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

经济发展的一个主要特征是结构变化，其结果是将未充分就业的劳动力从农业吸收到工业或服务业。在撒哈拉以南非洲国家，随着主要由园艺产品生产和出口组成的高价值农业食品出口部门的扩大，正在进行的结构转型得到加强。该部门主要由大公司经营，正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。这主要源于这样一个事实，即高附加值农业食品业是劳动密集型产业，具有吸纳该区域不断增长的年轻人口的巨大潜力。重要的是，农业食品行业主要雇用妇女，对福利的影响具有性别因素。越来越多的经验性文献表明，妇女在农业食品业的就业有助于增加家庭收入、赋予妇女权力以及改善包括粮食安全和儿童教育在内的其他福利指标。然而，人们对该部门对妇女的身体和生殖健康以及对幼儿营养结果的影响的关注较少。这在花卉种植部门尤其重要，因为该部门往往雇用妇女的比例很高，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，我们重点关注花卉种植就业对农村社会中最脆弱的群体--妇女和儿童--的健康和营养影响。将采用严格的计量经济分析来确定因果影响。将使用主观健康数据和客观衡量标准来分析对妇女的健康影响。此外，将使用年龄身高和身高体重Z分数来检查对儿童营养结果的影响。总体而言，感兴趣的主要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。数据将从居住在埃塞俄比亚花卉农场附近的家庭中收集。调查结果将提供一个经验性的例子，对其他具有类似背景的撒哈拉以南非洲国家也有意义。研究结果也将对推动就业机会对健康影响的研究方向作出重要贡献。此外，调查结果将为政策提供参考，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的发展影响。归根结底，撒哈拉以南非洲国家的未来经济依赖于未来一代人。

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.