DIGITAGRO - Investing in Digital Technology to Increase Market Access for Women Agri-preneurs in Guatemala
Despite the strong role played by the agri-food sector in Guatemala’s economic performance and employment, reflected in high exports and strong results by larger commercial agri-businesses, small producers face daunting levels of market access, rev...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099647307212221205/IDU0dbdaa9b10af16042ab08407017cb31f384ba http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37737 |
| Summary: | Despite the strong role played by the
agri-food sector in Guatemala’s economic performance and
employment, reflected in high exports and strong results by
larger commercial agri-businesses, small producers face
daunting levels of market access, revenue generation
capacity, and resilience. Schools in remote areas, however,
often lack information on which producer to buy their food
from, as well as basic knowledge on safe and hygienic
cooking practices. These challenges are further exacerbated
for women producers, who face higher information gaps, lower
market access, and higher informality than their male
counterparts, compounded by restrictive social norms and
disempowerment. Yet, women who are engaged in agriculture
have ample potential to be engaged in the school feeding
business, as they tend to specialize in the production of
foods that are in high demand by school. The School Feeding
Program (SFP) thus represents a crucial window of
opportunity for rural women in Guatemala, and a vehicle for
their evolution from invisible farmers to proper
agri-preneurs – economic agents in their own right in the
agribusiness space. Information diffusion through digital
technologies can increase market participation in rural
areas and holds promise to enhance the status of women in
the business sphere. The World Bank’s DIGITAGRO project,
piloted digital technologies to improve market access for
women agripreneurs, so they could supply the School Feeding
Program in a fair, safe, sustainable, and profitable way
while helping schools improve children’s nutrition. The
purpose of this report is to describe the DIGITAGRO project
and to present the findings of the impact evaluation study
on the information campaign, in order to derive lessons on
the use of digital technologies to promote market access for
rural women, with a specific focus on their inclusion in
Guatemala’s School Feeding Program The rest of the report is
organized as follows. Chapter 2 provides an overview of
family farming in Guatemala, including an assessment of the
gaps encountered by rural women, and highlights child
nutrition issues in the country. Chapter 3 describes the
School Feeding Program, highlighting its functioning, the
main actors involved, its expected benefits and the
challenges it faces. Chapter 4 presents the DIGITAGRO
project, providing a rationale for the use of digital
technologies in agriculture, describing the main activities
of the project, and providing details on the set-up of the
impact evaluation study. Chapter 5 presents the experimental
setting and main findings of the impact evaluation, whereas
the potential mechanisms that could be driving the results
are explored in Chapter 6, together with recommendations for
promoting participation in the School Feeding Program.
Chapter 7 discusses lessons learned and concludes. |
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