Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Giovanni Pasquali
(University of Manchester)
Stephanie Barrientos (GDI, University of Manchester)
Khalid Nadvi (University of Manchester)
Matt Alford (University of Manchester)
Send message to Convenors
- Formats:
- Papers
- Stream:
- Business, finance and digital technologies
- Sessions:
- Monday 28 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
South-south regional value chains (RVCs) are increasingly led by Southern lead firms governing through private standards. This panel examines the role of firms, states, and civil society in the governance RVCs in the global South generally and in relation to the recent Covid-19 pandemic.
Long Abstract:
The recent rise of South-South trade has spurred an expansion of domestic and regional value chains (RVCs) in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Horner&Nadvi,2018). Southern firms now play a leadership role in the governance of RVCs, setting private standards for supplier compliance (covering decent work and fair trade) (Pickles et al,2016). However, we know little about whether Southern lead firms, who face limited civil society pressure and increasing South-South competition, pursue private governance of social standards? Alternatively, could the expansion of RVCs open up new channels for more effective state regulation of trade and social standards? Furthermore, while increasing attention is being paid to the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for firms in the global South supplying retailers in Europe, we know less about its impact on RVCs in the global South.
Submissions are invited on questions that include but are not limited to:
• How does participation in RVCs led by Southern firms affect suppliers and workers in Africa, Asia and Latin America?
• Has the expansion of South-South RVCs enhanced or undermined social standards?
• What has been the impact of Covid-19 on suppliers and workers in RVCs? And how does this compare to what we know about global value chains?
• What is the role of states and multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) in regulating RVCs both generally and in relation to the recent Covid-19 pandemic?
• Can civil society actors and MSIs in the global South shape public-private governance of social standards in RVCs that overlap with GVCs?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Monday 28 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
African construction sectors are undergoing rapid internationalisation, while creating large shares of precarious employment. We identify three intersecting and unbalanced processes of labour standards governance that underline such adeverse incorporation outcomes.
Paper long abstract:
While incorporation into Global Production Networks generates opportunities for workers, adverse forms of such incorporation take shape at multiple levels of analysis. We investigate the less-studied rapidly globalising Ghanaian construction sector through a multi-scalar framework and mixed methods of analysis, while relying on a primary dataset collected among 30 firms and 305 respondents. A composite yet unbalanced governance landscape emerges, characterised by three intersecting processes that unfold across a multi-scalar architecture to generate and sustain workers' adverse incorporation. Specifically, we describe how labor standards in the Ghanaian construction industry are shaped by the way global commercial drivers combine, on the one hand, with the absence of regulatory pressures on the part of international and non-firm non-governmental actors and, on the other, with the variegated embeddedness profile of the firms operating in the sector. Through its engagement in the outsourcing of labor control and labor standards governance, the State acts as an inter-scalar mediator which affects how the described processes cascade down to the workplace level. Given the construction sector's increasing relevance in the economic trajectories of Ghana and several other African economies, we argue that these dynamics represent a complex yet under-investigated regulatory challenge as well as a policy-making priority.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the impact of Covid-19 on suppliers’ economic and social upgrading in Esawtini's apparel regional value chains. It draws on survey and customs data to compare the effect of public and private governance on suppliers' and workers' conditions before and after the pandemic.
Paper long abstract:
There is a growing literature on the impact of Covid-19 on commercial and labour conditions at suppliers in apparel global value chains (GVCs). Much less is known about the implications for suppliers operating in regional value chains (RVCs) in the global South. In this article we focus on Eswatini, which has grown to become the largest African manufacturer and exporter of apparel to the region. We draw on a combination of firm-level export data and interviews with stakeholders before and after the Covid-19 lockdown to shed light on the influence of private and public governance on suppliers’ economic and social up- and downgrading. We point to the coexistence of two separate private governance structures: the first characterised by direct contracts between South African retailers and large manufacturers (direct suppliers); the second operating through indirect purchasing via intermediaries from relatively smaller producers (indirect suppliers). While direct suppliers enjoyed higher levels of economic and social upgrading than indirect suppliers before Covid-19, the pandemic reinforced this division, with severe price cuts for indirect suppliers. Furthermore, while retailers provided some direct suppliers with support throughout the crisis, this was not the case for indirect suppliers, who remain comparatively more vulnerable. In terms of public governance, the negative consequences of the lockdown on firms’ income and workers’ livelihoods have been compounded by the state’s ineffective response. Our paper contributes to research on RVCs in the global South, enhancing our understanding of how different governance structures and external shocks affect firms’ and workers’ up- and downgrading.
Paper short abstract:
There has been a recent shift in the trade of South African apples from the global North to South, with implications for the private governance of standards. We find uneven enforcement across overlapping value chains, due to producers’ differentiated network embeddedness in Northern value chains.
Paper long abstract:
A dramatic shift in the end markets of South African fresh apples from the global North to South has occurred in the last ten years. Whilst the bulk of South African apples were previously sold to EU and UK supermarkets via global value chains, today more than 50% are sold through domestic and regional value chains linked to supermarkets, wholesalers, national fresh produce markets and wet markets based in South Africa and Africa. This paper explores the implications of these shifts for the private governance of standards. A prevailing assumption in existing GVC and standards literature is that Southern buyers’ demand for, and enforcement of private standards is highly limited relative to Northern lead-firms. Our study challenges this assumption to some extent. On the one hand we see an increasing demand for product and process standards by Southern buyers, who “piggy-back” on the private standards of Northern retailers. On the other hand, we found evidence of apples –produced on farms are neither subjected to private standards nor strict enforcement of public regulation – being sold to domestic and regional supermarkets, either directly or via national fresh produce markets. Based on these findings, the paper argues that despite increasingly strict enforcement of private standards in Southern markets, such enforcement remains uneven, which can be ascribed to producers’ differentiated levels of network embeddedness in Northern value chains.
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on phone interviews in rural Mozambique (May-July 2020), we highlight the different impacts of Covid-19 restrictions on local and regional value chains. Honey and baobab, chains with civic-minded investors, continued to function, while e.g. charcoal producers lost significant income.
Paper long abstract:
Non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing and travel restrictions have been implemented to reduce the transmission of Covid-19. This led to different impacts on local, regional and global value chains, but empirical data on such impacts is sparse. Through weekly phone interviews May to July 2020 with 92 panelists in nine rural communities across Mozambique (n=441), our research traced the diverse repercussions of Covid restrictions for different local and regional value chains, including the production and sale of baobab, honey, charcoal and various agricultural products.
We found that Covid-19, despite limited direct health impacts, significantly re-shaped all value chains, albeit with different outcomes. Two value chains continued to function effectively despite the pandemic: honey and baobab, providing much-needed earnings particularly to women at a time when many other sources of income were eliminated. The value chains that continued to function during the pandemic encompassed more civic-minded actors and investors which altered their modes of operation e.g. to accommodate social distancing and promote knowledge on Covid at collection centres. By contrast, producers involved in the charcoal, peanut and banana value chains saw their selling opportunities and incomes significantly reduced due to Covid travel and transport restrictions as well as border closures, causing hunger in some cases. Tracing the role of governments and civil-society actors, our paper argues that there were significant links between the involvement of civic-minded stakeholders in value chains, their resilience under Covid and livelihood implications, especially for women.