IICA en Acción. Especial dedicado al Día Internacional de las Mujeres Rurales

Since I was a child, my father taught me about field work, agriculture, how to plant. I saw the benefits of the production there. I already knew that the compost, that the plants, that I had to separate them from the house, that I was still the other one, because you need to have a black land to plant your plants. So that's something that has always been in my mind. ICA En Acción This is ICA En Acción, the podcast of the Inter-American Institute of Cooperation for Agriculture. I'm Carolina Brunsten and I'd like to greet you once more in this space of living soil of the Americas, an initiative of ICA and the RATANLAL Center for Management and Selection of Carbon from the State University of Ohio. We will talk as always about sustainable management of soil and regenerative practices aimed at producing more and better food. And we have a very special episode dedicated to the International Day of Rural Women, which is celebrated every 15th of October. The date acquires a crucial importance at this time of great challenges in the field. We want to highlight the importance of women in rural production, its fundamental role as an impulsor of regenerative practices and the care of the environment. But it is key to note that the work of rural producers and entrepreneurs is often unvalued or unrecognized. It is estimated that more than half of the food we consume on the planet have the invisible seal of rural women. According to ONU Women, they represent more than a third of the world population and 43% of the agricultural hand. But despite being essential to the global economy, they often face inequalities in access to land, financing and decision making. Rural women represent 20% of the entire agricultural workforce. And although they can be as productive as men, they have more difficulties in developing all their potential. They access less productive resources such as land and credit, to markets, to food chains, and they are almost always paid less by their harvest. According to ONU Women, only 30% of rural women have land, and in some countries the percentage is even lower. For historical, cultural, social reasons, men are usually the ones who inherit land and their title. Rural women are also responsible for the non-remunerated tasks of the family. They work 12 hours a day to take care of the garden of animals, collecting and cooking food, raising their children, elderly people or health problems. In this scenario, the possibility that women can access credit, training, technology for innovation in their fields becomes fundamental and could help reduce poverty and malnutrition in the world. Having said all this, I present to you the three special guests we have in this episode, and who talk about the great possibilities that open up in the field when women can access financing, education, and other incentives to advance in an innovative and sustainable agriculture. It is with us, Soraya Villarrolla, representative of LIIICA in Europe, who explains the importance of the International Day of Rural Women and highlights the role of organizations intended for the financing of women's empowerment projects in the field. We also have here Laura Fernández-Lord, Head of Sustainability, Equity and Inclusion of the BVVA Microfinancing Foundation, an entity that has helped to finance and carry forward training programs and innovation in rural areas in the Americas. And we have with us the very special presence of Ophelina González, a farmer and entrepreneur from Panama, who we heard in the beginning of this episode, and who will tell us here about an interesting experience that developed in the region of Bocas del Toro, in its country, where, with the help of the BVVA Microfinancing Foundation, a group of women managed to produce and commercialize an organic food that not only improves the quality of the soil and crops, but also helps many women in their communities to have better social and economic opportunities. Well, thank you very much for inviting us to participate in this podcast. I am Soraya, I am the coordinator of the Paralympic Office in Europe, and the relationship between the ICA and the BVVA Microfinancing Foundation dates back to 2019. That's when we started collaborating together. Together with the BVVA Microfinancing Foundation, we have done many joint activities, mainly related to giving visibility and giving importance to the real role that rural women have in Latin America. I want to show that the BVVA Microfinancing Foundation works for the ICA with the BVVA Microfinancing Foundation, it is very important, it is a key society. We consider that it has a lot of knowledge of the reality of rural women, and through this foundation we can empower many women. Regarding the question that you have asked us, why it is important for the International Day of Rural Women, mainly because it provides the strategic role of rural women, which is already basic and key pillars to achieve food development and world food security. Why? Because we have to recognize their economic contribution, more than half of the workers are rural women, in terms of manufacturing and trade. We also have to maintain the persistent inequalities that they face in terms of access to land, this will explain our colleague Laura Fernández, from the BVVA Microfinancing Foundation, and finally because we have to boost public policies, including rural women, we want them to see this group of people and, above all, increase public attention. And finally, I think the most important thing about this day is to give them voice. It is their day, it is the day when they have to be heard, to make everyone hear and understand the situation, and what they are doing to move forward for their