eng.asociacion com unit aria para el desarrollo de eben ezer

8/2/2019 Eng.asociacion Com Unit Aria Para El Desarrollo de Eben Ezer

1/5

Thanks to the Gender Approach, Now we Work in Family

2

1. Where does the experience take place?The experience of the organization ASOCIACION COMUNITARIA PARA EL DESARROLLODE EBEN EZER (ACODE) takes place in the community of Eben Ezer, located 5 kmaway from the municipal town of Purulha Baja Verapaz.

The main stakeholders of this experience are 36 families of the indigenous ethnicgroup Qeqchi, 15 of the members are women and 21 men, the administrative boardis composed by a women, as president, and 4 men, they work cultivating vegetablesas 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 developmentcommittee, asking for support to State institutions, in this case to FONAPAZ. Theorganization was guided to the program Programa de Desarrollo Rural de lasVerapaces (Program for Rural Development of Verapaces) PRODEVER- to ask for

support, there the organization found the response and attention needed: the programstarted its intervention with a Program of Agricultural and Livestock Promoters, andSocial Training. This training took place in the municipality of Cobn, 3 representativesof the community took part, two adults and 1 youngster, and they acquired knowledgeabout: organization, environment, reproductive health, gender, self-esteem, anddomestic violence. Said process motivated the creation of a more formal organizationwith legal status, the organization asked support from PRODEVER, and received directsupport in organizational strengthening and in the process of legalization.

The association was supported by the program of Rural Development of the VerapacesPRODEVER, the support started with organizational strengthening and productiveincome generating activities.

2. 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.

3. 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 thecommunity to take part in this training process is a key element that allowed learningabout several aspects, such as: communal organization, its importance, gender,agriculture, livestock and social topics, among others. This was the first trainingopportunity for the Eben Ezer community, first time to go out from the municipalityand 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


2/5

Learning Route:

Tools to mainstream gender equity and womens empowerment

in IFADs projects: the experience of Central America

3

to the more formal status of association, as it was understood from PRODEVERtraining.

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 andyoungsters in productive and economic activities, these aspects were emphasized bytrainings in agricultural, livestock and social areas, underlining the importance of theorganization, gender, environment, reproductive health, etc.

Formation and legalization of the organization

This organization was created with the initial objective of exporting vegetables; adevelopment committee was created, composed only by men producers.

The program implemented a project of formation and legalization of organizations; themembers of the committee were beneficiaries of this program. In this process, theydecided to become an association, at that point, with the economic support of theassembly; the creation of a directive board was promoted, as well as the inclusion ofmen and women as members.

In this case, activities are coordinated between men and women; they agree and planthe days and the role of each one at the vegetables plot, depending on the stage of thecrop. 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 productsthey need in the households.

By receiving training on new techniques the vegetables production increases, newmember of the community join the activity and greater extensions of land are

cultivated with broccoli, carrots and potatoes; broccoli is sold in highest amounts tointermediaries that can transport the product to other municipalities in Guatemala forits commercialization, they obtain higher earnings.

Participation of women in the organization

With the knowledge acquired through the trainings, women have been able to reachleading 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 higherincomes to improve their families living conditions, sharing tasks and responsibilitiesbetween men and women.

It is worth mentioning that women play a role as important as men, taking intoconsideration that they perform the same tasks in the field in accordance with theirspecific conditions, such as: not being forced to carry heavy things and participateaccording 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 needssuch as buying seeds and agricultural supplies, or any other specific need.


3/5


4

Women also take active part in selling agricultural supplies that are available tomembers from the organization ACODE.

4. What are the results and achievements in terms of management andwomens empowerment?

At personal level

Women have been able to strengthen their capacities in organizational, administrativeand projects management aspects, in favor of their incidence in the community andfamilies.

The coordination and leadership of the Association Eben Ezer is in the hands of awoman, trained by PRODEVERs promoters training program and by the otherawareness and training processes developed by the organization. Said woman is highlyrespected due to her high incidence and capacity to lead other members through theright path. Said aspects are reflected in the coordination, good communication andequitable delegation of activities at the direction.

Womens contribution in the production of vegetables is visible and valued; aspectsthat in the past were not recognized as they were seen as help and many times as anobligation to their partners.

Women stand out due to their capacity to administrate household incomes product oftheir 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, theassociation is analyzing the possibility of creating a social fund for the benefit of thechildren, administrated by the parents to cover the most immediate needs, such asclothes, 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 fundfor the organization, generated by the interests, showing their creativity to generateincomes.

CommercializationThe association sells vegetables to intermediaries, who directly bring the products tothe community.

Employment generation and social benefits

Agricultural production generates 36 direct jobs and 50 indirect jobs. The benefits arefocused in the generation of jobs to cover the basic needs of food, health, housing andchildrens education.


4/5

Learning Route:

Tools to mainstream gender equity and womens empowerment

in IFADs projects: the experience of Central America

5

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 wayto encourage the production of vegetables.

Issues and challenges

Directly commercialize the vegetables to the local and national market withoutintermediaries, 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 morefamilies will obtain the benefits of being organized in order to improve their povertysituation, as women are better administrators of the economic resources they have athand.

Who are the relevant stakeholders (public and private, in and outside theterritory) in the development ofthis womens empowerment experience?

Program of Rural Development (Programa de Desarrollo Rural) PRODEVER: thatsupported the training program and the legalization of the organization, OrganizationalStrengthening 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 agrosupplies, an office for the association, accompanied by a training process.

What tools and good practices implemented by PRODEVER have contributedto 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, forthem 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 womenand youngsters learned to act in the public sphere that used to be a space fortraditional leaders. It also strengthened capacities and created abilities inadministrative, organizational, entrepreneurial and gender topics, including self-esteem.

Gender awareness: from its initial phase, PRODEVER included a process of gendertraining, through plays, workshops, films and some exercises developed in meetings.We understood what gender is, the importance of the participation of women in andoutside home.

Business literacy program: the organization recognizes that PRODEVER greatlysupported women with the literacy program; women learned to read and write, as wellas the use numbers and how to improve their self-esteem, currently they feel moresafe and useful. In this way, they learned to administrate small pilot projects that noother institution had approved.

Womens participation in productive activities: since the initial stage, PRODEVERestablished as a condition to support us the inclusion of women in productive technicalassistance, trainings, exchange visits, workshops. Women took advantage of all these


5/5


6

activities to learn about agriculture, organization, administration and gender, in thepast we havent had the opportunity of including women in these activities.

Training Programs:self-esteem, gender equity, leadership, agricultural and livestockproduction, 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 andteam work.

Womens participation in economic and productive activities promotescomplementarity of assignments, tasks and responsibilities, and not a spirit ofcompetition 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 aboutthe use and control of the resources.

The training and the Leaders Training Program have developed communicationskills 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.

eng.asociacion com unit aria para el desarrollo de eben ezer

Documents