1,720,979 research outputs found
‘Coffee depends on women’ : the gendered coffee paradox of Kenya’s coffee industry
Get PDF1 online resource (379 pages)Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 336-371).A “coffee paradox” – evident through the unequal political and social relations within coffee’s global value – as named by Benoit Daviron and Stefano Ponte (2005), created a “coffee boom” in consuming countries and a “coffee crisis” in producing countries. This paradox certainly exists, and my research takes their argument a step further. Using a feminist political economy perspective, informed by an intersectional feminist approach, I identify an additional paradox, which I name as the “gendered coffee paradox,” because while “coffee depends on women,” it remains a “man’s crop” through policies and practices that favour men and discriminate against women. Kenya’s complex coffee chain was created by the British government and European settlers during the colonial era (1880s to 1962). Yet, even after Kenya’s 1963 independence and significant gender advancements since Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, women in coffee experience
gendered barriers. While colonialism discriminated against all Africans, it set up specific
discriminations for the gendered disempowerment of women. As such, twenty-first century
neoliberal approaches to “empower women in coffee,” as adopted by global and national
institutions, as well as the specialty coffee industry, fail to address entrenched structures of gender inequity and women’s intersectional challenges. Through my field work in the Republic of Kenya, I present a case study centred on a Kenyan coffee estate, Chepsangor Hills Coffee, and on interviews with both leaders and farmers throughout Kenya’s coffee industry, to showcase women’s continued challenges regarding land ownership, income gaps, and time poverty (the “double burden”). The study also highlights several examples of ways Kenyan women utilize business and nonprofit initiatives, seeking empowerment for themselves and their communities. My study suggests that “accompaniment,” as a relational approach premised on mutuality, may be an alternative to “empowerment.
The wine industry as a tool for socioeconomic development in the Vale do São Francisco, Brazil : prospects and possibilities
Get PDF1 online resource (52 p.) : col. ill., col. mapsIncludes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-51).Developing countries are commonly known for economic dependence on raw commodities sold at low and fluctuating prices. For this reason, the concept of selling value-added commodities with higher profit margins seems favourable for development. This thesis looks at value-added agricultural commodities, specifically the wine industry, and its impacts on socioeconomic development in the Vale do São Francisco, Northeast
Brazil. A combination of primary and secondary research was conducted for this paper. Qualitative interviews with twelve stakeholders in the Northeast Brazilian wine industry were interviewed and five local vineyards were visited out of a total of six currently in the region. Articles by academic and non-academic sources were reviewed to supplement field
data, on issues such as: the challenges wine makers face and the obstacles those wishing to enter the market face, potentials of value- added products in developing countries, viticulture in Brazil, and geographically specific challenges and benefits/successes of this industry in Brazil. The research focuses on domestic wine production and consumption within Brazil. Based on the data, it appears that pursuing a
value-added wine industry in the Northeast of Brazil is favourable for development, and the region could benefit greatly from an expanded and developed regional wine tourism industry. This paper hints towards future research of other value-added products and their potential to improve development in other developing countries
Smallholders, cooperatives, and food sovereignty in Tanzania : why a nation of farmers cannot feed its people
Get PDF172 leaves ; 29 cm.Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-171).Although the world produces more food than ever before, close to one billion people remain hungry worldwide. This problem is especially critical in the Global South, where the majority of the population are food producers. Such is the case for Tanzania, a developing country that is searching for solutions to its food insecurity. One solution involves cooperatives, seen as pro-smallholder, empowering the peasantry to overcome the barriers that impede their development, which equates to a positive effect on the nation feeding itself. Countering this is a modern, market based approach, which dilutes the role of the peasantry in favour of agribusinesses in order to ensure Tanzania’s food security. While the government claims to support both, it along with powerful international actors is throwing greater weight behind agribusinesses, opting for a food security based solution to the country’s food insecurity, at the expense of the peasantry and ultimately Tanzania’s own food sovereignty
Contemporary large-scale farmland acquisitions and food sovereignty : the case of smallholders in Sierra Leone
