Thanks to the Gender Approach, Now we Work in Family

1.

Where does the experience take place?

The experience of the organization ASOCIACION COMUNITARIA PARA EL DESARROLLO DE EBEN EZER (ACODE) takes place in the community of Eben Ezer, located 5 km away from the municipal town of Purulha Baja Verapaz. The main stakeholders of this experience are 36 families of the indigenous ethnic group Qeqchi, 15 of the members are women and 21 men, the administrative board is composed by a women, as president, and 4 men, they work cultivating vegetables as main source of income and also maize for self-consumption. The association produces vegetables, such as: broccoli, potatoes, French green beans, cabbage and carrots that are sold at the local market. The organization was created looking for another livelihood. It started as development committee, asking for support to State institutions, in this case to FONAPAZ. The organization was guided to the program Programa de Desarrollo Rural de las Verapaces (Program for Rural Development of Verapaces) PRODEVER- to ask for support, there the organization found the response and attention needed: the program started its intervention with a Program of Agricultural and Livestock Promoters, and Social Training. This training took place in the municipality of Cobn, 3 representatives of the community took part, two adults and 1 youngster, and they acquired knowledge about: organization, environment, reproductive health, gender, self-esteem, and domestic violence. Said process motivated the creation of a more formal organization with legal status, the organization asked support from PRODEVER, and received direct support in organizational strengthening and in the process of legalization. The association was supported by the program of Rural Development of the Verapaces PRODEVER, the support started with organizational strengthening and productive income generating activities. 2. 3. What do we learn from this experience? Womens empowerment gives them the opportunity to lead the association of agricultural producers. Training as key element for development and to strengthen and transfer capacities to women and men as members of the family. Women with innate leadership in the establishment and administration of microcredits in the organization. What are the milestones or key moments of this experience?

Community training process The participation of 3 leaders (1 man, 1 women and 1 youngster) selected in the community to take part in this training process is a key element that allowed learning about several aspects, such as: communal organization, its importance, gender, agriculture, livestock and social topics, among others. This was the first training opportunity for the Eben Ezer community, first time to go out from the municipality and share with other organizations from other municipalities of Alta and Baja Verapaz. They were motivated with the process and this promoted the change from committee

Learning Route: Tools to mainstream gender equity and womens empowerment in IFADs projects: the experience of Central America
to the more formal status of association, as it was understood from PRODEVER training. This process also opened their eyes to see other opportunities to improve their crops, including women, and expanding their vision of life. From the initial phase, PRODEVER promoted the participation of women and youngsters in productive and economic activities, these aspects were emphasized by trainings in agricultural, livestock and social areas, underlining the importance of the organization, gender, environment, reproductive health, etc. Formation and legalization of the organization This organization was created with the initial objective of exporting vegetables; a development committee was created, composed only by men producers. The program implemented a project of formation and legalization of organizations; the members of the committee were beneficiaries of this program. In this process, they decided to become an association, at that point, with the economic support of the assembly; the creation of a directive board was promoted, as well as the inclusion of men and women as members. In this case, activities are coordinated between men and women; they agree and plan the days and the role of each one at the vegetables plot, depending on the stage of the crop. Women rescue waste product left by intermediaries when they buy vegetables, women take this product to the market, sell it and use the income to by other products they need in the households. By receiving training on new techniques the vegetables production increases, new member of the community join the activity and greater extensions of land are cultivated with broccoli, carrots and potatoes; broccoli is sold in highest amounts to intermediaries that can transport the product to other municipalities in Guatemala for its commercialization, they obtain higher earnings. Participation of women in the organization With the knowledge acquired through the trainings, women have been able to reach leading positions in the directive board, as the case of Doa Petrona Rey Cho. The associations women motivate men to promote the commercialization of vegetables nationwide without intermediaries, in this way they will obtain higher incomes to improve their families living conditions, sharing tasks and responsibilities between men and women. It is worth mentioning that women play a role as important as men, taking into consideration that they perform the same tasks in the field in accordance with their specific conditions, such as: not being forced to carry heavy things and participate according with their time availability. The women created a revolving fund in the organization that is administrated by them, creating the opportunity of extending small credits in the organization to cover needs such as buying seeds and agricultural supplies, or any other specific need.

