ORGANISING WOMEN AND DEVELOPING
LEADERSHIP WITH INFORMAL WOMEN WORKERS IN
AGRICULTURE
SOLIDARITY CENTER MEETING, SAO PAULO, JULY 2013
Outline of presentation
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First we will look at different categories of informal workers in
global agricultural value chains as this is an important
consideration for the purpose of organising workers and their
relative bargaining power
Second, we will look at how own account workers organising in
collective forms of enterprise can increase women’s economic
empowerment and leadership
Thirdly, we will look at the situation of women in smallholder
production systems and how organising in cooperatives can
improve women’s equality and participation in leadership
positions
Women in Agriculture
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The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that
women small-scale farmers in Africa own just 1 percent of
agricultural land, receive only 7 percent of extension services,
and less than 10 percent of agricultural credit is offered to
women
As much as 60 percent of the global agricultural workforce is
made up of women (FAO at work 2010-2011: Women Key to
Food Security)
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Yet women are over-represented in low paid jobs and underrepresented in higher paid jobs (SOFA Team & Cheryl Doss
(2011).The role of women in agriculture, ESA Working Paper No.
11-02, FAO publication,p.2
http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/am307e/am307e00.pdf
Different categories of informal
workers in agriculture
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The categorisation is based on employment status depending
on economic risk borne by the worker – key distinction is
whether they are in “paid employment” or “self-employment”
Paid employment is where worker holds explicit or implicit
employment contract that gives them basic remuneration
Self-employed workers in agriculture are further sub-divided
based on degrees of economic risk and authority borne by the
self-employed person
(a) employers (b) own account operators (c) members of
producer cooperatives and (d) contributing family members
Informality is the norm rather than the exception in commodities
and horticulture production systems and women suffer worse
conditions than their male counterparts
WIEGO’S DEFINITION OF WEE
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Empowerment refers to the process of change that
gives working poor women – as individual workers
and as members of worker organisations – the
ability to gain access to the resources they need
while also gaining the ability to influence the wider
policy, regulatory and institutional environment that
shapes their livelihoods and lives.
The WIEGO project …..
How has collective organization
empowered women?
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In depth case studies in seven countries found that
women producers experienced significant
improvements in their lives through participating in
collective forms of enterprise and linking to Fair
Trade markets
Being organised into groups for production and
trade increased their incomes and strengthened
their ability to access productive resources and
markets
Enhanced status in households and communities
The benefits of being organized
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Gained valuable skills and knowledge
Improved experience in governing and managing
their organisations
As a result, they have greater confidence in their
abilities and higher levels of self-esteem
Women leaders have emerged who are capable of
representing the voice of informal workers with
government and policy-makers
Organizations are linked into national, regional and
global networks
Key factors for success
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Capacity-building for strong women’s leadership
Clear vision and mission with social as well as economic
goals
Good governance with commitment to democratic
principles
Commitment of group members key
Formalization of groups gives access to banking and
credit
Skills development for technical up-grading and
improved production
Fair Trade networks provide links to markets
Sharing experiences and building alliances provide a
collective voice for women producers
Women in Smallholder Production Systems
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Now we will look at the situation of women in
smallholder production systems and how their situation
can be improved through being organised in
cooperatives – another category of informal worker
Most smallholders in Global Agricultural Value Chains
rely heavily on contributing family workers to meet
the labour requirements for export production
Women are often not compensated for their labour
and receive little of the income and benefits derived
from export production
Cooperatives as vehicles for Improving Women’s
Participation
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Collective organization can lead to economic and
social empowerment and transformative leadership
Certain conditions need to be met to ensure
women’s full participation and assume leadership
positions
Ensure that membership criteria of cooperatives
offer equal opportunities for women and men
Avoid criteria such as land ownership or
registrations, stipulating minimum production or
harvest volumes or registering only heads of
households
Improving women’s participation in cooperatives
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Consider a quota system for improved representation of
women in leadership positions e.g. Kuapa Kokoo and
Gumutindo
Encourage men to give a share of their land to their wives
Encourage more equal sharing of income, labour inputs and
decision-making between husbands and wives
Ensure that contributing women family workers benefit from
training provided under any capacity-building programmes
Ensure that contributing family workers benefit from new
processing activities introduced through value chain
programmes
Smallholder farmers as employers
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Finally, how to deal with the question of labour
standards with smallholders who are employers
Educate smallholders and their employees about
workers’ rights
Some value chain programmes make it a condition
of participation that smallholders respect the rights
of hired workers as is also the case with certification
systems
Providing good working conditions for hired
workers brings benefits to smallholders as well as
their workers
Trading Our Way Up: Women Organising for Fair
Trade
http://www.wiego.org