Get PDF128 leaves ; 29 cm.Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-128).Despite increasing modernization in agriculture globally, the majority of people in developing countries are still dependant on low input, limited technology smallholder farming for their food and livelihood. The 2007-2008 global economic crisis saw a surge in the proliferation of private and foreign investors in Sub-Saharan Africa seeking to acquire farmland for the commercial production of export products consumed, with major impacts on smallholder agriculture. Using Sierra Leone as a case study, this thesis examines the impact of such acquisitions on the basis of a food sovereignty approach, highlighting the socio-economic livelihood opportunities available for smallholders in the face of a global land rush. Findings demonstrate that farmland acquisitions can present more challenges than opportunities for small farmers in affected communities. Evidence suggests the lack of access to local food, loss of control over land and other productive resources, and loss of reliable livelihood opportunities
The road to integration among Arab countries : assessing the political and economic barriers and possibilities
Get PDF160 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 29 cm.Includes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-135).Arab countries attempts at regional integration started in the 1950s, but the goal of integration has produced very little substantive political or economic results. This lack of progress has blocked Arab countries from attaining benefits to their political and economic welfare that could accrue as a result. Arab Petro-states are reluctant to share the oil returns with other non-oil exporting countries, which have been struggling to develop their trade relations. Arab countries have not been able to develop their comparative advantages in trade due to historical problems, such as colonialism. Arab countries are also lacking effective supranational institutions that can balance the economic gains of integration among member states. This research outlines an implementation path that would ensure a realistic integration and application based on an assessment of past and current integration attempts with a special focus on the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA), which is an Arab agreement that was signed in 1997. The assessment will determine the obstacles that have stinted past integration and how they relate to the status of integration in the Arab countries today. Unless Arab states have state-centric agreements, which share a common vision of developing industrial and agricultural bases that aims at developing states’ dynamic comparative advantages, the total intra-trade impact on Arab countries will be slightly positive or even negative since integration will result in trade diversion. Arab states can accept short-term losses that can result from trade diversion or loss of tariff revenues on condition that their comparative advantages can be developed on the long term. Finally, this thesis highlights the economic and non-economic benefits and obstacles of integration using statistical analyses that simulate the economic benefits of Arab intra-regional cooperation
Extracting profit, exporting harm : Canadian mining and the capitalist state in Ecuador
Get PDF1 online resource (49 pages)Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (pages 37-49).This paper offers a reappraisal of the role of the Canadian state in the contentious practices of Canadian mining operations abroad. In seeking to account for these operations, most nongovernmental institutions and industry representatives have focused on the direct actions of Canadian mining companies and their well-documented socio-environmental transgressions. The result has been a dominant consensus that attributes the socio-environmental harm caused by Canadian mining operations abroad predominantly to corporate actors, overlooking the active role of the Canadian state. As an alternative to this consensus, this paper argues that while Canadian mining companies overtly engage in exploitative practices abroad, the Canadian state plays a central and active role in facilitating these activities and, more specifically, functions as an executive committee for the mining industry, actively creating, managing, and legitimizing the conditions for its destructive operations abroad. Drawing specifically on the case of Ecuador and Marxist theories of the state, it argues that the Canadian state, in its role as an executive committee, is a driving force in these extractive operations—typically portrayed as primarily corporate-driven—and proposes greater attention to be paid to the geopolitical actions of the Canadian state, and its structural role as an executive committee in advancing the expansion of Canadian mining operations abroad
Rural livelihoods and e-commerce : a case study of artisans in Guerrero, Mexico
Get PDF138 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.Includes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-138).E-commerce is repeatedly recommended as a means of poverty reduction for rural artisans. However, presenting e-commerce as easily attainable ignores the many barriers and trivializes the value that less complex ICTs offer. By looking at microenterprises in the silver jewellery industry in Guerrero, Mexico, this research examines how incorporating ICTs within business strategies affects livelihood outcomes. Specifically, I examine e-commerce as an alternative to traditional means of selling wares for rural artisans and as a tool to improve market access.
