General

Outcome 1.1:  Principles and practices of human rights are more visible, civic spaces are maintained or broadened at all levels and permit the expression of citizens’ voices. Outcome 1.2: Land tenure and housing rights are more secure for poor women, men and children.

General

Unsustainable food crop production causes land degradation, environmental risks and low income and poor living standards for farmers in Guatemala. International markets demand high CSR standards that require investments at the farmer level. Investments that farmers cannot afford to make.To overcome these problems in the productive sector for vegetables, especially string beans, green peas and Brussels cols, the partners in this project wish to use the FDOV-programme to lift the whole value chain to a sustainable level, meaning increasing the number of sustainable farmers, increasing the productivity per hectare and increasing the number of hectares that are used for sustainable farming. The market for sustainable vegetables in the US and Europe is growing. Guatemala acknowledges the need for more sustainable production. Grupo Ceis in Guatemala and Fair Fruit in Belgium belong to Durabilis, a Belgium Impact Investment Company. Durabilis invests and manages agribusiness value chains to stimulate sustainable development in South America and Africa. The companies work as intermediaries between producer and market: Grupo Ceis buys the products in Guatemala from the farmers, and Fair Fruit is the importer and distributor in Europe. They work with low margins, so producers receive better prices.The project, however, will focus not only on the contracted farmers for supply to Grupo Ceis and Fair Fruit but will also increase awareness about sustainable production amongst the bigger exporters in Guatemala and customers in Europe. Therefore, the three NGOs in the consortium will support the project with technical assistance to increase the quality and quantity of the targeted vegetables and educate the value chain.

Objectives

A sustainable impact and inclusive economic growth for Guatemalan small-scale vegetable growers in the Guatemalan highlands in which rural communities increase their access to income sources.

General

While WLRs are suppressed by several factors including: negative social norms and practices, legal illiteracy, dysfunctional infrastructure to track WLRs, neo-liberalism, etc., one of the major problems relates to fractured women’s agency and weak voice. Interventions by government and NGOs in the form of legal awareness have yielded little as many women still struggle to assert and defend their rights to land in the absence of external backing. The inclusion of women in land governance institutions like Area Land Committees, District Land Boards, Local Council Courts as well as the broader affirmative action slots in local government, parliament andCabinet have not necessarily translated to stronger WLRs in Uganda. On the contrary, existing literaturesuggests that women in influential positions have on some occasions instead frustrated pro-women laws and policies since their portfolios puts them in a position of privilege. Whereas it is still important to leverage women in leadership roles to advancethe WLRs cause, it is still critical to diversify options by empowering the rural woman and transforming power relation in favour of WLRs. Through strengthening women civic groups, the project hopes to enable them to identify problems, set goals, make choices and then act upon them to realise WLRs. Inability of women to access and utilize land in Uganda: In Uganda, land is male dominated and patriarchal. Most of the land in Uganda is not titled and is owned customarily. Customary land is governed and administered by norms and customs which often impede ownership of land by women. The fact that a section of the population cannot own and utilize land has led to food insecurity, increased poverty levels, negative climate impacts and in dependence on the male gender. This financial dependence is the reason we have many issues of gender-based violence to start with. Many injustices have arisen from the inability of women to access and utilize land. Lack of capacity for women to develop land: In the few cases where women own land, they are incapacitated to develop it. For land to be used in such a way that brings economic development and reduces poverty, it has to be commercialized. Uganda’s land is undeniablyvery fertile and most of it is arable. However, most of the women who own land can only practice subsistence farming on a small scale. Most of the produce is used to feed their families which does not create a shift in poverty levels. Land has to be commercialized and used for the growth of perennial cash crops for example coffee. The growth of these crops usually requires modern methods of farming for example ploughing, modern technologies, chemical fertilizers which are all costly and most women cannot afford them. Thisrequires empowerment of women.