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Negotiating Trees and Trade: Women’s Agency, Capabilities and Value Chains for Tamarind and Coconut in Kenya

  • Publication | 2026
Global Food and Nutrition Security

This paper examines how gender norms, informality and structural inequalities shape women's agency in tamarind and coconut value chains in Kenya, two tree-based forest and agroforestry products (TFAPs). Based on semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation in Kilifi, Makueni and Mombasa counties, the study finds that women play central roles in production, processing and trade but face persistent barriers: insecure land and tree tenure, restricted mobility, limited access to capital and male-dominated governance. Women respond through household negotiation, livelihood diversification, legal claims and collective action. Drawing on feminist economics, feminist political ecology and the capabilities approach, the authors call for women's rights in TFAP value chains to be clearly established, enforced and socially legitimised, and for institutional conditions that turn negotiation, entrepreneurship and collective action into economic assets.

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Authors
Jesus dos Santos, B., Wekesa, C., Roos, A., & Mark-Herbert, C.
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Geographic coverageKenya
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30 Oct 2026

Knowledge service | MetadataGlobal Food and Nutrition Security | Sustainable Food SystemsGender Equality and Food Systems | Access to resourcesAgroforestryLand tenureParticipation of womenValue chain analysisWomens' empowerment
Digital Europa Thesaurus (DET)womanentrepreneurshipvalue chaingender equality
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