Thanks to the Gender Approach, Now we Work in Family

Women also take active part in selling agricultural supplies that are available to members from the organization ACODE. 4. What are the results and achievements in terms of management and womens empowerment? At personal level Women have been able to strengthen their capacities in organizational, administrative and projects management aspects, in favor of their incidence in the community and families. The coordination and leadership of the Association Eben Ezer is in the hands of a woman, trained by PRODEVERs promoters training program and by the other awareness and training processes developed by the organization. Said woman is highly respected due to her high incidence and capacity to lead other members through the right path. Said aspects are reflected in the coordination, good communication and equitable delegation of activities at the direction. Womens contribution in the production of vegetables is visible and valued; aspects that in the past were not recognized as they were seen as help and many times as an obligation to their partners. Women stand out due to their capacity to administrate household incomes product of their work with vegetables and the generated earnings. At organizational level It is important to emphasize that an approach of familiar development was promoted; in this approach children are also involved in the production of vegetables during their free time outside the school and holidays. To reward childrens participation, the association is analyzing the possibility of creating a social fund for the benefit of the children, administrated by the parents to cover the most immediate needs, such as clothes, shoes, studies, in order to improve life quality. Women in the organization have established an internal system of microcredits, administrated by them; a commission qualifies and selects the credits beneficiaries, and the most appropriated conditions and interest rates, generating a common fund for the organization, generated by the interests, showing their creativity to generate incomes. Commercialization The association sells vegetables to intermediaries, who directly bring the products to the community. Employment generation and social benefits Agricultural production generates 36 direct jobs and 50 indirect jobs. The benefits are focused in the generation of jobs to cover the basic needs of food, health, housing and childrens education.

Learning Route: Tools to mainstream gender equity and womens empowerment in IFADs projects: the experience of Central America
Currently, the association has a storage center and a store of agro supplies. The association offers to its members the service of credit for agro supplies, as a way to encourage the production of vegetables. Issues and challenges Directly commercialize the vegetables to the local and national market without intermediaries, for higher profits that will result in better life conditions for the families, and include women in this activity, based on their ability to negotiate. Promote the integration of more women in the vegetables organization, so that more families will obtain the benefits of being organized in order to improve their poverty situation, as women are better administrators of the economic resources they have at hand. Who are the relevant stakeholders (public and private, in and outside the territory) in the development of this womens empowerment experience? Program of Rural Development (Programa de Desarrollo Rural) PRODEVER: that supported the training program and the legalization of the organization, Organizational Strengthening Program, Training for Agricultural and Social Promoters, Microenterprises Training, Literacy, Reproductive Health, Gender, Environment. Resources were also allocated for supplies, such as seeds, a facility to sell agro supplies, an office for the association, accompanied by a training process. What tools and good practices implemented by PRODEVER have contributed to these achievements? Promoters Training Process (Agriculture, livestock and social aspects): This process included as strategy the enrolment of a man, a woman and a youngster, for them to receive training and became leaders in the community and in the organization; they were in charge of replicating the acquired knowledge. This favored that women and youngsters learned to act in the public sphere that used to be a space for traditional leaders. It also strengthened capacities and created abilities in administrative, organizational, entrepreneurial and gender topics, including selfesteem. Gender awareness: from its initial phase, PRODEVER included a process of gender training, through plays, workshops, films and some exercises developed in meetings. We understood what gender is, the importance of the participation of women in and outside home. Business literacy program: the organization recognizes that PRODEVER greatly supported women with the literacy program; women learned to read and write, as well as the use numbers and how to improve their self-esteem, currently they feel more safe and useful. In this way, they learned to administrate small pilot projects that no other institution had approved. Womens participation in productive activities: since the initial stage, PRODEVER established as a condition to support us the inclusion of women in productive technical assistance, trainings, exchange visits, workshops. Women took advantage of all these

Thanks to the Gender Approach, Now we Work in Family

activities to learn about agriculture, organization, administration and gender, in the past we havent had the opportunity of including women in these activities. Training Programs: self-esteem, gender equity, leadership, agricultural and livestock production, financial administration, reproductive health; Technical assistance: agriculture, livestock and social aspects, support with productive infrastructure. 5. What are the lessons learned from the experience? Training is a key element of womens empowerment, strengths capacities and abilities. The joint work of men and women in the organization promotes achievements and benefits for their families. To work separately does not promote union and team work. Womens participation in economic and productive activities promotes complementarity of assignments, tasks and responsibilities, and not a spirit of competition between men and women in the organization and in the families. Gender equity strengthens the possibilities of deciding under democratic, autonomous and solidarity conditions, and also the opportunities of training and education, equality with respect to decision making, access and decision about the use and control of the resources. The training and the Leaders Training Program have developed communication skills in men and women that are reflected in their ability to speak in public, lose shyness to express their ideas, as well as their negotiating capacity.