Integrating Gender in
Value Chain Development (VCD)
ILO & Local Development Strategies
Knowledge Sharing and Learning Event
Bangkok, UNCC
22 June 2010
Nelien Haspels, ILO Bangkok
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VCD for Decent Work: Why
• Tool for public and private actors:
– Understand relationships and linkages from production to
consumption at micro, meso/institutional &macro level
– Analyse opportunities and barriers for firms and small
producers along the chain
– Address structural bottlenecks with a view to:
• Gain value in economic and social terms:
– Increase profitability and competitive edge of business
– Improving the position of disadvantaged actors
– Monitor & improve employment relations and working
conditions along the production chain
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Why gender integration in VCD
• In most value chains:
– Different levels of value, risk and bargaining power in production
processes
– Power and profit concentrated in the top linkages
– Greatest risks and the least value at the bottom linkages Examples:
subcontracted home work, piece rate, unpaid family work,
feminization of agriculture
• Structural constraints for many women: Lack of access,
opportunity & empowerment:
– Numerous at the lower ends of the chain
– Few in the top linkages as business owners and top executives
– Lack of representation in policy making and negotiation
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Gender integration: What and how
• Gender equity in decent work promotion means: equal rights,
opportunities and treatment to men & women as
beneficiaries, participants and decision makers
– Integrating gender into the mainstream in all sectors, at all
levels and stages
– Designing and implementing gender-specific measures to
redress inequalities
– Addressing both practical and strategic gender needs
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VCD: Key G-analysis & planning Qs - 1
STAGE 1: SCOPING AND MAPPING
• Scoping:
– Is gender equity an integral part of poverty reduction & development vision?
– Do policy goals include an explicit commitment to gender equality &
affirmative action for women’s & men’s empowerment?
– Do definitions and language refer and apply to women and men?
• Content:
– Does the VCA design map include analysis of the value chain where women
are concentrated (outworkers, homeworkers, unpaid workers) or where they
are absent (top linkages, in decision making in public and private sectors)
– Do questions and hypotheses include questioning of gender differences and
inequalities along the chain?
• Process:
– Does the stakeholder analysis differentiate between (different groups of) men
and women?
– Are women & men stakeholders equitably represented at different levels?
– What is the gender expertise and sex composition in steering groups
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VCD: Key G-analysis & planning Qs - 2
STAGE 2: VALUE CHAIN RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS: GENDER-ACCURATE
INFORMATION
• Participatory research:
– Does the research design enable accurate and adequate articulation of the
needs and views of women and men? (eg, sex of interviewers/respondents)
– Does it include explicit questions on possible gender differences/imbalances?
• Quantitative research:
– Are the data disaggregated by sex at all levels of the chain?
– If gender inequalities are expected, will gender analysis be carried out
– What are the gender inequalities in profits, pay, representation or power?
• Qualitative research:
– Are key informants asked about visible and invisible gender differences and
imbalances?
– What are gender constraints/opportunities in policy and meso environment?
– What is the gender capacity and expertise at macro, meso and micro levels
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VCD: Key G-analysis & planning Qs - 3
STAGE 3: ACTION STRATEGY: GENDER EQUITABLE PROPOSALS
• Are women’s needs, views and benefits equitably represented in action
proposals?
• Have the full range of relevant VCD interventions for women been
considered at different dimensions: economic, social and political? at
different levels: individual, household, institutional, national and/or
international levels?
• Have the gender implications of strategies on women and men been
considered? When inequalities exist, have gender-specific measures such
as affirmative action (eg property rights) been designed and implemented
to support gender equality in decent work & pro-poor growth promotion?
• Have the gender implications and potential impacts of all the VCD
recommendations been considered? Have women entrepreneurs been
‘ghettoised’ along the value chain? Can women and men consumers be
mobilized to promote Corporate Social Responsibility?
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VCD: Key G-analysis & planning Qs - 4
STAGE 4: IMPLEMENTATION: GENDER-ACCOUNTABLE OUTCOMES
• Has understanding and networking between women and men been
increased at all levels to break down barriers and discrimination in
implementation, maximise progress and minimise unnecessary conflict?
• Are engendered indicators included in the monitoring and evaluation
guidelines? How will these be measured, analyzed and disseminated?
• Will the range of male and female stakeholders be adequately
represented in ongoing value chain monitoring and planning?
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THANK YOU
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