WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

recognizing the processes of women entrepreneurship in the rural areas of Central America

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

recognizing the processes of women entrepreneurship in the rural areas of Central America EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

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Women and local economies, territories, knowledge and power Recognizing the processes of women entrepreneurship in the rural areas of Central America This is an Executive Summary from the book Women and local economies, territories, knowledge and power.

Recognizing the processes of women entrepreneurship in the rural areas of Central America with ISBN 1-932827-81-1.

Program for the economic empowerment of women and the strengthening of their leadership in local-regional development governance (MyDEL) Research and redacion team: Rita Cassisi, Gilda Esposito, Mayra Falck and Angélica Faune Edition: Isabel Aguilar Umaña Revision and correction: Carolyn Puliti Picchi y Odeth Alvarado Design: Tritón imagen & comunicaciones Printed in Guatemala, Central America August 2011 300 copies 5a. Avenida 5-55, zona 14, Edificio Europlaza, Torre IV, Nivel 12 Telephone: (502) 2381-8700 Fax: (502) 2381- 8615 www.unwomen.org/es

content Introduction 5 Chapter 1. Central America: a diverse region in the process of transformation 7 1.1 The Central American context 1.2 Challenges in the region 1.3 The point of view of women 1.4 The MyDEL analysis 1.5 Conceptualization of women entrepreneurship

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MyDEL, UNIFEM (now UN Women) and the initiative to support land and theme UNDP networks (ART). Development approach and vision 13 2.1 The philosophical and ethical framework of human development 2.2 Societies propose good living from the south of America 2.3 UNIFEM (now UN Women) and the human rights framework 2.4 Tenth regional conference on women in latin america integration, development an women’s rights 2.5 UNDP’s ART initiative and its theoretical approach MyDEL 2.6 The effectiveness of aid in the framework of UNIFEM (now UN Women) and MyDEL

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Chapter 3. MyDEL, geography and strategy. Development approach and vision 18 3.1 MyDEL geography and the new territorial dynamics 3.2 MyDEL strategy 3.3 The pillars that sustain the MyDEL execution strategy 3.4 Methodological approach

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Step 1: Path proposal. Starting point, foundation, purposes, premises and conceptual principles 26 Step 2: Implementation. MyDEL, university, local stakeholder partnerships and participatory methodology 27 Step 3: coding the inventory of women entrepreneurship at the state-municipal level, and participatory methodology 28 Step 4: Geo-reference process strategy followed to develop a database 28 Step 5: Theme maps drawn with digital support to visualize the existence of women entrepreneurship and self stamp management strategy 29 Step 6: Roadmap for the public presentation of women entrepreneurship maps.

Presentation models designed 29 Step 7: Asessment of the effectivness of the geo-referencing as a tool to ensure recognition of women entrepreneurs at the base of the economic pyramid 31 Results 31 Follow-up platform 32

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Chapter 4. Path 1: Recognition of the existence of women entrepreneurship and their spatial pattern at local level 25

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Chapter 5. Path 2: recognition of the value and role of women entrepreneurship in territorial economic development 33 5.1 Conceptual basis for the territorial study generation of value of women entrepreneurship 34 5.2 Value chain analysis. Partnership processes, competitive advantages in value generation activities 34 5.3 Added value: academic rigor and cross pollination in value chain recognition and analysis approach 35 Chapter 6. Path 3: business development and enhancement of the stimulating role of women entrepreneurship in local economies and territorial development 36 6.1 Local economic development agencies (LEDA) 6.2 The strategic role of LEDAS local development in capital and territorial marketing promotion 6.3 Service Centers for women entrepreneurship (CSEM) 6.4 Lessons learned in the business development path

37 38 39 41

Chapter 7. Path 4 Women leadership enhancement in local/territorial development governance 45 7.1 Areas of influence 47 7.2 Some empowerment experiences in the framework of MyDEL 47 Chapter 8. Balance of the first phase of MyDEL. Accomplishments and lessons learned 50

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Conclusions: MyDEL’s action horizon

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introduction MyDEL1 provides this executive summary2 of the document called Women and local economies, territories, knowledge and power in order to generate a more accessible instrument to disseminate the promotion and recognition of women economic enterprise in Central America. It addresses issues of human rights, the analysis of the central problems of gender inequality, ethnic and territorial problems, the need for recognition of the contributions for women as promoters of local economies as well as the political demands that are required to enforce them under the state and society. Particularly, it focuses on demands and recognition policies and redistribution of resources in a context characterized by the ethnic and cultural diversity that MyDEL sees as the main resources available of rural, peasant, indigenous and black Central America.

