CIAO DATE: 01/2012
December 2011
Danish Institute for International Studies
This study, carried out as part of Danida’s ReCom programme, examines a variety of interventions directed at increasing Low Income Country exports while benefiting the poor. The cases covered include export-oriented interventions aimed at benefiting the poor through a specific focus on the poorest countries (Least Developed Countries, LDCs), or on particularly vulnerable groups, or on particular sections of the population considered to make up the poor, such as smallholders and women factory workers. LDCs and women factory workers have been targeted mainly through trade preference programmes with or without clauses on labour conditions, while vulnerable groups such as victims of conflict in fragile states have been targeted through programmes like the Kimberley Process aimed at eradicating trade in commodities where production is linked to prolongation of armed conflict. However, the most common type of export-oriented intervention aimed at benefiting the poor are micro- and meso-level interventions aimed at smallholder ‘inclusion’ in higher value global value chains. These have multiplied in recent years, particularly in sectors such as horticulture.
Resource link: Pro-poor Growth through Export Sector Support: What Works Where and Why [PDF] - 889K