures and tools that can enhance the intelligence, security, flexibility, agility, and efficiency of logistics systems. By understanding the interplay between traditional logistics and the information space, readers gain valuable insights into building seamless, intelligent supply chains for the contemporary world. Ideal for students, researchers, and graduates in industrial engineering, industrial management, economics, mathematics, and related fields, this book offers a comprehensive resource for understanding and implementing smart supply chain practices. Professionals working in diverse industries such as food, arbitration, agriculture, electronics, and more will find practical applications and solutions for improving logistics processes. Additionally, individuals with an interest in smart supply chains and the evolving landscape of information logistics will find this book a valuable reference.

Measuring empowerment across the value chain: The evolution of the project-level Women’s Empowerment Index for Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI)

Measuring empowerment across the value chain: The evolution of the project-level Women’s Empowerment Index for Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI)
Author: Malapit, Hazel J.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 74
Release: 2023-03-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Download Measuring empowerment across the value chain: The evolution of the project-level Women’s Empowerment Index for Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI) Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Many development agencies design and implement interventions that aim to reach, benefit, and empower rural women across the value chain in activities ranging from production, to processing, to marketing. Determining whether and how such interventions empower women, as well as the constraints faced by different value chain actors, requires quantitative and qualitative tools. We describe how we adapted the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI), a mixed-methods tool for studying empowerment in development projects, to include aspects of agency relevant for multiple types of value chain actors. The resulting pro-WEAI for market inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI) includes quantitative and qualitative instruments developed over the course of four studies. Studies in the Philippines (2017), Bangladesh (2017), and Malawi (2019) were intended to diagnose areas of disempowerment to inform programming, whereas the Benin (2019) study was an impact assessment of an agricultural training program. The pro-WEAI+MI includes all indicators included in pro-WEAI, plus a dashboard of complementary indicators and recommended qualitative instruments. These tools investigate the empowerment of women in different value chains and nodes and identify barriers to market access and inclusion that may restrict empowerment for different value chain actors. Our findings highlight three lessons. First, the sampling strategy needs to be designed to capture the key actors in a value chain. Second, the market inclusion indicators cannot stand alone; they must be interpreted alongside the core pro-WEAI indicators. Third, not all market inclusion indicators will be relevant for all value chains and contexts. Users should research the experiences of women and men in the target value chains in the context of the programto select priority market inclusion indicators.

Challenging Chains to Change

Challenging Chains to Change
Author: Anna Laven
Publisher: Kit Pub
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Business logistics
ISBN: 9789460222122

Download Challenging Chains to Change Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Very often, efforts to improve value chains miss out half of the population - the female half. It is men who sell the products and who keep the money from those sales. The women, who do much of the work but are not recognized for it, often have to work even harder to meet ever-increasing quality requirements. But they see few of the benefits. How to change this? This book explains how development organizations and private entrepreneurs have found ways to improve the position of women in value chains - especially small scale women farmers and primary processors. It outlines five broad strategies for doing this: (1) working with women on typical "women's products" such as shea, poultry and dairy; (2) opening up opportunities for women to work on what are traditionally "men's commodities" or in men's domains; (3) supporting women and men in organizing for change by building capacity, organization, sensitization and access to finance; (4) using standards and certification to promote gender equity, and (5) promoting gender-responsible business. The book draws on dozens of cases from all over the world, covering a wide range of crops and livestock products. These include traditional subsistence products (such as rice), small-scale cash items (honey, vegetables) as well as export commodities (artichokes, coffee) and biofuels (jatropha). The book includes a range of tools and methodologies for analyzing and developing value chains with gender in mind. By bringing together the two fields of gender and value chains, this book offers a set of compelling arguments for addressing gender in value chain development.

