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Women’s Empowerment, Income, and Nutrition in a Food Processing Value Chain Development Project in Touba, Senegal

To study the impacts of implementing a gender-sensitive value chain development (VCD) initiative in the agri-food sector, we conducted a mixed-methods study of a woman-owned food processing business and its associated value chain in Touba, Senegal. As a result of partnering with a USAID-funded proje...

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Autores principales: O’Brien, Cheryl, Leavens, Laura, Ndiaye, Cheikh, Traoré, Djibril
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9367883/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35954883
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159526
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author O’Brien, Cheryl
Leavens, Laura
Ndiaye, Cheikh
Traoré, Djibril
author_facet O’Brien, Cheryl
Leavens, Laura
Ndiaye, Cheikh
Traoré, Djibril
author_sort O’Brien, Cheryl
collection PubMed
description To study the impacts of implementing a gender-sensitive value chain development (VCD) initiative in the agri-food sector, we conducted a mixed-methods study of a woman-owned food processing business and its associated value chain in Touba, Senegal. As a result of partnering with a USAID-funded project, the business began producing instant fortified flours, an innovative, higher-value product compared to traditional porridge, using extrusion and fortification techniques. Drawing on Senegalese women’s association networks, the business connected with local women who could work as processors and retailers. Our study’s goal was to explore how the project’s support of this food processing value chain has affected the lives of women processors and retailers, farmers, and medical personnel along the value chain. Particularly relevant to our study is the general lack of opportunities for women to earn their own incomes in the study region, especially outside of the home, and provide for their families. Through surveys, interviews, observations, and novel participatory focus group activities, our study provides qualitative and quantitative evidence of the perceived impacts of value chain development on women’s empowerment, income, and nutrition by key stakeholders in the value chain. We find an often cited barrier to women’s empowerment is the husband’s lack of understanding and limitations placed on women’s mobility, yet we also find perceptions of women’s empowerment in this conservative religious context. Our findings and discussion highlight the need for more research into VCD projects on the complex and, at times, contradictory processes of women’s empowerment. The women in our study expressed a desire for freedom to work outside of the home, and they expressed a need for childcare and contraception. Notably, the women discussed positive community changes, such as infrastructure and the creation of a childcare center, that implicate women’s collective empowerment. We also highlight a promising research opportunity in Senegal to explore the subnational variation in women’s empowerment through VCD.
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spelling pubmed-93678832022-08-12 Women’s Empowerment, Income, and Nutrition in a Food Processing Value Chain Development Project in Touba, Senegal O’Brien, Cheryl Leavens, Laura Ndiaye, Cheikh Traoré, Djibril Int J Environ Res Public Health Article To study the impacts of implementing a gender-sensitive value chain development (VCD) initiative in the agri-food sector, we conducted a mixed-methods study of a woman-owned food processing business and its associated value chain in Touba, Senegal. As a result of partnering with a USAID-funded project, the business began producing instant fortified flours, an innovative, higher-value product compared to traditional porridge, using extrusion and fortification techniques. Drawing on Senegalese women’s association networks, the business connected with local women who could work as processors and retailers. Our study’s goal was to explore how the project’s support of this food processing value chain has affected the lives of women processors and retailers, farmers, and medical personnel along the value chain. Particularly relevant to our study is the general lack of opportunities for women to earn their own incomes in the study region, especially outside of the home, and provide for their families. Through surveys, interviews, observations, and novel participatory focus group activities, our study provides qualitative and quantitative evidence of the perceived impacts of value chain development on women’s empowerment, income, and nutrition by key stakeholders in the value chain. We find an often cited barrier to women’s empowerment is the husband’s lack of understanding and limitations placed on women’s mobility, yet we also find perceptions of women’s empowerment in this conservative religious context. Our findings and discussion highlight the need for more research into VCD projects on the complex and, at times, contradictory processes of women’s empowerment. The women in our study expressed a desire for freedom to work outside of the home, and they expressed a need for childcare and contraception. Notably, the women discussed positive community changes, such as infrastructure and the creation of a childcare center, that implicate women’s collective empowerment. We also highlight a promising research opportunity in Senegal to explore the subnational variation in women’s empowerment through VCD. MDPI 2022-08-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9367883/ /pubmed/35954883 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159526 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
O’Brien, Cheryl
Leavens, Laura
Ndiaye, Cheikh
Traoré, Djibril
Women’s Empowerment, Income, and Nutrition in a Food Processing Value Chain Development Project in Touba, Senegal
title Women’s Empowerment, Income, and Nutrition in a Food Processing Value Chain Development Project in Touba, Senegal
title_full Women’s Empowerment, Income, and Nutrition in a Food Processing Value Chain Development Project in Touba, Senegal
title_fullStr Women’s Empowerment, Income, and Nutrition in a Food Processing Value Chain Development Project in Touba, Senegal
title_full_unstemmed Women’s Empowerment, Income, and Nutrition in a Food Processing Value Chain Development Project in Touba, Senegal
title_short Women’s Empowerment, Income, and Nutrition in a Food Processing Value Chain Development Project in Touba, Senegal
title_sort women’s empowerment, income, and nutrition in a food processing value chain development project in touba, senegal
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9367883/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35954883
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159526
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