women economic leadership through honey value chain development in ethiopia
DESCRIPTION
Presented by Gizachew Sisay at Gender and Market Oriented Agriculture (AgriGender 2011) Workshop, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 31st January–2nd February 2011TRANSCRIPT
Women Economic Leadership through Honey Value chain Development in Ethiopia
Gender and Market Oriented Agriculture (AgriGender 2011) WorkshopAddis Ababa, Ethiopia, 31st January-2nd February 2011
By Gizachew Sisay, Sr. Value Chain AdvisorOxfam GB, CASH-E Program
Commercialization of Agriculture for Small Holders in Ethiopia (CASH-E) overview
$ Initiated in 2006 as Agriculture Scale-Up Programme with the ambition to reach 1 million smallholders
$ Three commodities (Honey, coffee & sesame)$ 34 districts in three regions (Amhara, Benshangul
Gumuz & Oromia) of Ethiopia$ The programme has so far reached more than
250,000 people$ Working with 10 partners
$ Four NGO partners, One private sector, Two business service providers, Three unions
$ ‘Transforming gender relationships in the agriculture sector in order to ensure equitable access to institutions, resources and decision-making’ is one of the 4 core objectives of the program
Overview of Gender in Oxfam
Ensuring gender equality is non-negotiable in Oxfam
Oxfam put women at the heart () of its development work
Recently Oxfam adopted Gendered value chain approach
The CASH-E program too adopted the WEL approach to transform gender relations with focus of taking women beyond numbers and mere participation
PROCESS – steps followed in program designGender has been used as criteria in selection of the commodity during value chain analysisOxfam played gender oriented facilitation roleIdentification of current practice, constraints, opportunities and design intended practiceInterventions are designed to address constraints and unleash potentials at each level of the chain
Organizing women beekeepers into SHGs to access training, credit, inputs and marketCapacity building of women BKs (training & supply of improved beehives and accessories) Linkage between producers and private sector
Sensitization of VC actors for increasing women’s participation
Commodity selection by using decision matrix
Economic/Competitiveness Score WS Score WS Score WS Score WS Score WS Score WS
Market Demand/Potential 0 0 0 0 0 0
Potential for value addition (product differentiation) 0 0 0 0 0 0
Potential for improving production volume & quality 0 0 0 0 00
Mandate/ImpactIncome generation & distribution ability 0 0 0 0 0 0
Involvement of more number of smallholder farmers 0 0 0 0 0 0
Empowerment of SHF 0 0 0 0 0 0
Strategy/crosscutting issuesGender consideration (allows more women to involve in VC)
0 0 0 0 00
Less risky to be adopted by the community 0 0 0 0 0 0
Synergy with existing pilot development programs 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total of Weighted Score 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sesame Malt Honey OnionCriteria Weight
Coffee SoyaScore
Constraining factors for women’s full engagement in beekeeping
Traditionally women have not been seen as beekeepers, forming only 1% of cooperative members.
Some of the limitations for women are Hives kept on trees where women do not climb ‘Bees are stingy’ – men justify why they do BK Lack skill & know-how & technology & market
The setting of traditional hive is not convenient for women to engage (95% of hives are traditional)
Participation of women reduces as moving up in the VC
Comparative advantages of beekeeping for rural women smallholders
It doesn’t need farmland which most women don’t have it or can’t afford it. keeping 4 modern hives, needs less than 100m2 land, but the income (minimum of 350 USD per annum) is equal to growing crop in half a hectare of land.
It doesn’t need much labour, and doesn't create additional burden (particularly for female-headed HHs)
Beekeeping doesn’t need most of the expensive agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizer, oxen to plough the land), which again are difficult for women to easily access.
Beekeeping is relatively less vulnerable to disaster shocks as compared to crop
Is a seasonal activity & inspection be done in spare time.
The logic model to promote gendered honey value chain (Beekeeping)
Why: Strong potential for poverty reduction (income & employment generation) mainly women & landless youth)
BK can be done in spare time & at homestead where women can manage/engage
BK doesn’t need land, labour and investment on inputs as compared to other agriculture activities
Product has high market demand (national & international) How: Improved technology allows women to participate in
production, quality improvement as well as marketing. Local (village) level capacity building & integration of FAL Organization of women producers into SHGs What: Productivity & quality can be improved easily @
scale Unleash the comparative advantages of BK for women
farmers benefit
Achievements & impact Village level training & demo centre allowed more women beekeepers to access new skills/knowledgeCoops have amended their bylaws to allow more than one person in a HH, women have started taking leadership membership positionsMore than 440 women beekeepers organized into SHGs and joined coopsProductivity of honey increased from 5-10 to 20-30kg per hive per year, quality improved and producers’ incomes is rising up to 200%.Women’s participation in coops increased from 1% to 17%, and – up to 45% in some cases where Oxfam intervened Challenging the existing attitudes and stereotypes about women Change of roles (women have started to engage in harvesting and marketing of honey)
Participation of women in coops with various interventions
Percentage of women membership in beekeeping coops in Amhara region w ith and
w ithout interventions
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
No intervention Oxfam intervenedthrough NGO
partners
Oxfam intervenedthrough union
Oxfam intervenedDirectly
Interventions
Gender roles are started changing
Lessons learnt and recommendations Identification of the right commodity, right
intervention and right approach (model of change) that fits to the situation and condition of women
Participation of women in the chain’s upper function is still low – demanding more dynamic interventions such as integrating functional adult literacy.
The need to organize women beekeepers into product diversification such as speciality honey by Women BKs
Women alone vs mixed cooperatives in addressing women’s specific needs, interest, benefit and control needs study
To help women, it is necessary to choose a value chain that has market potential and technology that also works for women.
Thank you!