Chain Empowerment

Chain Empowerment
Author: Royal Tropical Institute
Publisher: Kit Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2010-04-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9789460220739

Download Chain Empowerment Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This is a book of hope for Africa's smallholder farmers. It shows how they can earn more from their crops and livestock by taking control over the value chains they are part of-chains that link them with consumers in Africa's towns and cities, as well as in other countries. The book is written in easy-to-understand language and is richly illustrated with line drawings.It describes two basic strategies that groups of farmers can use to improve their incomes: vertical and horizontal integration. Vertical integration means taking on additional activities in the value chain: processing or grading produce, for example. Horizontal integration means becoming more involved in managing the value chain itself-by farmers' improving their access to and management of information, their knowledge of the market, their control over contracts, or their cooperation with other actors in the chain. This book contains 19 case studies showing how groups of farmers throughout Africa have adopted one or both of these strategies to improve their incomes. It shows how development organizations have helped them do this - how they have succeeded, and why they have sometimes failed. It shows the need to invest in improving the quality of existing products, developing new products, establishing market linkages, and building farmer organization and capacity. The book provides numerous insights for those striving to empower smallholder farmers to develop markets. It will be of particular interest to government policymakers and staff involved in agricultural development, non-government organizations, university faculty and students, trainers, evaluators, and donors seeking ways to promote agriculture in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.

Tracking empowerment along the value chain: Testing a modified WEAI in the Feed the Future Zone of Influence in Bangladesh

Tracking empowerment along the value chain: Testing a modified WEAI in the Feed the Future Zone of Influence in Bangladesh
Author: Ahmed, Akhter U.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2018-10-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Download Tracking empowerment along the value chain: Testing a modified WEAI in the Feed the Future Zone of Influence in Bangladesh Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Upon request of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) conducted this study to support USAID in assessing the state of empowerment and gender parity of men and women along the agricultural value chain in the Feed the Future (FTF) Zone of Influence (ZOI) in Bangladesh. Specifically, IFPRI’s Policy Research and Strategy Support Program (PRSSP), funded by USAID, piloted the modified Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) survey instruments in 10 upazilas (sub-districts) within the FTF ZOI across 1,200 households, which broadly belong to three economic activities of interest: (1) agricultural production, (2) agricultural entrepreneurship, and (3) agricultural sector employment. The quantitative survey was complemented by qualitative research to glean further insights into the facilitators and constraints of empowerment among various actors in the agricultural value chain. The data and analysis generated from this WEAI for Value Chain (WEAI4VC) study may inform USAID’s selection and design of interventions that may, in turn, maximize its programmatic impact on women and men’s empowerment as producers, entrepreneurs, and wage employees.

Advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research: Past, present, and future

Advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research: Past, present, and future
Author: Pyburn, Rhiannon, ed.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2021-11-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0896293912

Download Advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research: Past, present, and future Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Over the past decade, interest in gender equality and women’s empowerment has grown rapidly, creating a unique opportunity to institutionalize gender research within agricultural research for development. This book, edited by researchers from the CGIAR Gender Platform, reviews and reflects on the growing body of evidence from gender research. It marks a shift a way from a traditional focus on how gender analysis can contribute to improved productivity, flipping the question to ask, How does agricultural and environmental research and development contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment? Chapters synthesize the wide range of CGIAR and other research in this area, covering breeding research and seed systems, value chain participation, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, natural resources, climate adaptation and mitigation, the “feminization” of agriculture, women’s role in agricultural research, and emerging gender transformative approaches.

Innovation for inclusive value-chain development

Innovation for inclusive value-chain development
Author: Devaux, André
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2016-10-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0896292134

Download Innovation for inclusive value-chain development Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Governments, nongovernmental organizations, donors, and the private sector have increasingly embraced value-chain development (VCD) for stimulating economic growth and combating rural poverty. Innovation for Inclusive Value-Chain Development: Successes and Challenges helps to fill the current gap in systematic knowledge about how well VCD has performed, related trade-offs or undesired effects, and which combinations of VCD elements are most likely to reduce poverty and deliver on overall development goals. This book uses case studies to examine a range of VCD experiences. Approaching the subject from various angles, it looks at new linkages to markets and the role of farmer organizations and contract farming in raising productivity and access to markets, the minimum assets requirement to participate in VCD, the role of multi-stakeholder platforms in VCD, and how to measure and identify successful VCD interventions. The book also explores the challenges livestock-dependent people face; how urbanization and advancing technologies affect linkages; ways to increase gender inclusion and economic growth; and the different roles various types of platforms play in VCD.