Women

Acoording to the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean, the rate of poverty among women in the region is at least 15 percent higher than that of men. The IAF understands the importance of offering women opportunities to become gainfully employed, start business ventures and to have leading roles in planning for their communities’ development.

Women have always had a strong presence in the IAF grant portfolio, representing 54 percent of those who benefited in 2011. Women also hold executive positions in a variety of IAF supported projects. They nurture microbusinesses and have reduced mortality rates. They work in the most remote reaches of Haiti and in Rio’s favelas. They lead sophisticated nongovernmental organizations and the most incipient of base groups. Some are dedicated to creating opportunities for women; some head successful efforts in which men traditionally predominate. IAF’s 2011 Grassroots Development Journal focuses on 10 of these leaders.

Recent Projects:

Federação de Instituições Beneficentes (FIB) is training women in Rio de Janeiro to become masons, carpenters, electricians and plumbers in Brazil’s burgeoning and traditionally male-dominated construction industry. Nearly half of the trainees are from a neighborhood notorious for drug traffickers and other gangs. The six-month course includes instruction in Portuguese, business management and civic participation, as well as in a single specialized trade, followed by a hands-on practicum. More than 60 percent of FIB’s graduates have found jobs immediately and doubled their income. Many were hired to work with construction firms renovating Rio de Janeiro’s Maracaná Stadium in anticipation of the World Cup and Olympics. Others started small businesses in construction and renovation services.

Asociación Minga Perú (Minga Perú) works with indigenous women to train them as community leaders, radio correspondents and as advocates, counselors and aides serving other women in 45 communities in the Loreto region in the Amazon Rainforest. Its radio programs, which reach 100,000 listeners every week, focus on women’s health, domestic violence, hu­man rights, education and conservation as they elicit greater participation of women in public life. Minga Perú has received more than 1,100 letters, most thanking the program for giving them strength to overcome domestic violence.

Coordinadora de Mujeres del Cibao (CMC) trained more than 220 Dominican women from 13 member-associations in the exercise of rights and civic obligations necessary to engage effectively their municipal governments under two new laws that give civil society a mandate in the mu­nicipal budget process and municipal governance. The women learned to identify and prioritize community needs and to draft and present proposals for funding by the municipal and provincial governments.

Colectivo de Mujeres Campesinas de la Costa Grande de Guerrero, S.C. (COMUCAM) offers technical assistance and training to representatives of 22 women-led savings-and-loans associations in communities along the coast of Guerrero, Mexico. With this project it is expected a 50 percent increase in household savings for the participants.

Additional Reading(s):

Helping Cariocas Crack the Concrete Ceiling

When, back in 2007, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced a cornerstone initiative of his economic policy, Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento (PAC), or Program for Accelerated Growth, Deise Gravina paid attention.

The PAC called for the Brazilian government, state-owned companies and the private sector to coordinate their investment in construction, sanitation, energy, transportation and logistics. Gravina, a retired civil engineer, heads Federação de Instituições Beneficentes (FIB), an umbrella organization founded in 1957 that today manages several community development initiatives in Rio de Janeiro. Realizing that these infrastructure projects would fuel a demand for a skilled workforce—as would preparations, on an unprecedented scale, for Rio to host World Cup matches in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016—Gravina came up with the idea for FIB’s Projeto "Mão na Massa," colloquially, "getting our hands dirty." More