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The Rough Road to Gender Equitable Growth: The case of Café de Mujer Guatemala

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Abstract

Women worldwide are contributing significantly to global economic growth but do not always receive the benefits needed to improve their own and their family's livelihoods. Women's contributions are often invisible, unrecognized and undervalued. This is especially apparent in global value chains, where harsh labour conditions in export-oriented sectors such as horticulture and the garment industry are well-documented in the literature. However, we still know very little about the agricultural sector, particularly smallholder agriculture and the contribution and position of women. Noortje Verhart and Rhiannon Pyburn use a value chain approach to look at opportunities to improve women's positions in global trade relations. Noortje Verhart and Rhiannon Pyburn illustrate that trade and trade relations are not gender neutral: they influence men's and women's opportunities to improve their position in a value chain quite differently. They demonstrate how a particular intervention in a global coffee chain is enabling the revaluation of women's contribution to coffee production.

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Notes

  1. The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) is an independent, not-for-profit organization with a mandate to alleviate poverty, support sustainable development and promote cultural preservation and exchange. The Social Development and Gender Equity and Sustainable Economic Development teams are joining forces to bring together value chain analysis with gender analysis and to tease out the compatibilities and potential synergies between the two fields. In collaboration with partners, KIT is documenting approaches that promote the rights, inclusion and participation of women in economic development.

  2. The cooperative which is certified by Café de Mujer receives support from Hivos in the Netherlands. The case study has been documented through the Global standards Initiative of Oxfam Novib, Hivos, Solidaridad and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) to explore how smallholder certification is contributing to gender equity in global value chains. The Café de Mujer case study was documented by Patricia Lindo Jerez and Mieke van der Schaeghe, two consultants based in Nicaragua. The study was summarized and translated into English by Maria Jose Barney Gonzalez, a consultant based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

  3. MayaCert is a Central American certification body that was created in 1997. Initially MayaCert certified only to organic standards, but over time it has expanded to cover 4C, Starbucks, Utz, Bird Friendly and Global GAP, amongst others.

  4. Asociación de Cooperación al Desarrollo Integral de Huehuetenango.

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Acknowledgements

The article is based on data collected by the Gender and Global Standards Initiative undertaken by four organizations in the Netherlands: Hivos, Oxfam Novib, Solidaridad and the Royal Tropical Institute. The four organizations are exploring how smallholder certification contributes to gender equality on family farms and within farmer cooperatives. During the first year of this initiative (2009), ten international coffee value chains in Central America and Africa were documented, including Café de Mujer. The findings and reflections from the first phase of the initiative are published in a KIT (Royal Tropical Institute) working paper. In 2010–2011, additional case studies for coffee, cocoa and tea in Africa and Asia are being documented.

Authors
  1. Noortje Verhart
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  2. Rhiannon Pyburn
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Uses a value chain approach to look at opportunities to improve women's positions in global trade relations

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Verhart, N., Pyburn, R. The Rough Road to Gender Equitable Growth: The case of Café de Mujer Guatemala. Development 53, 356–361 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2010.38

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2010.38

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