- Subtitle: WIEGO (Global Trade) Working Paper No. 28
This paper analyzes existing value chain literature in the existing horticulture and commodities sectors with a particular focus on what it reveals about the conditions of informal workers, who make up the majority of the workforce.
The evidence suggests that informal workers in these value chains experience poor working conditions and overall, women tend to experience worse conditions than their male counterparts. The author includes policy recommendations for particular worker categories. These include improving conditions and legal protection for informal workers, improving the implementation of international labour standards, and removing barriers to entry to global value chains for poorer smallholders (including women), and increasing market and employment opportunities. Research recommendations address gaps in the literature and highlight the need to re-double efforts to incorporate a labour perspective into value chain approaches as standard practice.
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