This paper presents and analyses the key findings from a comprehensive review of value chain-related studies on the commodities and horticulture sectors, focusing on what this literature reveals about the conditions of informal workers. The literature review was underpinned by two key research questions, which addressed both empirical and methodological concerns. Overall, 49 value chain-related studies and resources were identified and reviewed. These resources were identified through a combination of general Internet research and a selective review of specialist websites and resources.
Key Findings:
- The literature is quite imbalanced in addressing certain types of workers much more than others: smallholders and informal (and formal) workers in formal enterprises, are relatively well addressed; whereas small-scale traders and processors, informal workers in informal enterprises and contributing family labour are all given little attention. The literature is also biased towards certain crops and geographic regions. The large majority of studies on informal workers in formal enterprises have been conducted on horticultural crops in Africa.
- All types of informal workers face substantial constraints and experience working conditions that are far from ideal. The evidence unfortunately does not point to substantial improvements in conditions for the majority of these workers over the last 10-15 years.
- Informality is the norm rather than the exception: informal workers make up the majority of the workforce, even in formal enterprises. All types of informal workers were found to be very vulnerable to changes in market conditions, and overall, female informal workers tend to experience worse conditions than their male counterparts.
- For workers in formal enterprises, the main concern is the disparity between the conditions of informal and formal workers and the weaker legal protection afforded to the former group. In the case of smallholders, the key issues were found to be the exclusion of the majority of smallholders from global value chains (GVCs) and the limited returns experienced by many of those who are engaged in GVCs. In contrast, hired workers on smallholder farms faced a different range of issues including poor wages, poor health and safety standards, inadequate leave entitlements and gender discrimination. For contributing family labour, the key concern was the fact that they were providing much of the labour on smallholder export farms, yet receiving little of the rewards from GVC engagement.
Recommendations:
- Value chain programmes must systematically include all categories of workers as key stakeholders and target beneficiaries as a matter of course: this is critical not only from a workers’ rights perspective, but also from a poverty reduction and gender equity perspective.
- International food sourcing companies need to review and revise their purchasing practices, in order to reduce the continued pressure on suppliers/employers to downgrade working conditions for all categories of worker.
- In the case of smallholders, policy should focus on removing barriers to entry to the focus GVCs for poorer smallholders (including women), and on increasing returns for participating smallholders. With respect to hired workers on smallholder farms, policy must focus on educating workers about their legal rights and supporting them to access these rights, and also on supporting smallholders themselves to improve their own awareness of labour rights and to upgrade their health and safety facilities and practices.
- Further empirical research is needed on three key groups of informal workers: owners of informal processing and trading enterprises; informal workers in all types of informal enterprises; and contributing family labour.
