Contracting and gender equity in Tanzania: using a value chain approach to understand the role of gender in organic spice certification

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renee Bullock ◽  
Amos Gyau ◽  
Dagmar Mithoefer ◽  
Marilyn Swisher

AbstractValue chain development (VCD) initiatives within the horticultural and organic sectors in Africa are promising strategies to improve smallholder welfare. Contracting institutional arrangements are a common feature of VCD initiatives and are increasing in number in sub-Saharan Africa as a way to source organic products from smallholder producers. The objective of this study is to better understand men and women's participation in spice producing households that sell under contract and in conventional market chains in the East Usambaras, Tanzania. We draw on New Institutional Economics, political economy and the value chain analysis framework to assess the potential role of contracting to promote gender equity among smallholder organic horticultural producers. We describe intra-household decision making over resources and marketing, access to benefits of contracting, and labor distribution between men and women in contracting and non-contracting households. We then extend the gender analysis to evaluate the role of gender in contracting and conventional value chains operating within the community and district. Using a cross-sectional research design and data collected through 13 focus group discussions, 54 personal interviews and 156 household questionnaires, we show that contracting reduces transaction costs in the chain compared with the conventional trade. However, norms in the wider political economic context give rise to gendered patterns of participation in both household and chain activities in contracting and non-contracting households. Our findings suggest that contracting does not provide significant opportunities for women in married households to participate and benefit based on limited participation in decision-making and access to trainings. Divorced women and widows gain access to contract employment opportunities to earn income. This study highlights the importance of understanding gender relations in the household and community to guide the development of gender equitable VCD initiatives and contracting approaches.

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Ouma ◽  
Justus Ochieng ◽  
Michel Dione ◽  
Danilo Pezo

This paper analyses governance structures in Uganda’s smallholder pig value chains by applying the New Institutional Economics framework. It utilises cross sectional and qualitative survey data from randomly selected pig value chain actors in 4 districts. A multinomial logit model is applied to assess the determinants of vertical integration among pig traders. The findings indicate that most relationships at the pig production node of the value chain are based on spot market governance structures supported by personal relationships and trust. Live pig traders are mostly vertically integrated. High integration levels of the pig traders are positively influenced by access to market information, value of investments in the value chain, and dedicated asset specificity in terms of backyard slaughter premises. Upgrading opportunities in the value chain in the form of value addition strategies, policy implementation and promotion of business models that link producer organisations to quality inputs and service suppliers through contractual arrangements are identified.


2021 ◽  
pp. 025371762098155
Author(s):  
Doyel Ghosh ◽  
Pritha Mukhopadhyay ◽  
Ishani Chatterjee ◽  
Prasanta Kumar Roy

Background: There is a gap in understanding the pathogenesis of dissociative conversion disorder (DCD), despite the disorder having a strong historical root. The role of personality and neurocognitive factors are now highlighted; however, inconsistencies are reported. This study explores the personality disposition, arousability, and decision-making ability of patients with DCD, in reference to a healthy control group (HCG). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the sample comprised ten adult psychiatric patients with DCD. Ten participants of the HCG were matched according to age, gender, education, economic status, domicile, religious background, and handedness. The study assessed personality disposition with Temperament and Character Inventory, arousability with reaction time task, and decision-making ability with the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT PEBL version). Results: The DCD group differed significantly on personality disposition related to both temperament and character. There was also evidence of easy arousability and frustration along with deficit in executive function related to decision-making ability. Conclusion: This study highlights the presence of both temperamental and characterological factors associated with DCD. Moreover, this study identifies the role of cognitive arousability and decision-making or feedback utilization ability in the psychopathology of DCD.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Jared Isaboke Mose

