Resources on Agriculture, plantations, and other rural sectors

  1. The “Possible Trinity” of Agricultural Investment Policies: Enhancing Employment Creation, Productivity and Sustainability of Agricultural Investments in Sub-Saharan Africa

    EMPLOYMENT Working Paper No. 249

  2. Promoting decent work in the rural economy: Lessons from Zimbabwe (2008–2018)

    This paper, a desk review, presents a documentation of ILO interventions in Zimbabwe’s rural economy during the period 2008–18 that also extracts lessons learnt.

  3. Does conservation agriculture change labour requirements? Evidence of sustainable intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa

    This paper studies the effects of conservation agriculture on labour input requirements as it is implemented in five Sub-Saharan African countries.

  4. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 - Cooperative contributions to SDG 2

    This brief is part of the Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 series produced by the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC). Through a series of 17 briefs, one for each Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), COPAC hopes to raise awareness about the significant contributions of cooperative enterprises towards achieving the 2030 Agenda in a sustainable, inclusive and responsible way, and encourage continued support for their efforts. This brief focuses on SDG 2 – ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.

  5. Summary report: Cooperatives’ competitiveness potential for trade in SADC countries

    The objectives of the research are to determine what opportunities exist for agricultural cooperatives to export, with what products, and to which markets from which SADC countries. The external constraints to increasing cooperative share of export markets and the ability to be competitive in the SADC, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and EU markets have been identified as critical considerations in prioritizing the products, markets and countries.

  6. Structural transformation to boost youth labour demand in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of agriculture, rural areas and territorial development

    EMPLOYMENT Working Paper No. 204

  7. Building Capacity for Social Compliance of Investments in Agriculture in Africa

    The Africa Agriculture and Trade Investment Fund (AATIF), emerged through a private-public partnership initiated by KfW on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Deutsche Bank. It aims to realize the potential of Africa’s agriculture for the benefit of the poor. AATIF pursues a private sector approach addressing the specific needs of the agricultural sector in a market-oriented way while its social and environmental management system and strong governance structure with an independent compliance advisor safeguard a positive development impact. Especially regarding social effects, AATIF felt that more has to be done than defining standards in order to mitigate social and environmental risks. Building new partnerships, especially signing the collaboration agreement with the ILO as the Fund’s Compliance Advisor, has helped AATIF to establish a credible framework for impact investments.

  8. Desk review of research on HIV/AIDS in the world of work

    This desk review was conducted by ILO/AIDS as part of the Inter-Agency Task Team on HIV workplace policies/programmes and private sector engagement (IATT/WPPS). It is based primarily on the research documents shared by the IATT members, covering vulnerability studies, stigma and discrimination studies, impact and cost-benefit studies.

  9. Coffee in Kenya: Some challenges for decent work

    Working Paper 260