Rainforest Alliance Certification of Kenyan tea farms: a contribution to sustainability or tokenism?

Ochieng, Benard; Hughey, Kenneth F.D.; Bigsby, Hugh R.

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.07.048

Cited by 30 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 95 publications

(218 reference statements)

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“…As a result of buyer requirements, the two companies investigated were audited against a variety of sustainability/social standards or codes of conduct such as Fairtrade, the Kenya Flower Council's standard, Rainforest Alliance, (which is becoming more widespread across Kenyan tea as a result of commitments by major buyers (Ochieng, et al, 2013)), and the Ethical Tea Partnership's Global Standard 3 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathways to empowerment?: dynamics of women's participation in Global Value Chains

Said-Allsopp

Tallontire

2015

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Gender plays an important role in shaping the outcomes of participation within Global Value Chains (GVCs). Employment in GVCs may have potential to empower women, but little is known about the dynamics by which GVCs bring about empowerment, rather studies highlight abuse of women's rights and on-going gender-based discrimination. This paper considers whether and how employment within GVCs empowers women workers. By drawing from an in-depth empirical study of women workers employed in the Kenyan tea and cut-flower industries, it develops three interlinked pathways to empowerment through employment in GVCs. These pathways based on 'being', 'doing' and 'sharing' offer some positive changes from the women workers' perspectives. In so doing, we offer a more nuanced perspective on employment for women in GVCs in African agriculture, acknowledging the constraints but also noting the potential for positive outcomes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathways to empowerment?: dynamics of women's participation in Global Value Chains

Said-Allsopp

Tallontire

2015

Journal of Cleaner Production

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“…Fourteen papers in addition to these sixteen only met the first two search criteria (primary, quantitative, and empirical data; and peerreview literature) but did not meet the third criterion (explicitly accounting for risk of bias). Table 4 includes the papers with low risk of bias and table S1 (available at stacks.iop.org/ERL/12/033001/mmedia) includes papers that met the first two criteria but were considered to have higher risk of bias (Bacon 2005, Bacon et al 2008, Bacon et al 2014, Elder et al 2012, Elder et al 2013, Fort and Ruben 2009b, Gockowski et al 2013, Jacobi et al 2015, Jaffee 2009, Lyngbaek et al 2001, Melo and Wolf 2005, Mendez et al 2010, Ochieng et al 2013, Philpott et al 2007, Saswattecha et al 2015, Dumont et al 2014. We evaluate results only for the 16 papers with low risk of bias, which resulted in 24 cases (each case is a unique combination (table S2).…”

Section: Identification Of Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is voluntary certification of tropical agricultural commodities achieving sustainability goals for small-scale producers? A review of the evidence

DeFries

Fanzo

Mondal

et al. 2017

Environ. Res. Lett.

186

105

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Over the last several decades, voluntary certification programs have become a key approach to promote sustainable supply chains for agricultural commodities. These programs provide premiums and other benefits to producers for adhering to environmental and labor practices established by the certifying entities. Following the principles of Cochrane Reviews used in health sciences, we assess evidence to evaluate whether voluntary certification of tropical agricultural commodities (bananas, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, and tea) has achieved environmental benefits and improved economic and social outcomes for small-scale producers at the level of the farm household. We reviewed over 2600 papers in the peer-review literature and identified 24 cases of unique combinations of study area, certification program, and commodity in 16 papers that rigorously analyzed differences between treatment (certified households) and control groups (uncertified households) for a wide range of response variables. Based on analysis of 347 response variables reported in these papers, we conclude that certification is associated on average with positive outcomes for 34% of response variables, no significant difference for 58% of variables, and negative outcomes for 8% of variables. No significant differences were observed for different categories of responses (environmental, economic and social) or for different commodities (banana, coffee and tea), except negative outcomes were significantly less for environmental than other outcome categories (p = 0.01). Most cases (20 out of 24) investigated coffee certification and response variables were inconsistent across cases, indicating the paucity of studies to conduct a conclusive meta-analysis. The somewhat positive results indicate that voluntary certification programs can sometimes play a role in meeting sustainable development goals and do not support the view that such programs are merely greenwashing. However, results also indicate that certification is not a panacea to improve social outcomes or overall incomes of smallholder farmers. Rigorous analysis, standardized criteria, and independent evaluation are needed to assess effectiveness of certification programs in the future.

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“…However, growers are starting to engage with Rainforest Alliance certification, which is becoming a more widespread requirement as a result of commitments by major buyers such as Unilever (Ochieng et al, 2013). Many tea companies also follow the Ethical Tea Partnership's code of labour practice.…”

Section: Fairtrade In Kenyamentioning

confidence: 99%

Fairtrade Impacts

Nelson¹

2017

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Rainforest Alliance Certification of Kenyan tea farms: a contribution to sustainability or tokenism?

Abstract: of a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Science. Abstract Rainforest Alliance Certification of Kenyan Tea Farms: A Contribution to

Cited by 30 publications

References 95 publications

Pathways to empowerment?: dynamics of women's participation in Global Value Chains

Pathways to empowerment?: dynamics of women's participation in Global Value Chains

Is voluntary certification of tropical agricultural commodities achieving sustainability goals for small-scale producers? A review of the evidence

Fairtrade Impacts

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