Social Difference and Women’s Empowerment in the Context of the Commercialisation of African Agriculture

This paper was commissioned to support the research design activities of the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa
(APRA) Consortium, generating new evidence on pathways to agricultural commercialisation, on the theme of social
difference and women’s empowerment. First, the paper explores methodological approaches and key concepts
that underpin the analysis of social difference, as people move along different pathways to commercialisation. It
analyses social difference in terms of gender, age, wealth, ethnicity and indigeneity, while placing special emphasis
on APRA’s focus of women’s empowerment. Second, the paper draws on three key outcome criteria – which
we identify as power relations, structures and mechanisms, and distribution of resources – to analyse APRA’s
hypotheses and research questions through a lens of social difference. Third, the paper explores avenues for inquiry
at the level of household and community, sectoral changes and political-economic factors, bringing attention to
the interconnections between individual, social structures and wider political-economic developments, and makes
recommendations for research questions in these areas.