Community Empowerment Facility Profile

BACKGROUND

Although agriculture and livestock are still of particular importance to the development of Nicaragua, farmers lack many basic services and the technical assistance needed to render soils more productive and reduce fluctuations in production. Moreover, hygienic conditions are lacking in some production fields, while there is no access to credit. The presence of too many intermediaries in the distribution of commodities is also a problem because producers do not benefit from any increase in selling prices.

Nicaraguan society has shown some reluctance to gender promotion and consequently women's status in rural areas is still weak. Women's access to productive resources and related services is very limited in Nicaragua. The agrarian reform considered women as indirect beneficiaries - part of the family - rather than direct beneficiaries, and as a result most women do not posses any form of tenurial title nor are they considered in the hereditary line. Furthermore, many of their husbands were not eligible as beneficiaries of the agrarian reform. Land is therefore far from being accessible for the majority of Nicaraguan women.  

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GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

The overall goal of the project is to secure land tenure and to develop services offered to the members of the "Cooperativa de Arroho y Servicios Multiples Mujeres Campesinas de Rivas R.L.", in order to promote the Cooperative's overall development. This process will help empower its members, giving them additional and diversified sources of income. The cooperative will receive a contribution to enhance its institutional capacity and provide sustainability.

The goals will be achieved through specific objectives:    

•  Strengthen links between milk production and commercialization; increasing production of other dairy products; and stocking these in a dairy.
•  Legitimize women as legal owners of land, promoting recognition of their rights.
•  Improve health-care, alimentation, and reproduction of cattle through training and technical assistance.
•  Establish sylvi-pastoral systems and reforestation areas on the large real estate holdings which will promote crop  diversification in the farming production system.
•  Provide technical assistance and other services to milk producers in their stocking and commercialization activities.

Secure access to land is only a part of a more integrated strategy implying different activities to be conducted. Because of the complexity of the actions planned, a meeting of members/beneficiaries will be held to establish the modalities for implementing the single steps. Women will participate at these assemblies; some will be chosen for an explanatory campaign. A monthly meeting will be held to inform cooperative members on the progress and problems. FENACOOP, a partner of the Land Coalition, to which Cooperativa Riva L.A. is affiliated, will follow the step-by-step implementation of the project, providing knowledge and assistance in all its major components. Cooperative Riva L.A. has a long-standing tradition of working with, and for, women not benefiting from the agrarian reform in Nicaragua . Established in 1990 the cooperative became affiliated in 1994 to FENACOOP. Over 65% of the members are either abandoned or single women, often with children to care for, while the remainder are supported by the males of their families, be they husbands, brothers or fathers.

Some of the relevant activities carried out by the cooperative, has been to provide members with individual loans to buy cows; assisting with the purchase and needed guarantee; providing technical assistance in cattle breeding, health assistance and milk production; transferring knowledge and skills on hygiene and agro-pastoral management practices in livestock, milk and dairy production. Two of the main outputs of the proposed project will be the construction of a dairy facility and secure access to some pasture lands, as this emerged as one of the most urgent issues. Land titles will be given to members of the cooperative, on some soils which they have used for over 10 years, in compliance with the current legislation.

Therefore, on one hand the project strives to develop vertical integration in the dairy sector, through technical assistance and training and the construction of a dairy, whilst on the other hand, female participation and presence in productive farming and life is strengthened as work is carried out by the women's cooperative. 

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WHO WILL BENEFIT?

Direct beneficiaries of the project will be 230 women, members of the cooperative Rivas L.A., as well as the local milk producers who could benefit from the existence of a dairy nearby. Twenty of the women will be trained as veterinary surgeons, thus enhancing the cooperative's service provision capacity. Indirect beneficiaries will be the women's families (approximately 1308 people) and those who want to enter the milk business as suppliers. The local community could also benefit by lower-priced milk and dairy products produced under better hygienic conditions.

It is worth noting that family members of the beneficiaries will be part of the project and benefit from the outcomes. Beneficiaries will include those husbands, brothers, pa rents and sons who support the female members of the cooperative. This is an important step in the attempt to reduce potential gender contrast and imbalance.

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CONCLUSION

The International Land Coalition supports the project as it promotes gender balance. By addressing the problem of women's exclusion from land and other productive resources, the project hopes to provide members of the cooperative with an opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills, whilst also endeavouring to offset roles and responsibilities between men and women in the family context. While the main impact represents greater participation in the productive system, it will also help to balance the gender relationship both in families and in society.

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