Bruelisauer, Samuel

Oberlack, Christoph

Villar, Gesabel

English

Bern Open Repository and Information System (BORIS)

source: https://doi.org/10.48350/178543 | downloaded: 17.2.2023Beyond Certification:A Typology of Instruments of Private and Community-Based Sustainability Governancein Agri-Food Value ChainsSamuel Bruelisauer, Gesabel Villar and Christoph OberlackCentre for Development and Environment (CDE)and Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerlandsamuel.bruelisauer@unibe.chIntroduction• Certification of voluntary sustainability standards = main strategy to enhance well-being of producers, workers, communities and the environment in agri-food value chains• Limited, sometimes even adverse effects and issues of agency make us wonder: what alternative or complementary strategies to certification do value chain actors pursue?• Growing institutional diversity in strategies of sustainability governance requires mapping and disentangling of specific instruments, e.g. on price, ownership, voice, …• Recurring combinations of instruments may reveal distinct archetypes of alternative and complementary strategies, e.g. resembling solidarity economy, inclusive business, …• … particularly if these archetypes can be linked to specific theories of change or impact pathways from instruments to well-being impacts (Oya et al. 2018; Dhillon & Vaca 2018)• → Build a typology of such strategies, associated instruments and theories of change based on empirical survey data collected on Peruvian coffee and cacao value chain actorsData and methods• 70+ semi-structured survey interviews with actors in Peruvian coffee and cacao sectors • … capturing diversity in value chain activities, ownership, size, markets, services, … with snowball identification of common & unique models (stratified purposive sample)• So far: transcription, coding and analysis for subset of 20 cases approximating the diversity of instruments expected for the whole sample• Identification of recurring patterns or combinations of instruments using Formal Concept Analysis (FCA, using Concept Explorer, Ganter & Wille 1996)• Coding of elements of theories of change using qualitative content analysis (MaxQDA) Data analysis• Conceptual clustering of 20 objects (cases): Producer organizations; intermediary; local & national buyers; nat. & int. exporters; producers; manufacturers … • … wrt 20 attributes (instruments, certifications)• Producer-owned; producer-governed; profit distribution• Fixed; variables sustainability premium; quality premium; all qualities bought• Exports; produces derivatives• Buys from selected producers only; minority-oriented selection• Technical assistance; input provision; credit provision or access; social services• Specific environmental activities; community-oriented activities• Fairtrade; Organic; other sustainability certifications (RA, Starbucks CAFE, 4C, AAA)Data analysisResults FCA• Clarification of formal context eliminates one object and two attributes• Producer-governed (identical to producer-owned)• Fixed sustainability premium (identical to Organic cert)• 134 concepts, 67 non-empty implications• Conceptual cluster analysis to be completed and combined with insights from content analysis Results QDA• Selected elements of theories of change found in preliminary qualitative content analysis• Producer ownership → producers take decisions → producers build personal relationship with clients→trustworthy, long-term relationships• Organic certification → safety of products and production → natural, healthy diet for producer→ waste management, reforestation → healthy environment→ competitive advantages in commercialization → higher esteem of producers at “local, social, everyday level”, as more educated• Only buying from selected producers → producer as direct beneficiary→ transparency, traceability of product → higher value+ technical assistance → investing directly in producer capacity, better productivity+ technical assistance → quality assured → better client relations• Minority selection (women) →make women’s work visible → change social recognition of their work→ receive sustainability premium for women-only coffeeDiscussion• Identification of clusters of instruments as a novel and potentially promising approach to identify and compare strategies of value chain governance beyond certification• Further coding of elements of theories of change allows to fill single instruments and clusters with meaning as perceived by implementing actors …• … and to consider differences in underlying goals and assumptions about mechanisms, opening discourse for preferred directions of change based on actors’ perspectives• Basis for process tracing when matched with outcomes and understand effects (2ndstage, 2023-24): systematic comparison between certification and other strategies• Binary attributes may conceal (very) important information: farmgate price, #served, … could be partially mended through extensive coding of values into fuzzy set (quality?)References• Dhillon, Lovely, and Sara Vaca. 2018. ‘Refining Theories of Change’. Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation 14 (30): 64–87.• Ganter, Bernhard, and Rudolf Wille. 1996. ‘Formal Concept Analysis’. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift – Technischen Universität Dresden 45: 8–13.• Oya, Carlos, Florian Schaefer, and Dafni Skalidou. 2018. ‘The Effectiveness of Agricultural Certification in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review’. World Development 112 (December): 282–312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.08.001. Thank you• Part of ERC Starting Grant project “Environmental Justice for Human Well-being” (COMPASS) 2021-2025• samuel.bruelisauer@unibe.ch 

Beyond Certification: A Typology of Instruments of Private and Community-Based Sustainability Governance in Agri-Food Value Chains

https://boris.unibe.ch/178543/1/20220825_ECPR_Beyond_Certification.pdf

Beyond Certification: A Typology of Instruments of Private and Community-Based Sustainability Governance in Agri-Food Value Chains

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