Participatory market chain approach (PMCA): Prototype guide for integrating gender into participatory market chain approach
The Prototype guide for integrating gender into the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) seeks to build understanding on gender issues into value chain interventions and to create the capacities of PMCA's facilitators in applying gender analysis and developing gender-sensitive strategies to promote equitable opportunities for men and women to access to and benefit from the PMCA intervention. This guide is a prototype document developed from lessons learned during field research and exchanges between CIP researchers and PMCA practitioners from East Africa and the Andes.
To develop a gender-sensitive PMCA, gender components were integrated into the PMCA's methodology in the form of specific tools that accompany the PMCA's phases of analysis and intervention.Two types of gender tools are presented in the guide: new gender tools nested into critical points of PMCA and a review of existing PMCA tools that have been made gender-sensitive.
The gender tools are meant to help users to consider critical gender issues, such as: an improved understanding of men's and women's division of roles and power positions in the value chain, a better identification of specific gender needs, an in-depth analysis of the opportunities and risks for men and women when new businesses are created, and the need of promoting gender-equitable market-driven solutions. Learning and capacity development of trainees are achieved through a sequence of training workshops developed along the three phases of PMCA and their skills are reinforced by backstopping activities. The underlying concept is that value chain development interventions such as PMCA, when designed with gender-equitable principles, can foster both competitiveness and enhance poverty-reduction goals. It is expected that PMCA facilitators who have been introduced to the gender analysis and gender tools presented in this guide will be able to design more gender-responsive, efficient and inclusive value chain interventions.
