Changing Gender Roles in Export-Oriented Small-Scale Horticultural Farming in Mt. Kenya Region.

Transcription

1 S.51 Changing Gender Roles in Export-Oriented Small-Scale Horticultural Farming in Mt. Kenya Region. Maria Caterina Velte* and Peter Dannenberg Geography Department, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, Berlin Introduction: Professionalization in the Horticultural Sector Kenya has successfully developed professional production and marketing structures in largescale and in small-scale horticultural family farming in the last decades (Dannenberg and Nduru, 2012). (The horticultural sector is defined here as fruit and vegetable production and marketing, without flowers). A growing number of small-scale farmers successfully became export-oriented and hence integrated into international value chains that usually end at European customer markets (Dannenberg, 2008; Dolan and Humphfrey, 2004; Ouma, 2010). This process of internationalization in the horticultural sector may lead to different threats (see for example the discussion about excluded farmers because of high certification fees; Ouma, 2010; Dannenberg and Nduru, 2012). However, due to export-orientation rural poverty in Kenya has been reduced and many farmers could improve living conditions, because of increased rural incomes (ibid). Women in the Horticultural Sector There is gender related research in an African context since the 1980s (Adomako Ampofo et al., 2009) and it states that gender differences are central to agriculture and farming systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (Meitzen-Dick et al., 2012) in terms of ownership, management of farms and natural resources, access to resources defined by cultural specific gender roles (ibid) etc. Women remain concentrated in the microenterprise and therefore mostly informal sector, at the bottom of the economic pyramid of income (Chen et al., 2006, Gössling et al., 2012). The horticultural sector of Sub-Sahara-African Countries is characterised by differentiated business structures to which women traditionally contribute about 50-75% of the work force (Barrientos et al., 2003). According to that women do not only play a crucial role in the horticultural sector, moreover they are also especially issued by the changes due to exportorientation. Research Interest Different studies have analysed gender roles in large-scale export orientated professional farming (see e.g. Barrientos et al., 2003) in African rural areas, but so far studies on the dynamics in gender roles in small-scale and mostly family businesses are very few. Therefore the question that needs to be answered is: To what degree does turning to professional international value chains impact the gender roles in small-scale horticultural farming in Kenya?

2 52 Figure 1: Possible impacts of globalization and professionalization in international value chains on gender roles and family farming Edited from Dannenberg (2012) Current state of research The current state of research shows heterogeneous effects of integration in international value chains on women in the horticultural sector. Among the positive effects for rural women are increased access to employment and income in non-traditional, export oriented businesses, such as flowers and fruits, for example in Uganda and Kenya (Adomako Ampofo et al., 2009). Generally an increase of resources in female hands leads to better education and nutrition for children, which has been proved by many different studies (e.g. Barrett et al., 1996). On the other hand Dolan (2001: 39) has stated that horticulture, the historical domain of women in Kenya s agriculture, has been rapidly intensified, commodified and appropriated by men. This again raises the question if traditional female jobs are now more and more taken over by men. Integration in international value chains may leverage the proliferation of international labour standards (e.g. by ILO, ETI or GlobalGAP) for formal employment. However, not only in Kenya there is a gender-specific division of labour. That means that men are traditionally stronger involved in formal employment or full time work (e.g. as farmers), whereas women usually work in the twilight zone between informal employment (e.g. seasonal work on large farming business, helping on the family farm, or selling the produce) and unpaid reproductive work (Barrientos et al., 2003: 1515). Also first own research in Mt. Kenya Region has shown that the horticultural small-scale sector works almost completely informally. Furthermore integration in the world market means also being dependent on highly volatile market conditions, due to a flexible demand of the large retail companies. Barrientos et al. (2003) state that this leads to uprising insecurity for export-oriented horticulture producers and is compensated by seasonal and informal work.

