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Coffee producers typically sell raw coffee beans as the first step in a global value chain. Recently, groups of producers have formed coffee cooperatives that attempt to regain market power by integrating the other steps of the value chain. This study uses matching to estimate the effect of membership in one such cooperative on the household economy of indigenous coffee producers in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. It contributes to the literature by considering new determinants of participation and outcomes of interest. First, social capital at the individual and village level is correlated with cooperative membership more than other demographic factors. Second, cooperative members report an increase in the share of coffee sold and income from coffee sales but not in per-kilo price or total income. These two results reflect particular features of the Chiapas reality and the desires of the indigenous people the cooperative serves. Thus, they reiterate the importance for economic development projects to consider the context of their interventions.

This chapter presents the case of the coffee-growing region located in the southern portion of the state of Chiapas, along the Guatemalan border. This region was relatively prosperous until the 1980s, thanks in part to price support programs established through international coffee agreements. A short supply of labor attracted farm workers from adjacent regions. These were seasonal, undocumented workers who arrived from Guatemala and whose status of illegal immigrants fostered their exploitation. The liberalization of the international coffee market combined with a sharply reduced state intervention engendered the control over coffee production by a few transnational companies and the collapse of the economy of small producers. Combined with natural disasters whose effects were not addressed by the neoliberal state, this situation caused the region to be bypassed by Guatemalan labor that now prefers direct migration to the United States. This region also has been transformed into an increasingly underdeveloped area affected by outmigration. Chiapas has become a long vertical border for undocumented Central American workers as Mexican migration policy has toughened following the establishment of the US national security policy. In this sense, there is a stark contrast between the mobility of financial and commercial capital and the ease with which both move in and out from the region, and the obstacles imposed on labor mobility.

This chapter examines the training of indigenous Mayan catechists by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, and their subsequent role in the establishment and growth of the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) in the period prior to the Zapatistas' 1994 uprising. It considers the adequacy of Timothy Wickham-Crowley's model of guerrilla insurgencies in Latin America in explaining the Zapatista case. It finds, contrary to Wickham-Crowley's model of the relations between urban university leadership groups and peasant support bases, that the catechists constituted a stratum of “organic indigenous-campesino intellectuals” that radically undermined their communities’ traditional intellectual dependence on outsiders and enabled them to constitute themselves as a new collective political subject.

This paper aims to assess the biodiesel value chain produced by the State of Chiapas and, through a financial model, determines its profitability and feasibility as a business.

The literature review was based on searching in journal databases and in official web sites. To quantify value chain activities, a questionnaire was used to interview project leader. Besley's methodology was used to create the financial model and determine the net present value (NPV). Finally, the SWOT model summarized the analysis based on the results obtained.

All the costs of the value chain were calculated and the results show that the greatest cost corresponds to the “internal logistical activity,” with 74 percent of the total cost/liter. The NPV of the project was positive and the project was thus considered financially feasible.

Biodiesel production plants must know the real costs of raw material (sewing and harvesting the seed) as well as extraction by farmers and regional producers in order to calculate their real profit margin and set competitive prices.

The research responds to a specific demand by the State of Chiapas to assess the feasibility of its value chain by identifying the activities that do not create value.

The present study proposes the analysis of DRM strategies that had been implemented into subnational development plans and public policy instruments in the States of Chiapas and Tabasco, located in Southeast Mexico. It describes the methodological phases for the implementation of those strategies and the participatory process, with a multi-level approach, carried out with multiple stakeholders and UNDP advisory.

For this research, two case studies were developed to highlight the factors which make successful DRM in development plans and policies. It included the compilation and review of documents generated by UNDP-PMR program on the mainstreaming process in the past four years, interviews with key actors in the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, such as governmental officers, national and international ONG's, UN agencies and rural communities' leaders.

The review of these case studies demonstrate that for developing countries like Mexico, the process to strengthening institutions setting, needs being present in the field and creating alliances and synergies to generate advocacy processes from a capacity development approach. Having not only an output approach in projects but also mainly an impact strategy, both at the local and the sectoral levels, along with a mid-term timeline and budget, are some of the hallmarks of UNDP-PMR program work.

This study showed two original experiences of mainstreaming DRM into subnational development policies in high risk contexts. These experiences had the participation of multiple stakeholders from local governments and communities. Nowadays, these two experiences are being implemented in the territories despite political administration changes in the last years.

Novel approaches to tourism have been encouraged as a development strategy for the developing world, from governments and international organizations in the fulfillment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The UNWTO has been playing an important role in this regard with the launch of programs like UNWTO.Volunteers. The literature reveals, however, that the majority of development programs still follow neoliberal approaches, despite a growing interest in applying knowledge and learning postrationalist approaches. Through a case study undertaken in 2008 focusing on UNWTO.Volunteers and its application in Chiapas, this chapter discusses how knowledge and learning approaches are being applied by UNWTO, arguing that it makes an attempt to follow some of the premises claimed by postrationalist theories.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for appropriate formal education for rural young people in order to sustain and enhance viable rural communities.

In reviewing the literature, it bridges the gap between thinking on education and development respectively, and links schooling with the concepts of livelihoods, human and social capital and life‐skills. By way of example, it summarises an empirical study of the content and delivery of tele‐education among indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico.

Developing and emerging economies and regions should prioritise effective and efficient rural education which incorporates practical and technical skills appropriate to the rural context in order to include young people in the agricultural development and agribusiness of rural areas. This means delivery of education that is rural, local and particular to the context, with appropriate technology, pedagogy and curriculum.

The concepts and argument are of wide significance. The case study findings should not be readily generalised but the implications will relevant to many remote and marginalised communities where the rural economy is weak, opportunities are few and education resources are scarce.

The paper links different literatures and, by also drawing on empirical evidence consistent with the literature, makes a case for a significant reorientation of rural education towards appropriate life‐skills in order to create viable rural livelihoods.

The effect of trade on poverty is an open question. Although trade may create opportunities in the form of new markets, producers must be able to switch their production and access these markets to reap the benefits from trade. Those producers that cannot change may be stuck trying to sell products in a market with increased competition from imports. In this chapter, we consider which Mexican farmers have been able to adapt to market changes afforded by North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). We find that although some farmers, particularly those with access to outside information through education or technical assistance, have moved out of corn production, a number of both subsistence and market producers have increased the fraction of their land in corn after NAFTA. We also find that market producers respond quite differently from subsistence farmers to agricultural and other infrastructural factors.