CONTENT SUMMARY
Brief Description: This handbook presents the “Integrating Gender Issues into Agricultural Value Chains” (INGIA-VC) approach. It is a practical process to teach practitioners how gender issues can inform the design, implementation, and monitoring of value chain programs.
The handbook provides a methodology for analyzing how gender issues constrain or support the ability of these programs to achieve their goals.
Uses: The handbook helps practitioners become familiar with:
- How gender issues affect agricultural value chains.
- A process for analyzing gender issues in agricultural value chains.
- Strategies for addressing gender issues in agricultural value chains.
Tool Components:
- Integrating Gender Issues into Value Chain Development
- Introduces gender issues and their relation to agricultural value chain development
- Provides a Gender Dimensions Framework for analyzing gender issues
- A Process for Integrating Gender Issues into Agricultural Value Chains
- A five-step process for identifying and evaluating gender-based constraints within agricultural value chains, with tools and worksheets for implementing the process
OPERATIONS
Number of Staff Required: Not specified; this will depend on the number of value chains and the context.
Time: The estimated time for assessing a single value chain is 17 days. The exact level of effort required to employ the INGIA-VC process will depend on the number of commodities in the assessment, the number of regions, travel time, and other variables, each of which can extend the time necessary for completing the data collection and analysis process.
Cost of Assessment: Not specified; this will depend on the number of value chains and the context.
Training: The INGIA-VC process is most useful when led by a gender expert familiar with analyzing gender issues in agriculture, value chains, and understanding the country context. This expert can train other staff engaged in the process.
Geographic Targeting: The specific value chain targeted will determine the geographic scope of the assessment/intervention.
Type of Data Collection: This methodology uses baseline assessments, qualitative and quantitative gender assessments, and value chain mapping.
Degree of Technical Difficulty: The writers assume that users of this handbook will have some knowledge of gender issues, agriculture, or value chain development. It places emphasis on giving readers formerly unfamiliar with gender issues a foundation and process for assessing agricultural value chains from a gender perspective.
Complements other Resources: The gender-based constraints identified through this process could feed into a variety of other assessments and program design activities.