3 S.53 National legislation and special private codes of conduct are meant to improve poor working conditions, however the latter form part of a governance system within GVCs that itself encourages the use of informal workers to meet just-in-time production requirements. (ibid: 1522f.) Potential Working Hypotheses Horticultural family farming is increasingly marked by integration in professional and international value chains. In relation to the degree of professionalization through integration in international value chains, changes in gender roles in horticultural family farming take place. These changes might influence the following aspects: Income and acquirement of property (direct and indirect) Division of labour (productive and reproductive work) and gender roles in general: o Empowerment: Revaluation of women s traditional jobs through professionalization; alteration of traditional working patterns o Marginalization: Rising incomes through professionalised export farming may lead men to take over sales functions which were formally organised by women; according to that it needs to be tested if there is a new labour division with women selling on local markets (smaller quantities) and men taking over sales functions for export markets (larger quantities) Regulatory effects according to increasing international standards (e.g. by retailers, sectoral associations or NGOs): o Improved working conditions and gender equality o Regulatory effects for production but not necessarily direct social effects for producers o Proliferation of standards may mainly affect (male dominated) formal employment and not (female dominated) informal employment o Integration in international value chains could lead to an expansion of informal work Conceptual Framework and Methods Of importance is a gender sensitive approach in concepts and methodology. Therefore the thesis will be based on a combination of the Global Value Chain Approach (Gereffi et al., 2005) and a Gendered Economy Approach (Bauhardt et al., 2010; Barrientos et al., 2003). It still needs to be resumed how far a Sustainable Livelihood-Approach and findings from the research area of the Informal Sector can be useful for the methodological setting. Next to an analysis of the specific regulatory framework in the Kenyan horticultural sector, especially for exporting products to Europe (e.g. GlobalGAP, ETI, national legislation, ILO convention etc.), there will be a phase of data collection in Mt. Kenya Region in February This research unit will contain a mix of methods (semi-standardized qualitative interviews) and approaches with focus on everyday experiences (Staeheli et al., 1994). It will be

4 54 important to be highly reflexive about the gendered background of the researcher. The interviews will be roughly divided in three units: 1. Degree of Professionalization: Definition of Categories of Professionalization Indicators? 2. Changes and influence of regulatory framework? 3. Traditional labour division and changes? (Here the focus will be on gender roles and power asymmetries, including access to resources, education and decision-making competences and organized practices in different social settings like the village community) The data collection will be located in rural communities (for e.g. farming households, farmers at collecting points, market sellers, farmer associations, rural community authority, etc.). In addition to that interviews with external players like exporter associations (for e.g. FPEAK) about gender issues in their quality management systems will be held. Furthermore interviews with NGOs and other institutions which try to improve gender equality and labour legislation in the horticultural sector will be of great interest. References: Adomako Ampofo, A., Beoku-Betts, J., Njambi, N.W. and Johnson Osirim, M. (2009): Women s and Gender Studies in English-speaking sub-saharan Africa: A review of research in the social sciences. In: Bose, C.E. and Kim M. (eds.): Global Gender Research. Transnational Perspectives. New York: Routledge. pp Barrett, H. and Browne, A. (1996): Export horticultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa. The incorporation of the Gambia. Geography, 81(1): Barrientos, S., Dolan, C. and Tallontire, A. (2003): A Gendered Value Chain Approach to Codes of Conduct in African Horticulture. World Development, 31(9): Bauhardt, C. and Caglar, G. (eds.) (2010): Gender and Economics. Feministische Kritik der politischen Ökonomie. Springer VS. Chen, M., Vanek, J. and Heintz, J. (2006): Informality, gender and poverty. Economic and Political Weekly, 41(21): Dannenberg, P. and Nduru, G. (2012): New Challenges and Realities in International Value Chains Analysing the Proliferation of Standards beyond the Exclusion Debate. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geographie (online first). Dolan, C.S. (2001): The Good Wife : Struggles over Resources in the Kenyan horticultural sector. The Journal of Development Studies, 37(3): Dolan, C.S. and Humphrey, J. (2004): Changing governance patterns in the trade in fresh vegetables between Africa and the United Kingdom. EnvironmEnt and Planning, 36: Gereffi, G., Humphrey, J. and Sturgeon, T. (2005): The Governance of Global Value Chains. Review of International Political Economy, 12(1): Gössling, S. and Schumacher, K. (2012): Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar. Antipode 44(2):

5 S.55 Meizen-Dick, R., Koppen, B.V., Behrman, J., Karelina, Z., Akamandisa, V., Hope, L. and Wielgosz, B. (2012): Putting gender on the map. Methods for mapping gendered farm management systems in sub-saharan Africa. IFPRI Discussion Paper Staeheli, L.A. and Lawson, V.A. (1994): A Discussion of Women in the field : The politics of feminist fieldwork. Professional Geographer, 46(1): Ouma, S. (2010): Global Standards, Local Realities: Private Agrifood Governance and the Restructuring of the Kenyan Horticulture Industry. Economic Geography, 86(2):