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Working Paper Series

Articles overview

  • Living Income and Child Labour in the Cocoa Sector of Côte d’Ivoire

    • Institute
    • Publication

    KIT Working Paper Child labour remains a persistent human rights violation in international commodity supply chains, adversely impacting children’s physical and mental health and depriving them of educational opportunities (UNICEF, 2020). This holds true for the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire; a country that produces 43% of all cocoa worldwide (ICCO, 2022). A nationwide study […]

  • All in on Millet?

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This article explores the re-emergence of millet in domestic value chains and its use by private actors with innovative business models – using fortification or biofortification – to highlight millet’s smart food properties. While millet has been in the shadow of rice and wheat production for decades, recently there has been renewed interest in millet […]

  • Agriculture & Health are Inseparably Linked in Work Towards Sustainable & Economic Development

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This working paper presents a framework to account for the links between agriculture and health in low- and middle-income countries. It is aimed at supporting public and private sector donors as well as practitioners in the design of strategies, interventions, applied research, and action towards strengthening the resilience of farmers and households by improving agriculture […]

  • Promoting the role of smallholder farmers in the mitigation of climate change

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This article explores the drivers for smallholder farmers’ participation in climate change mitigation. In particular it aims to describe the mechanisms by which smallholder farmers can participate in and benefit from programmes which offset or inset carbon emissions and offer incentives for the provision of ecosystem services.

  • Why a segmentation strategy matters for serving the women’s market

    • Institute
    • Publication

    Insights from Access Bank market research Financial Service Providers are increasingly realising that needs and preferences differ across the female economy. Differences vary depending on women’s age, class, ethnicity, marital status, religion, wealth, stage of business, profession, location and other socially defined characteristics and markers. These factors all influence and impact the way different women […]

  • Inclusive Business Cases Linking Agriculture and Conservation

    • Institute
    • Publication

    Agricultural production frequently competes with forest conservation. The issue is particularly significant in developing countries where economic pressures frequently drive projects oriented at short-term economic gains at the expense of deforestation and long-term sustainable development. This working paper offers a review of business models combining agriculture with conservation objectives and portrays two illustrative case studies […]

  • What do participatory approaches have to offer the measurement of empowerment of women and girls?

    • Institute
    • Publication

    This paper provides insights and guidance on the value of participatory approaches for understanding and measuring empowerment of women and girls and grounding measurement in the lives and perspectives of women and girls. The paper aims to inspire practitioners, M&E specialists and policy makers working on the measurement of empowerment of women and girls in […]

  • Value Chain Approaches for Social Change

    • Institute
    • Publication

    Over the past decades, there has been an extensive transformation in global agri-food value chains, resulting in advances in efficiency, food quality, and food safety. Despite this transformation, many farmers and labourers active as primary producers in these chains have not experienced improvements in their living standards. Based on a study conducted in 2020 by […]

  • Towards a Typology for Agribusiness-based Advisory Services

    • Institute
    • Publication

    Model Description and Analysis Extension services play a crucial role in providing farmers with the tools and knowledge they need to increase their yields, improve their food security and livelihoods and build resilience against climate shocks. While private sector-led extension services are increasingly complementing government efforts in many countries, their models and approaches remain widely […]

  • The impact of voluntary sustainability standards on small-scale farmers in global commodity chains

    • Institute
    • Publication

    Since their emergence in the mid-1990s, voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) have been propelled from specialty niches into mainstream markets due to rising demand among consumers, buyers and producers to address socio-economic, environmental and food safety concerns. VSS range from efforts by single firms or NGOs, to industry associations and social movement organisations, business-NGO collaborations, multi- […]

  • Harnessing blockchain technology for commodity chains

    • Institute
    • Publication

    With a wide range of potential benefits – such as improved traceability, food safety, and environmental sustainability, as well as increased farmer income– blockchain has become an increasingly popular technology option for commodity value chains. Yet, there is little knowledge among agri-food professionals of how the technology works, and there is (still) limited evidence of […]

  • Alternative finance in commodity chains

    • Institute
    • Publication

    Working Paper Alternative Finance How small entrepreneurs and farmers can benefit from novel ways of financing. Access to affordable and reliable financing in agrifood commodity chains is of key importance for all actors along the chain, to use as working capital, and to invest in capital assets. There are a wide range of financing instruments […]