Women play important roles at different nodes of both agricultural and off-farm value chains, but in many countries their contributions are either underestimated or limited by prevailing societal norms or gender-specific barriers. We use primary data collected in Asia (Bangladesh, Philippines) and Africa (Benin, Malawi) to examine the relationships between women’s empowerment, gender equality, and participation in a variety of local agricultural value chains that comprise the food system.

We combine the results of a laboratory experiment and survey of agricultural households to estimate the welfare impacts of a market-based intervention with links to value-chain. We investigate whether increased participation by women in such value-chains improves their relative bargaining power and therefore their ability to contribute to household welfare.

Inclusive agricultural value chains (VCs) are potential drivers for poverty reduction, food security, and women’s empowerment. This report assesses the implementation of the Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training for Women Program (ATVET4Women) that aims to support women with vocational training and market linkages in priority agricultural value chains. This report focuses on Malawi, one of the six pilot countries of the ATVET4Women; and focuses on vegetable value chains in which some non-formal training sessions have been conducted as of October 2019.

This study presents qualitative findings from an assessment conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute and Cultural Practice, LLC of the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) Agricultural Technical Vocational Education and Training program for women (ATVET4Women) in Benin, supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Women's participation and empowerment in value chains are goals of many development organizations, but there has been limited systematic, rigorous research to track these goals between and within value chains (VCs). We adapt 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 and to investigate the correlates of empowerment.

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.

This article presents a review of seven guides for gender-equitable value chain development (VCD). The guides advocate persuasively the integration of gender into VCD programming and raise important issues for designing more inclusive interventions. However, gaps persist in their coverage of gender-based constraints in collective enterprises, the influence of norms on gender relations, and processes to transform inequitable relations through VCD. Guidance for field implementation and links to complementary value chain tools are also limited.

This toolkit provides guidance on conducting a gender-sensitive value chain selection and analysis through data collection and participatory methodologies. Suggested tools and methodologies come from USAID, GIZ, ILO, Oxfam, and SNV among others. This document provides a range of tools to allow the user to design her or his own analysis.

Ensuring that gender issues are taken into consideration in value chain-related interventions is vital for facilitating the development of inclusive value chains that benefit both women and men. However, knowledge among practitioners and policy makers on the gender aspects of value chain interventions is still limited. To start filling this void, the Evaluation Department of DANIDA has commissioned this report. The overall purpose of the study is to examine which gender issues are important when and where in value chains based on findings of existing evaluations. 

Recent research commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation shows that by increasing women’s participation in smallholder sourcing and support programs, many international food companies can improve crop productivity and quality, grow the smallholder supply base, and improve access to high-value markets. The guide Improving Opportunities for Women in Smallholder-based Supply Chains: Business case and practical guidance for international food companies presents the results of this research in a practical format.

Gender issues fundamentally shape the totality of production, distribution, and consumption within an economy but have often been overlooked in value chain development. From production to processing to disposal, gendered patterns of behavior condition men’s and women’s jobs and tasks, the distribution of resources and benefits derived from income generating activities in the chain, and the efficiency and competitiveness of value chains in the global market.

Chain Value is a potential sector to generate gender equality by promoting women entrepreneurship and integration in the labor market. However, it is marginally analyzed. The aim of this guide is to demonstrate how gender perspective can be incorporated at several stages of the chain value to produce development strategies and with particular concern for the informal sector. The guide is intended for value chain practitioners, gender consultants, researchers and policy makers. The guide is implemented amid the traditional Ethiopian wearing sector.

Using both quantitative and qualitative research methods, the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project (GAAP) worked with CARE-Bangladesh to assess the impact of the Strengthening the Dairy Value Chain Project (SDVCP) on (1) women’s ownership of assets, men’s ownership of assets, and jointly held assets; (2) gender norms around asset ownership and control; (3) gender norms regarding decisionmaking in these areas surrounding the dairy value chain; and (4) trade-offs and time costs involved in project participation.

This handbook helps practitioners become familiar with how to analyze and strategies to address gender issues in agricultural value chains.

A new publication from the ILO provides groundbreaking methods for incorporating gender concerns into the different stages of value chain analysis and strengthening the links essential for gender equality and promoting sustainable pro-poor growth and development strategies.

This book by Agri-Profocus provides a range of tools for integrating a gender perspective at different stages of value chain development interventions.

Women play crucial roles in agricultural value chains. However, their contribution often remains invisible. For producers and other chain actors and supporters, this can lead to inefficient chains. In consequence, business opportunities may suffer and profits will be lower and/ or unequally distributed. Moreover, existing gender inequities will be perpetuated. 

This toolkit details the proper questions to ask and best practices when designing surveys about intrahousehold asset allocation. It stresses the importance of gender for key development outcomes such as child nutrition and education. Finally it emphasizes the importance of quantitative and qualitative methods and the challenges and benefits associated with each.

This manual is aimed at advisors who work on economic development and value chain development issues. Women and men are likely to be involved at different stages of the chain. Those areas where women are involved are often less visible but may constitute critical links at which change and/or upgrading should occur in order to bring about development of the chain (home working, putting out, temporary work, etc.). Addressing those stages in the chain is therefore indispensable in developing the chain.

Included in the Annex of a literature review on gender and value chain toolkits, this rapid assessment tool for gender and crop value chains has been developed to collect basic data on men and women’s involvement in crop value chains, their roles and constraints and existing opportunities for promoting gender equality through value chain development. Information from the tool is meant to provide a rough assessment of what kinds of interventions would improve benefits of value chain development to men and women farmers.

Women play a critical and potentially transformative role in agricultural growth in developing countries, but they face persistent obstacles and economic constraints limiting further inclusion in agriculture. The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) measures the empowerment, agency, and inclusion of women in the agriculture sector in an effort to identify ways to overcome those obstacles and constraints. The Index is a significant innovation in its field and aims to increase understanding of the connections between women’s empowerment, food security, and agricultural growth.

The USAID Feed the Future Initiative supports the development of agriculture as an engine of economic growth, food security, and poverty reduction. Key to the success of this initiative is the empowerment of women, who play a vital role in advancing agricultural development, food security, and nutritional outcomes. Much of Feed the Future’s agricultural programmatic support to rural women thus far has been concentrated at the production stage.

The women’s crop tool attempts to elicit women’s and men’s levels of control over important decision making (land allocation, land preparation, use of inputs, weeding, use of labor, harvesting, marketing, use of income) for their main crops. Both qualitative (FGDs) and quantitative (HH survey) measurements can be done to collect sex-disaggregated data on control. This can reveal both women’s and men’s perception of their own control and each other’s control.

The Prototype guide for integrating gender into the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) seeks to build understanding on gender issues into value chain interventions and to create the capacities of PMCA's facilitators in applying gender analysis and developing gender-sensitive strategies to promote equitable opportunities for men and women to access to and benefit from the PMCA intervention. This guide is a prototype document developed from lessons learned during field research and exchanges between CIP researchers and PMCA practitioners from East Africa and the Andes.

The purpose of this publication as a part of the FAO series on sustainable food value chain development is to facilitate the systematic integration of gender equality dimensions into value chain development programmes and projects. It raises awareness on gender inequalities and discusses the importance of addressing these dimensions in value chain development, while also building a common approach for work on gender-sensitive value chain development.