families, for their communities, for their territories, to guarantee food security, and to provide sustainability and a good future for the rural environment in which we are all living. So, I think the most important thing about this day is to give them voice. Laura Fernández, from the BVVA Microfinancing Foundation, gave us more details about the work they do on the field to facilitate, encourage and empower women who work in agriculture. I, at the Microfinancing Foundation, lead all the issues that have to do with environmental sustainability, empowerment of women, and that are intimately related, and also have a lot to do with this day of rural women. Let's not forget that there are 1,600 million rural women in the world, which is a fourth part of the world population, and that they are responsible for half of the food we consume in our tables. So, I think that is a fact that shows the realisation that they have. However, we must talk about the breaches that they face, which are many. They only have 2% of the land, and they receive 1% of the agriculture credit. In addition, said Laura Fernández, women also face a series of social and cultural norms very arraigadas in the field, where many times they are arraigadas in their access to resources. This then limits their development and potential. The care of the garden is added, and of the small animals, to care for domestic tasks, of elders, of children, etc. And that clearly limits the participation in employment and the economic opportunities that can be made, or access, even in our case, not to funding. And finally, I would like to finish in positive, because it seems that we are talking about a very important issue, and finally, I would like to finish in positive, because it seems that we are talking about the breaches, and what we have to think is that, if we ensure that women access to good production conditions and productive resources, we could reduce hunger to 150 million people in the world. That is why it is so essential this day, and that is why it is so essential to listen to them and listen to the limitations of barriers, but also the great opportunities, and what they are supposed to have there, producing the food that we consume daily at our tables. The representative of the Foundation, detailed the work they do in rural communities in the Americas. In the Foundation, what we do is provide financial services, financial education and technical assistance to more than three million people in five countries in Latin America, and 63% of the credits we grant are women. And if we look at the rural areas, we will have the total of rural businesses that we have, which are approximately 240,000, half of them, more than half of them, 54% are women, and they are women that we attend in the Foundation through our entities with these services that I mentioned. They are in a situation of economic vulnerability, seven out of ten, and one out of five is in a situation of poverty. We also have to take into account the profile of these women, and what they are supposed to do, is to access financial resources. And half of them only have secondary education, and they usually have between 30 and most, between 30 and 60 years. However, what we see, and talking a bit about the financing and the impact of financing in rural women, what we see is that rural women's businesses accumulate assets, that is to say, that their businesses grow faster than men's, than men's, at a 23% instead of a 21%, and that the growth rates of their sales are the same, despite being smaller businesses, at a 30% lower. And what is most important for us, because that is our last goal, is that after two years, one out of three rural women comes out of poverty. All this we do through multiple financial products, and just to mention some and not extend ourselves, for example, in the Dominican Republic, we have the agro-women product, which is a credit adjusted to the productive cycle of the culture, of the activity they have, and that does not require land ownership. The fundación Microfinanzas BBVA also finances sustainable agriculture and ecosystem-based adaptation projects, to make more resilient crops and protect the environment. In addition, it finances technical assistance programs and specific training, such as water management, forests, land management, or sustainable management of their productive activities. It is true that financial inclusion in rural areas is always inferior to financial inclusion in urban areas. It is not where there is more need, because it is also more difficult to get there with our financial services. The model we have is of a relational bank, which means that the accessors travel to the place where these rural women's businesses are located. They go to those areas away from the cities, which many times, in various transport means, travel hours, they can be four, five, or one whole day on the way, until they reach the business of the entrepreneur, and they ask him if he needs financing, if he needs to grow, if he needs capital to invest in raw materials, or improve his business, or acquire more animals, or improve his farms, improve his production, implant adaptation measures, etc. One of the women who was able to grow and develop a sustainable business, both in environmental and economic terms, is Ophelina González, inhabitant of the Changanola community in the province of Boca del Toro, in Panama. This 62-year-old woman tells us here how she has managed to transform her life and the one of many of her neighbors through an agricultural business financed by MicroSurfin, the Panamanian Entity of the BVVA Microfinancing Foundation. The work began a decade ago and went from small initiatives to consolidate a rural project that today embodies the breeding of chicken and pigs, the breeding