Global value chains – the production, processing and marketing of products ‘from farm to fork’ – now link together producers, traders, processors, manufacturers, retailers and consumers. Due to changing market conditions and consumer demands, entrepreneurs in developing countries are increasingly becoming integrated into the world trading system.
Global value chains offer many opportunities for rural entrepreneurs in developing countries to become competitive actors in world markets. But unless local power relations are taken into account, value chain development is unlikely to reduce pove...
Gender inequalities affect the ways in which value chains operate at all levels. Promoting gender justice can result in a ‘quadruple win–win’, benefiting women, men and enterprises throughout the chain, as well as national economies.
Although trade has evolved in the last two decades, shifting from complete goods to intermediary inputs, our understanding of its dynamics has failed to keep pace. As a result, the policy options conferred to developing countries to industrialize...
Value chain development is a key concept in strategies to reduce rural poverty in developing countries. For entrepreneurs, such chains promise a way to access new markets as well as to add value to their products. But value chains often exclude th...
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The Broker recently blogged from the conference Towards Knowledge Democracy, held in Leiden, the Netherlands. We asked Jean-Paul Marthoz to reflect on the blog postings and reports from the event.
Although the international community has focused on how to fix fragile states, none of its standard remedies has addressed the fundamental problems. Fractured societies require a new approach, one that is more firmly rooted in indigenous capacitie...
Roldan Muradian and Ellen Magnus discuss some of the current entrepreneurial challenges faced by producer organizations, including building strategic alliances with the development and private sectors.
The retail revolution is threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers in many developing countries. But recent research in India demonstrates that it is possible for small farmers and artisans to be included in modern, integrated value chains.
Recent political, military and technological developments indicate that the international consensus on the uses of space is under threat. Agreement on preventive arms control in space could soon be reached, as long as all countries choose to coope...
This is the first report of the Broker thesis project. It highlights the theses submitted by four students from Africa. The theses have been reviewed by Meine Pieter van Dijk of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands;...
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Illegal fishing is threatening the livelihoods of many West African fishing communities. Alhaji Jallow of the FAO Regional Office for Africa believes that the scope of research needs to be broadened to include not just marine resources, but also t...
Global Civil Society 2009: Poverty and Activism, edited by Ashwani Kumar, Jan Aart Scholte, Mary Kaldor, Marlies Glasius, Hakan Seckinelgin and Helmut Anheier, Sage, 376 pp.What is the role of global civil society in pressing for a fairer global o...
What’s the connection between China’s one-child policy and the ability of the United States to continue spending beyond its means? You can be excused for not immediately guessing the answer to this bizarre question. The truth is an amazing story.
For many years Germany has focused on providing technical assistance and bringing peace and security to many developing and newly independent states. It now wishes to play a more significant role in European and multilateral institutions.
Dear BrokerI really like your magazine, more and more. I advertise it wildly in my various global networks.Since quite some time I struggle with an uncertainty. I remember the days that a French sociologist in Dakar convinced me that Africa is UND...
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