Even though AIVs (African Indigenous Vegetables) are an integral part of the Kenyan diet and meal culture, their potential for food sovereignty and sustainable livelihoods has not yet been fully explored: lacking agricultural policies for indigenous crops and the stigmatization as ‘weed’ and ‘poor people’s food’ stemming from the introduction of exotic vegetables by colonial rulers are at the root of low consumption.

Much of the labour and knowledge in producing and consuming AIVs is provided by women. However, on the production side, there is evidence that women lack access and control over necessary resources and may not benefit from the current upgrading of the crop as men take greater control in production and marketing. On the consumption side, the preparation of AIVs is time-consuming and clashes with other productive and reproductive duties. Moreover, sociocultural norms cause the maintenance of a traditional division of labour within households. Although a slight change takes place in urban contexts, care work is still being understood as women’s work.

If we want to shape development in the future along lines of fairness, gender equity and sustainability, it becomes thus vital to understand past and current developments of AIV value chains. We must explore who is included and who is left behind, focus on inherent power relations along the chain – starting from seed management to cooking and eating within the household – and critically assess them from a gender perspective. The aim of this workshop is to address the power relations and the social embeddedness of AIV value chains in Kenya by presenting and discussing the final results of the HORTINLEA PhD projects “Gender Order” and “Meal Cultures”, which investigate the AIV value chain from production to consumption.

The discussion will focus on the diverse aspects of food systems, together with an analysis of their implications and finally on the policy recommendations to create more just, gender equal and sustainable AIV value chains in Kenya.

The workshop will consist of ‘researcher meets researcher’ sessions, in which** Rhiannon Pyburn** (Royal Tropical Institute - KIT, Netherlands), expert on gender equity in inclusive value chain development, and Anke Niehof (Wageningen University, Netherlands), expert on the household economy and care work, will comment on the PhD-candidates’ work.

Contact:
Meike Brückner (meike.brueckner@gender.hu-berlin.de)
Inken Behrmann (inken.behrmann@hu-berlin.de)
Division of Gender und Globalisation, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Please find the detailed program here: https://hu.berlin/hortinlea-gender-ws