of banana and corn, the sale of farm plants, and above all, the production and sale of organic food developed with natural nutrients. First of all, thanks to the Foundation for the opportunity to come here, because through this Foundation we have been able to reach many women from the agricultural sector who are already managing the Foundation. We are a group of women who live in the Cordon Fronteriso. We live in Acuenca, from the Río Cisabola. We are producers. We have carried out this project called the use of mountain microorganisms in the works to regenerate the soil and have a healthy production to protect the environment and make sustainability projects. There are rural women. Ophelina, together with a group of rural women, you have developed a specific product with mountain microorganisms. Can you tell us a little about what it is and how they produce it? Yes, the mountain microorganism, as it is said in the same word, is located in our free mountains of chemicals where we look for it. If we bring it home, we elaborate it for its productivity and then we take it to a liquid product where it has already been applied to the field. When this product reaches the field, it will regenerate the soil. It will give it the visibility of the soil that it is losing, due to the contamination of the environment and all this, then we will have active and healthy products and women will have sustainability in their production. Ophelina can be used for all types of crops, and it indicates that there are many women who are interested in this work, but that, in general, there is lack of capacity and resources to be able to carry it forward. Well, we as women, in reality, we would need a little more capacity, but if you want to do this, you can do more, it is a challenge, and you have more knowledge of how to develop and how to handle your project, right? Well, thanks to Micro Serfin we have already received the capacity of businessmen, but if the financial part is true, because there are times when we need the kit, maybe we are not producers to make this product, and since women who do not sell it can, at least, grow their production at low costs. Ophelina told ICA in action that in addition to producing organic food that improves the quality of the soil, this project helped many women in their community to improve their living conditions and give better opportunities to their families. Well, largely, a woman told me through these sales of this product that I am now cultivating with better quality I study my children, their children are studying, so she has a and what is still starting in that future, so if I feel very happy to see that the project of the use of the microorganism of mountains, accompanied by other projects, because I also encourage him to create the chicken, to create the chicken, to create other things. In my case, I also address a reforestation because we have the issue that I always tell him, we have to protect the basin, we have to protect the environment and we are going to leave our children and our grandchildren. How does this project come about, this idea that they are promoting this program? Most women are single mothers, mothers and fathers, so they are the ones who don't have that head that comes out in front of them. They themselves have to touch doors and do this, so from there the focus is not on women. Laura Fernández, from the Microfinancing Foundation, summarizes the central objective of putting focus on rural women. Women have a greater potential to adopt these products and to send them. 44% of the wallet that we have of adaptation credits and of mitigation are in women's hands. And that is a fact that impacts us, because we see that there are few, but we see that they have a high demand for this type of financing and investments to really sustain the environment and at the same time to have productive activities that are much more prosperous and sustainable in the long term, and profitable in the economic sense. So I think that is the important message with which we have to stay and also with what Celina is doing, that in the end she has a business that is productive that generates some students that allows her to live and other women in her community and that at the same time is respectful with the environment and is taking care of the planet. Ophelina took the opportunity to send a message to rural women in her day. Well, as women, we continue to be women of challenge, we continue to be entrepreneurs and this, we continue to protect the environment, protecting the future of our generation and that we only achieve this by doing good organic practices. Soraya also from the IHICA shared her reflection on the importance of giving space and voice to women in the field. I admire Ophelina a lot for everything she has explained. I think she is proud to listen to her. Before she was talking about her her entrepreneurship she collects a lot of paradigms towards where the agriculture has to go and where a sustainable project should go. Then, the bioeconomy, the regenerative agriculture, the encased education, the empowerment of women. So, I am simply very proud and very happy to have had the opportunity to meet Ophelina. With the valuable contribution of Ophelina González who connected with us from Panama and the important participation of Soraya Villarrolla and Laura Fernández-Lord, we arrived at the end of this special meeting of IHICA in action. We greet once again all rural women in their day and we thank the contribution they make to have a more sustainable and resilient production. I am Carolina Brunsten and I wait for you in the next episode of the Podcast of the Inter-American Institute of Cooperation for Agriculture. As always, thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. (gentle music)