Women’s committees are providing a platform for women to receive training, access funding, engage in development of micro-enterprises and have a greater say within producer organisations, such as the CODEMU women’s committee in Pangoa in Peru, which is integrated to the co-operative’s management structure.
Quotas for women are also rapidly increasing women’s representation on co-operative boards, as seen in PRODECOOP in Nicaragua.
“It was the organisation and the Fairtrade principles that tell us that women are important. We have received some training in relation to gender issues and women have started to join. For us, before we were just labourers, but now our situation has improved and our daughters are now learning about farming.” said Ana Maria Gonzales Narvaez, Cooperative Member, Soppexcca. Click here to download the report (pdf file).
Source: The Fairtrade Foundation
