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!