Land governance and inclusive business in agriculture: Advancing the debate
This report (PDF) by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) reviews the state of the global debate on inclusiveness in agricultural investments and analyses what ‘inclusiveness’ means to different value chain actors. According to stakeholders, five pillars on the meaning of inclusive business in agriculture are: 1) Effective arrangements for voice and representation; 2) Inclusive fair value chain relations; 3) Respect for land rights and inclusive tenure arrangements; 4) Employment creation and respect for labour rights; 5) Contribution to food security. A cross-cutting approach that looks at the key features of value chain relationships enables the evaluation of inclusiveness within each business, and allows for more nuanced recommendations on how to enhance inclusiveness. Furthermore, rigorous assessments of inclusiveness need to consider the five pillars both in their process and outcome dimensions, since good procedures are the foundation of any inclusive business. The five pillars provide a framework for assessing and enhancing inclusiveness. However, trade-offs can arise between the pillars. There are inherent opportunities and challenges for enhancing inclusiveness in different value chains due to the characteristics of the crop and wider market trend. Without an understanding of how crop and value chain traits and market trends shape opportunities and constraints, it is difficult to advance inclusiveness in practice or develop effective public policy and programming. At the same time, evidence shows that effective public action can make a considerable difference in promoting inclusiveness in a given commodity sector and geographic context. Land governance is central to inclusiveness – control over land has a bearing on each of the five pillars of inclusive business. Supporting value chain relation sin which small-scale rural producers retain control over land is an important part of strategies to promote inclusiveness that relies less on the goodwill of individual companies, and more on institutional frameworks that make inclusiveness the preferable business choice.
An executive summary of the report can be found here.