Ethical trade in African horticulture - gender, rights and participation.

Abstract

This report discusses how the process of codes of conduct implementation can be enhanced to improve the employment conditions of workers in African export horticulture. Section 2 provides an overview of export horticulture in South Africa, Kenya and Zambia, and the types of codes that are applied in the sector. Section 3 outlines the methodology used for the research. Section 4 presents the views of producers in each country in relation to codes. Section 5 discusses the nature of employment and working conditions found in the sub-sectors, and the varying perspectives of workers and employers toward these conditions. Section 6 summarises the gender issues in employment and outlines how they relate to codes. Section 7 explores the benefits of 'participatory social auditing' for assessing workplace issues, especially gender issues. Section 8 describes the value of a local multi-stakeholder approach to code implementation and the extent to which stakeholders in South Africa, Kenya and Zambia have embraced the process thus far. Section 9 identifies policy recommendations for best practice in code implementation. Section 10 summarises the findings and concludes.

Citation

53 pp.

Ethical trade in African horticulture - gender, rights and participation.

Published 1 January 2004