AGRODEP, with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), is pleased to announce a new two-part training course on Tools for Value Chain Analysis as part of the AGRODEP Value Chain Analysis Virtual Hub.
The first part of the course, the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), will be taught by Hazel Malapit and the second part of the course, Introduction to the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA), will be taught by Sarah Mayanja. More information about these tools and the training course are provided below. Participants are expected to attend both parts of the course.
Applications for this series will be accepted until February 25, 2016. Course outline and description are subject to change.
Course Materials are available here for course participants only. Login required prior to access.
This course will provide participants with an introduction to the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), the first comprehensive and standardized measure to directly measure women’s empowerment and inclusion in the agricultural sector. The course will cover the conceptual underpinnings of the WEAI, including its relevance in value chains analyses as a tool for measuring and tracking both the intended and unintended impacts of interventions on women’s empowerment. Special emphasis will be placed on practical issues including: best practices around survey design and implementation, basic construction and manipulation of WEAI data, constructing standard WEAI tables and charts, using WEAI results as a diagnostic, and communicating WEAI results to a broader audience.
The Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) is a flexible R&D approach that engages small farmers, market agents, researchers, and other service providers in a facilitated collective action that aims at identifying and exploiting potential business opportunities that benefit small-scale producers and other chain actors. The approach was developed by the International Potato Center (CIP) and first applied in the Andes before spreading to SSA, Asia and other parts of the world. The PMCA offers a practical way to conduct R&D that supports pro-poor innovation in agricultural market chains. The approach brings the key stakeholders in an innovation process – including farmers, market agents, researchers, and other service providers – together to jointly identify, assess and exploit new business opportunities. Through this interaction, the PMCA triggers innovation processes. Experience indicates that the PMCA is most effective when implemented as part of a multi-pronged gender responsive initiative that includes support for farmer organizations, business development, policy change, and public awareness. When the PMCA is applied with appropriate complementary measures, it can assist smallholders improve their participation in dynamic markets and improve their livelihoods.
Knowledge of Stata is required. Participants should have a background in quantitative analysis, and a familiarity with gender issues in agriculture is preferred.
If you would like to practice using Stata before taking the proficiency test, please review the modules below. Information included covers Stata use for beginners, linear regressions, bivariate regressions, and panel data. You will need to know this information to successfully complete the test.
Sarah Mayanja is a Research Associate with the International Potato Center (CIP) in Uganda. She has over 20 years’ experience in promoting agricultural trade development in East and Central Africa. Her passion is improving smallholder farmers’ access to equitable and diverse markets through facilitating development of gender transformative agricultural trade networks. Sarah has been at the forefront of promoting the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) in the East African region, and has in the recent past led efforts to mainstream gender in the PMCA. She currently works on an EU funded Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB -ENDURE) project in Uganda as the Deputy Project Leader where she engages closely with farmers and hence understands their market access challenges first-hand. Sarah holds an MSc in Agro-Ecology and is an AWARD Fellow (2010).
Hazel Malapit is a Research Coordinator at the Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). She coordinates research, training and technical assistance on the implementation of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), manages and coordinates the integration of gender into the research of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), and conducts research on gender, women’s empowerment, agriculture, health and nutrition issues. Before joining IFPRI, she held the Herman Postdoctoral Fellowship in Gender and Economics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2009-2010, and conducted research on gender, labor market and data issues at the World Bank’s Gender and Development unit (PRMGE). She received her MA in Economics from the University of the Philippines, and her PhD in Economics from American University.