Behavior Change Perspectives on Gender and Value Chain Development

Jennefer Sebstad has over 30 years of work experience as a researcher, evaluator, program designer, and donor in the areas of microfinance and enterprise development in developing countries with an emphasis on women, young people, and vulnerable groups. She is a co-author of Microfinance, Risk Management, and Poverty and has written articles and reports on the impact of microfinance and enterprise development programs and the demand for microinsurance. Now based in the US, Ms. Sebstad spent 17 years living and working in Ethiopia, Kenya and India. She has an MA in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles and a BA in South and Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Michigan.

Cristina Manfre is a gender and development specialist with extensive experience working in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. She is currently a consultant to Cultural Practice, LLC, specializing in assisting implementing organizations to improve attention to gender in agricultural value chains. She is also involved in a project to apply a behavior change perspective to address gender issues in agricultural value chains for ACDI/VOCA and has been working with Meridian Institute on integrating gender into new agricultural technology development. In her former position as International Program Manager with the USAID Women in Development Greater Access to Trade Expansion (GATE) project at Development and Training Services Inc. (dTS), she led and managed programs in the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Kenya. She has conducted gender-related training and research in the areas of agriculture and natural resource management, value chain development, and micro and small enterprise development. She completed research on labor issues in the maquila sector, focusing on the role of women’s organizations in defending rights to labor. Prior to dTS, she worked as a Program Associate for the International Youth Foundation where she managed country-level projects for a USAID/IDB program for a Latin America region-wide youth employment and information and communication technology (ICT) program. She has a M.Sc. Development Management, London School of Economics and Political Science.