Strengthening Rural Women-Diaspora-Expert GIZ (I)

Within the Frame of the project Diaspora Experts Short-term Missions (MEG Program) from German International Cooperation Agency-GIZ, this mission took place with the objective of offer technical support to producers –women in particulars– of fruits and vegetables from the Corregimiento de San Félix, Municipality of Bello, Antioquia in Colombia, aiming to strenghthen eficiency, , sosteinability in production, and economic empowerment.

The Mission was divided in 2 parts to be carried out in a 3 month period (6 weeks each part), between February-March (part 1) and Octuber-November (part 2). The mission had a set of specific objectives build in a collaboration process between the host institution, in this case the Secretaria de Medio Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Rural del Municipio de Bello Antioquia and the designated diaspora expert form GIZ.

Throughout 28 visits to rural und urban areas of the Municipality, a base line was established in order to understand the needs , challenges and potential faced by women dedicated to fruit and vegetables production in Bello, Antioquia. A detailed diagnosis was established including their current status, crop practices, and possible transformation techniques to add value to their products. Thus, a total of 83 farmers (including 33 Women) were identified as target population.

Our activities were focused on improving food security for the target population bz diversifying the plant species available for them to eat. This included the awareness of species with high protein content and micro-elements, that could be included on their diets (i.e NUS Plants).

Strategic partners were identified among the stakeholders in the area, including urban gardening systems from the municipality, to reproduce and magnify the objectives of this mission, within the frame of food sovereignty and security

First steps were given on the introduction of free and open source tools available (GNU/Linux, word and images processors, geographic information systems, plant and bird identification, etc.) to have additional options for social media and commerce networks, and also for data management in general. This information was shared among farmers and staff from the host institution as well.

Suggested References

1- A nice video about this specific Mission:

2- Link Bello

3- Strengthening Rural Women-Diaspora-Expert GIZ (II)