Economic opportunities for women in floriculture, women’s health and child nutritional outcomes

妇女在花艺、妇女健康和儿童营养方面的经济机会

• 批准号: 436991051
• 负责人: Dr. Bethelhem Legesse Debela
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arbeitsbereich Welternährungswirtschaft und rurale Entwicklung
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/436991051?language=en
• 关键词: Economic; opportunities; women; floriculture; health

A key feature of economic development is structural change resulting in the absorption of underemployed labor from agriculture to the industry or service sectors. In Sub-Saharan African countries, the ongoing structural transformation is augmented with the expansion of the high value agri-food export sector which mainly comprises of production and export of horticultural products. The sector is mainly operated by large companies and is increasingly becoming a main source of employment opportunities for low income rural households, especially for unskilled laborers. This mainly stems from the fact that the high value agri-food industry is labor intensive and has a substantial potential to absorb the continuously growing young population in the region. Importantly, the agri-food industry mostly employs women and has a gender dimension to the welfare impacts. Growing empirical literature shows that women’s employment in agri-food industry contributed to an increase in household income, women empowerment and improvements in other welfare indicators, including food security and child education. Less attention however has been given to the implications of the sector for the physical and reproductive health of women and for young children’s nutritional outcome. This is particularly relevant in the floriculture sector which tends to employ a high percentage of women and at the same time involves the use of hazardous chemicals with negative implications for the health of working women. In this project, we focus on the health and nutrition implications of floriculture employment for the most vulnerable groups of the rural society, women and children. Rigorous econometric analysis will be applied to identify the causal impact. Health effects on women will be analyzed using both subjective health data and objective measures. In addition, implications for nutritional outcomes of children will be examined using height-for-age and weight-for-height Z-scores. Overall, the main variables of interest include anthropometric outcomes of children, health status of women, fertility of women, dietary effects, and differences in institutional set ups of the flower farms. Empirical analyses for this project will be based on Ethiopia, a country where the cut flower sector has boomed in the recent years. Data will be collected from households living in the vicinity of flower farms in Ethiopia. Findings will provide an empirical example that will be relevant for other Sub-Saharan African countries with a similar context. Results will also have an important contribution to advancing the research direction in examining health impacts of employment opportunities. Further, findings will inform policies since health impacts of employment in the high-value chain sector on women and children have a long-term development implication. In the end, the future economy of Sub-Saharan African countries relies on the future generation.

经济发展的一个关键特征是结构性变化，导致将就业不足的劳动力从农业吸收到工业或服务部门。在撒哈拉以南非洲国家，正在进行的结构转型随着高价值农业食品出口部门的扩大而扩大，主要包括园艺产品的生产和出口。该部门主要由大公司经营，日益成为低收入农村家庭，特别是非熟练劳动力就业机会的主要来源。这主要是因为高价值的农业食品产业是劳动密集型产业，具有吸收该地区不断增长的年轻人口的巨大潜力。重要的是，农业食品行业大多雇用妇女，对福利的影响具有性别层面。越来越多的经验文献表明，妇女在农业食品工业就业有助于增加家庭收入、增强妇女权能和改善其他福利指标，包括粮食安全和儿童教育。然而，对该部门对妇女身体和生殖健康以及对幼儿营养结果的影响却关注较少。这一点在花卉种植部门尤其重要，因为该部门雇用的妇女比例往往很高，同时涉及使用有害化学品，对职业妇女的健康产生不利影响。在这个项目中，我们的重点是花卉种植就业对农村社会最弱势群体，妇女和儿童的健康和营养影响。将采用严格的计量经济学分析来确定因果影响。将使用主观健康数据和客观措施分析对妇女健康的影响。此外，还将使用年龄别身高和身高别体重Z分数来检查儿童营养结果的影响。总体而言，主要的变量包括儿童的人体测量结果，妇女的健康状况，妇女的生育能力，饮食影响，以及花卉农场的机构设置的差异。该项目的实证分析将以埃塞俄比亚为基础，该国的切花行业近年来蓬勃发展。将从埃塞俄比亚花卉农场附近的家庭收集数据。调查结果将提供一个经验性的例子，将与其他撒哈拉以南非洲国家有类似的情况。结果也将有重要贡献，以推进研究方向，在审查就业机会的健康影响。此外，调查结果将为政策提供信息，因为高价值链部门就业对妇女和儿童的健康影响具有长期发展影响。最终，撒哈拉以南非洲国家的未来经济依赖于下一代。