Trypanosomiasis is a widespread constraint in livestock production, mixed farming and human health in Africa. Several technologies have been developed to ameliorate the effects of the disease but delivery of these technologies to farmers has been undertaken on trial and error basis without a proper strategy leading to more failure than success and wastage of scarce resources. The purpose of this paper was to carry out an analysis of transaction costs incurred in accessing and using insecticide treated net in tsetse and trypanosomiasis control among smallholder cattle farms in Busia County, Kenya. The study utilized cross–sectional survey design and was guided by the New Institutional Economics approach and utilized stratified and simple random sampling technique to get 211 respondents for the study. Data was collected by use of structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Conjoint analysis results for zero grazing net showed that cost was the most important factor influencing farmers’ decision, accounting for 38.52% of the total while durability and availability each accounted for 25% and retreatability accounted for 10% of the decisions. Further t-test results showed that there were significant differences between men and women with respect to attribute scores (at 99 d.f. and alpha = 0.05%) suggesting that men and women face different transaction costs in accessing T&T control technologies. Therefore there is need for gender sensitive strategies in T&T technology design and dissemination. Tsetse fly and Trypanosomiasis control by use of low cost technologies such as insecticide treated zero grazing net should be promoted by government and other development partners. The net should be affordable, available at supply outlets close to farmers, long lasting and re-treatable for famers to take it up.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 214-236
Author(s):  
Christina Teipen ◽  
Fabian Mehl

Abstract The article compares social upgrading trends in four global value chains (apparel, automobiles, electronics and it services) and six developing and emerging economies (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Vietnam). It applies a framework, which combines analyses of industry-specific governance modes with recent theoretical approaches from the field of industrial relations. The empirical results show that prospects for social upgrading within similar segments of a particular value chain considerably depend on the national context. The article thus highlights the importance of integrating the role of national institutions into global value chain analysis in order to better explain variegated upgrading dynamics across different countries and industries.


Author(s):  
Stefan Voigt

This chapter offers a look at transformation processes from the perspective of the new institutional economics (NIE). It briefly describes the main pillars of this research area, including its assumptions, the definition of institutions, and their interplay. It is shown that the NIE can contribute to explaining the outcome of transformation processes by pointing at the different institutions relied upon during transition. In the section surveying the large literature on institutions and transition, special focus is laid on the role of constitutions for political transformation, property rights for economic transformation, and internal or informal institutions as institutions largely exempt from deliberate transformation which can, hence, constitute an important constraint in transformation processes. The chapter concludes by pointing out some research gaps.


Author(s):  
Emek Yıldırım

By the 1980s and 1990s, neoliberal policies such as privatizations and deregulations transforming the minimal state model to regulative state model from the Keynesian social welfare state system made some structural and functional changes in the state mechanism, and the public administration has been in the first place due to the changing relationship between the state and the market. In fact, within this context, the new institutional economics (NIE) had a remarkable influence upon the debates upon the altering role of the state. Hence, the transformation of the state in this regard also revealed the argumentations on the governance paradigm along with the doctrinaire contributions of the new institutional economics. Therefore, this chapter will discuss the transformation of the state and the political economy of the governance together with a critical assessment of the new institutional economics in the public administration.


Author(s):  
Ilke Civelekoglu ◽  
Basak Ozoral

In an attempt to discuss neoliberalism with a reference to new institutional economics, this chapter problematizes the role of formal institutions in the neoliberal age by focusing on a specific type of formal institution, namely property rights in developing countries. New institutional economics (NIE) argues that secure property rights are important as they guarantee investments and thus, promote economic growth. This chapter discusses why the protection of property rights is weak and ineffective in certain developing countries despite their endorsement of neoliberalism by shedding light on the link between the institutional structure of the state and neoliberalism in the developing world. With the political economy perspective, the chapter aims to build a bridge between NIE and political economy, and thereby providing fertile ground for the advancement of NIE.


Economies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Shaianne T. Osterreich

Heterodox feminist scholars have argued that global trade patterns reflect patterns of competitive advantage—rather than comparative advantage—and that that competitive advantage is gendered. Further, they have suggested that we need more theoretical and empirical scholarship in this area. This paper assesses the state of the literature against this call to action for more feminist–heterodox work on trade, with an emphasis on the manufacturing sector. New strands on the impact of gender on global production have been developed, including (a) integrating gender relations into global value chain analysis, (b) empirical work examining possible trends in the de-feminization of industrial sectors with technological upgrading, and (c) conceptual and empirical work on the interplay between gender, social provisioning, informal work, and the informalization of formal work. The first two strands, although well developed, would benefit from more research that is better integrated with the third strand. Further, this whole range of scholarly work needs to contend more broadly with the causes and effects of persistent gender-based occupational segregation, which underpins all three strands of work. A lot of excellent work has been done, and yet, more scholarship is needed to best understand the extent to which employment in industrial exports can function as a means to gender equity, empowerment, and mobility.


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