In applying the livelihoods framework to look at the relationship between
microenterprises, ICTs and e-commerce, it was found that despite available infrastructure; e-commerce is not a realistic option in supporting the livelihoods of artisans. The barriers required to overcome issues related to market access, human capital deficiencies and insufficient government support structures remain too great for most to overcome
Power and pepper sauce : challenging global hegemony through state-supported agriculture
Get PDF1 online resource (65 p.)Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-64).A major research project in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in International Development Studies.This paper investigates the strengths and challenges of state-supported agricultural programmes in the eastern Caribbean island state of St. Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG). The state-supported agri-processing corporation Vincyfresh is used as a case study to argue the benefits of state-run corporations to challenge dependency and western imperialism in a post-colonial state. Drawing on a Gramscian theoretical framework, themes of colonialism, hegemony and independence are explored along with the benefits & challenges of fair trade and alternative models of trade and development. The paper explores how colonialism and neocolonial power relations play out in regard to agricultural trade in SVG and the international market taking into account political-historical relationships between Caribbean states and colonial powers in the contemporary context
Fairtrade and child labour in Ghana's cocoa sector : challenges, gaps and recommendations
Get PDF1 online resource (vii, 5 pages)Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 69-72).In spite of the numerous interventions put in place by the Government of Ghana,
international development agencies and other relevant bodies such as Fairtrade to
eradicate child labour in Ghana’s cocoa sector, it continues to be a significant problem in
cocoa production. This research paper aims to explore the main reasons for the persistent
occurrences of child labour in cocoa and the role of Fairtrade in ensuring the eradication
of child labour in Ghana’s cocoa sector. The research identifies explicitly various causes
of child labour in Ghana’s cocoa by reviewing relevant academic and grey literature in
the area. It provides a critical assessment of the role of Fairtrade in eradicating child
labour. The research paper also relied on data from fifteen (15) key informant interview
respondents comprising five (5) officials from Fairtrade West Africa and International
Cocoa Initiative, and ten (10) Fairtrade certified cocoa farmers from three selected cocoa
growing areas in the Western, Eastern and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana. The paper
concludes that poverty, the lack of awareness among cocoa farmers and cocoa-growing
communities about child labour policies, inadequate educational infrastructure in cocoa growing communities, and other socio-cultural factors are the leading causes of child
labour in Ghana’s cocoa sector. It examines how Fairtrade interventions, namely
technical training and support for farmers, provision of educational infrastructure in
cocoa-growing areas, and the sensitization of farmers and community members about
child labour policies, are helping fight child labour in Ghana’s cocoa sector. It concludes
by recommending an increase in Fairtrade premiums and prices, technical training and
support for cocoa farmers, educational infrastructure and scholarships in cocoa-growing
areas and the sensitization of cocoa farmers and communities
Politics, power and unfair market concentration in the cocoa global value chain (GVC): analysing the prospects of the living income differential (LID) for achieving a just and sustainable livelihood for cocoa farmers in Ghana
Get PDF1 online resource (viii, 116 pages) : colour map.Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 98-107).Ghanaian cocoa farmers confront many social and economic challenges and are
unable to pursue needed farm improvements because of insufficient and dwindling income. The income of farmers is too low for them to generate enough capital to invest in
improvements in productivity or even more sustainable ecological practices. While various
initiatives exist aimed at eradicating the problem of child labour, promoting better farming
methods and ensuring access to agricultural inputs like fertilizer, sustainable credit and
financing, often overlooked is the centrality of guaranteeing a viable minimum price for
cocoa farmers, their families and workers, upon which other sustainable achievements in the
cocoa industry ultimately hinge. A guaranteed minimum price can play a key role in
combating the vicious cycle of poverty and social injustice by providing farmers with a living
income. Having a guaranteed minimum price can create a more stable social and economic
environment in which cocoa farmers can have the confidence to invest in their farms,
including the necessary and costly replanting of cocoa trees. Cocoa farming cannot be
considered fair, ethical or sustainable if it cannot provide a living income to the millions of
hardworking farmers and workers in Ghana. I will argue that the decision by the Government of Ghana to initiate a guaranteed minimum price of $400 premium per tonne for cocoa is the
most efficient and simplest way to address insufficient income among cocoa farmers in the
long term
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