224
The project’s implementing staff considered the construction of the warehouses
for the union organizations to store shea products to be an important part in the
project. The warehouses acted as a hub for the unions, a safe and pest-free storage
area, and a place to access machinery to process shea. The warehouses also may
have contributed to the female control of shea income because they were not gendered spaces: homesteads can have gender taboos associated with storage areas,
making it difficult for women to extract full value from shea products. Study results
did include suggestions for improving the warehouses. First, they were constructed
late in the project; had they been constructed earlier the unions may have been more
successful in negotiating guaranteed minimum prices. Another suggested improvement was a credit system whereby union members could receive some payment
when depositing shea in the warehouses, to be set against the final payment they
received when selling the shea butter. Unfortunately, this system could not be established due to logistical complications.
18.5 Implications for Development
This project once again demonstrated the usefulness of the RHoMIS tool. It permitted evaluation of the project at low cost, and the data gathered can now be pooled
with that from other sites and used to build a body of evidence on routes to achieving resilience of small holder rural households. The use of a rapid and well-designed
evaluation tool permitted a deeper understanding of the project impacts on household welfare than could otherwise have been achieved.
This study reveals the benefits of shea butter value chain work. The more successful interventions were training of households in shea butter extraction techniques and the formation of unions providing access to storage and machinery. The
financial infrastructure proved more challenging to organize, with credit schemes
and minimum price guarantees coming either too late or not at all. Despite these
challenges, we have shown that the poorer sectors of society, and particularly
females, benefited from the project in terms of income and food security.
A number of factors contributed to the success of this project and consideration
of these may help improve other value-chain projects relating to climate-smart
objectives.
• Gender inclusive: Supporting shea chains makes it easy to reach women, as shea
is already a gendered (female-biased) product and not linked to land ownership.
• Pro-poor: Due to the high labour requirements and low initial cash investments,
shea butter is a commodity well-suited to improving incomes and food security
for the very poor and vulnerable sections of society. It unattractive to wealthier
households, which may create more opportunities for the poor.
• Culturally acceptable: Shea was already culturally well accepted, and abundant,
with little risk entailed in entering the market.
J. Hammond et al.
The project’s implementing staff considered the construction of the warehouses
for the union organizations to store shea products to be an important part in the
project. The warehouses acted as a hub for the unions, a safe and pest-free storage
area, and a place to access machinery to process shea. The warehouses also may
have contributed to the female control of shea income because they were not gendered spaces: homesteads can have gender taboos associated with storage areas,
making it difficult for women to extract full value from shea products. Study results
did include suggestions for improving the warehouses. First, they were constructed
late in the project; had they been constructed earlier the unions may have been more
successful in negotiating guaranteed minimum prices. Another suggested improvement was a credit system whereby union members could receive some payment
when depositing shea in the warehouses, to be set against the final payment they
received when selling the shea butter. Unfortunately, this system could not be established due to logistical complications.
18.5 Implications for Development
This project once again demonstrated the usefulness of the RHoMIS tool. It permitted evaluation of the project at low cost, and the data gathered can now be pooled
with that from other sites and used to build a body of evidence on routes to achieving resilience of small holder rural households. The use of a rapid and well-designed
evaluation tool permitted a deeper understanding of the project impacts on household welfare than could otherwise have been achieved.
This study reveals the benefits of shea butter value chain work. The more successful interventions were training of households in shea butter extraction techniques and the formation of unions providing access to storage and machinery. The
financial infrastructure proved more challenging to organize, with credit schemes
and minimum price guarantees coming either too late or not at all. Despite these
challenges, we have shown that the poorer sectors of society, and particularly
females, benefited from the project in terms of income and food security.
A number of factors contributed to the success of this project and consideration
of these may help improve other value-chain projects relating to climate-smart
objectives.
• Gender inclusive: Supporting shea chains makes it easy to reach women, as shea
is already a gendered (female-biased) product and not linked to land ownership.
• Pro-poor: Due to the high labour requirements and low initial cash investments,
shea butter is a commodity well-suited to improving incomes and food security
for the very poor and vulnerable sections of society. It unattractive to wealthier
households, which may create more opportunities for the poor.
• Culturally acceptable: Shea was already culturally well accepted, and abundant,
with little risk entailed in entering the market.
J. Hammond et al.