Gender and Employment in the Kenya Horticulture Value Chain (Globalisation and Poverty Discussion Paper 8)

One of the main features of globalisation has been the enormous growth in commodity chains that span national boundaries. These chains, which link large numbers of poor workers in developing countries with consumers in the North, potentially offer promising opportunities to spread the gains from globalisation to broader segments of the population. The Kenya horticulture industry is a good example of a global commodity chain, and is widely considered a success story for African development, creating substantial opportunities for employment and self-employment. This paper explores the nature of employment in the production and processing parts of the export horticulture value chain. It describes the characteristics of workers currently employed in the sector, and explores the motivations underlying their choice to engage in wage employment. Due to the large numbers of female workers in the industry, the focus of the paper is on the gender dimensions of horticulture employment. The paper shows that there are not only gender dimensions to the consequences for workers participating in the chain (e.g. wages, skills) but that gender itself is a strong determinant for participating in the chain