Making Market Systems Work for Women Farmers in Tajikistan: A final evaluation of Oxfam’s Gendered Enterprise and Markets programme in Tajikistan

Overview

Gendered Enterprise and Markets (GEM) is Oxfam GB’s approach to market systems development. The GEM approach facilitates change in market systems and social norms, with the aim of ensuring more sustainable livelihood opportunities for marginalized women and men. The GEM DFID AidMatch Programme (June 2014–February 2018) worked within the soya, milk and vegetable value chains targeting women smallholder farmers in areas of poverty. The programme aimed to benefit 63,600 people (10,600 smallholder households) living in Zambia, Tajikistan and Bangladesh through increases in household income, women having greater influence over key livelihood decisions within their households and communities, and engaging in livelihoods more resilient to shocks, such as natural disasters and market volatility.

In Tajikistan, the Gendered Enterprise and Markets (GEM) programme has been implemented in five districts of Khatlon Province by Oxfam in partnership with local public organizations, League of Women Lawyers of Tajikistan (LWL) and Neksigol Mushovir. The GEM programme in Tajikistan sought to directly improve the livelihoods of an estimated 3,000 smallholder farmers (60 percent women) in fruit and vegetable value chains through improved production skills, resilience to climate risks, access to market opportunities and greater engagement with market players, and strengthened ability to influence private sector and government actors.

The evaluation was designed to investigate if and how the GEM programme might have contributed to its intended outcomes – not only in the lives of individual women smallholder farmers targeted by the programme but also to changes in their communities and the larger market system. It also sought to capture any potential unintended outcomes of the programme.