Projekt

This proposal on the shea industry is an outcome of an ongoing project (2012-2015) financed by the Volkswagen Foundation ('Value Chains: Peasant's Autonomy and Capture in Times of Increasing Integration on Global Food Markets in Northern Region of Ghana' - 86617). The findings constitute the basis for this project as new research questions have come up during the research process. In terms of policy implications it can be argued that a careful exploration of the dynamics in the global shea value chain, the emerging governance forms and the co-formation of the institutional framework is necessary in order to formulate sensitive and sustainable 'external' interventions for poverty eradication. As a consequence of these reflections, the main research question is: How are current changes in shea GVC through new patterns of benefit-sharing and access to shea resources affect the livelihood strategies and poverty reduction among female shea producers? In particular three areas of research are highlighted that originate from this overarching research question: - An improved understanding of how formal and informal access to resources such as land, trees and shea nuts is managed and how informal access to resources in rural societies permit (or not permit) equal resource access. - A detailed understanding of how female collectors' livelihoods have been affected by being involved in a corporate program that promotes quality and consistent supply while also requiring participants to endure with fast technological changes. - A deeper understanding of how new governance forms and institutional frameworks in the GVC for shea interact at global and national scales.

• Prof. Dr. Mamadou Diawara

  Universität Frankfurt am Main
  Zentrum für interdisziplinäre
  Afrikaforschung (ZIAF)
  Campus Westend
  Frankfurt am Main
  

• Dr. Martha Adimabuno Awo

  University of Ghana
  Institute of Statistical Social
  and Economic Research (ISSER)
  Legon, Accra
  Ghana
  

• A Survey-Based Qualitative Analysis of the Institutional Structures and Policy Measures in the Shea Sector of Ghana