“Empowerment” as efficiency and participation: gender in responsible agricultural investment principles

ABSTRACT

Amidst global concern over the state of transnational large-scale agricultural investments, several efforts have been made to set global standards for “responsible agricultural investment.” While these efforts have received mixed reviews from the international community, very little attention has been paid to the gendered language of these principles. Through examining two separate sets of agricultural investment principles – one created by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Bank, and the other by the United Nations Committee on World Food Security – this article finds that, despite different processes and participants in the creation of these principles, they nonetheless share a language of “empowerment” targeted at women and marginalized groups. However, in contrast to early feminist discourses of empowerment, these principles instead perpetuate the notion that empowerment is to be found through efficiency, productivity and participation in land and labor markets. This article takes a critical look at this language of economic empowerment in each set of principles, and points to the dangers of equating efficiency, productivity and participation with feminist empowerment. By not acknowledging the broader gender dynamics of agricultural governance and markets, these discourses risk deepening existing inequalities rather than moving toward meaningful social change.

KEYWORDS:

• Agricultural investment
• gender
• land politics
• FAO
• World Bank

Acknowledgments

For their helpful comments and advice, the author thanks Jennifer Clapp, Aaron Ettinger, Kristi Kenyon, Michelle Legassicke, Margaret Little, David Morgan, Jane Parpart and two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. To avoid confusion while still reflecting common acronym usage, the CFS Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment will be referred to as the Rai Principles, and the World Bank-led set of principles will be referred to as the PRAI.

2. Twenty-four interviews were conducted in Dar es Salaam and Morogoro, Tanzania, between May and July 2013.

3. The PRAI and their discussion note are both analyzed to give a more complete understanding of the justifications for each of the principles.

4. Interview, Legal Aid Project Coordinator, Dar es Salaam, 5 June 2013.

5. Interview, Legal Aid Project Coordinator, Dar es Salaam, 5 June 2013.

6. Interview, INGO Economic Justice Coordinator, Dar es Salaam, 9 July 2013.

7. In Tanzania, Village Assemblies are meetings that include all residents of the village as voting members. The Village Council is elected by village members and has the authority to make decisions regarding village land and resources, subject to approval by the Village Assembly. 

8. Interview, Programme Officer, Land Rights NGO, Dar es Salaam, 3 June 2013.

9. Interview, Women’s Legal Advocate, Dar es Salaam, 18 June 2013.

10. Interview, Activist and Scholar, Dar es Salaam, 10 June 2013.