The main objective of the document is to communicate the actions that can be carried out to ensure the recognition, measurement and promotion of women entrepreneurship in the base of the Central American economic pyramid and across the region. This topic is one of the outstanding issues not only of gender but also in the political and ethics agenda in the region. In addition, it becomes particularly important in this area of global economics crisis, since MyDEL proposes methodological courses of action capable of opening paths for the construction of an inclusive and prosperous global and local collectivity where women continue to perform their key role –that is usually undervalued—but under improved conditions and with more adequate instruments.

The contents of this publication were developed within the framework of a broad process of reflection and discussion with the participation of over two thousand people. This process began at the local level, by listening to the stories and knowledge of women in territories; then, by defining the conceptual framework and research methodology. Seminar workshop were conducted in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua during the research period, after which there results were validated to become the foundation for this systematization.

The paper presents a new reading of the Central American context from the point of view of women, by highlighting the new territorial dynamics and the multilateralism that emerges from below. Then it provides a focus on women entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid, from the human rights’ point of view. Then we summarize the strategy of MyDEL and the conceptual map of the relationships between gender and territory, the economy, empowerment and human development. These elements are described with methodological approaches and takes stock of the tools generated and their potential use for empower women entrepreneurs and to strengthening women’s leadership. At the end we offer the findings of the analysis.

1 This is the name given to the «Program for the economic empowerment of women and the strengthening of their leadership in local-regional development governance».

Only its short name, MyDEL, will be used hereinafter.

2 The summary was written in 2011 within the framework of UN Women, a United Nations agency for the empowerment of women and gender equity. UN Women started operations in January 2011 and UNIFEM, INSTRAW, OSAGI and DAO. For this reason, the text will continue to make reference to UNIFEM, with the clarification that it is now UNWomen.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This publication is organized following the timing of implementation of the strategy MyDEL, basedon qualitative and quantitative evidence produced by the inventory, and the characterization and geo-referencing of women´s entrepreneurship in partnership with universities, Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDA), government agencies and women organizations in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

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This publication represents the first product that the MyDEL delivers as part of its first phase. Through such efforts, the Program seeks to generate research-reflection-action-advocacy-based knowledge, all of it with an aim at proposing models and tools for equitable and sustainable development models.

This publication seek to deconstruct inequality stereotypes and dynamics, with eyes placed on the need to take many women entrepreneurs away from anonymity and discrimination, which is a way to assumethe issue of economic justice.

The second product of the MyDEL is the consolidation of a partnership and network platform to enhance women leadership in the new architecture of economic governance. The notion that prevails is the idea of strengthening a way that leads economic citizenship towards full citizenship for women, including political participation in collective decisions and in the management of common good.

This document should be useful for decision-makers operating at at the levels above national, national, national, state and local levels. International cooperation is also one of its recipients, with an aim at advocating for more human and financial resources to be made available to influence local dynamics.

The publication also seeks to make a contribution to the process of reflection and discussion of different women movements and organizations in the region.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

In the process of investigation and systematization of the paperwas decidedly contributions are appreciated errors or omissions are to be attributed exclusively to the decisions made by the regional team responsible for its publication.

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CHAPTER 1

central america: a diverse region in the process of transformation The first phase of MyDEL took place in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua (CA4), between 2005 and 2008. These countries – diverse from the cultural, economic and social perspectives-- form a sub region characterized as a trading area, also the scene of catastrophic natural phenomena and passage point between North and South America. This diversity makes the analysis presented below more complex.

In the context of economic stabilization and the dynamics of regional integration, MyDEL runs at regional, national, transnational and local levels. It drives two efforts: a) economic integration in the CA4 countries and the consolidation of micro and small enterprise institutional development, and ; b) placing equal rights and economic opportunities on the agenda of Central American Integration System (SICA) agencies, beginning with the Council of Ministers for Women Affairs in Central America (COMMCA), the Center for the Promotion of Micro and Small Enterprises (CENPROMYPE) and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).

To promote gender equality and the empowerment of women there are challenges that are compounded by the global economic and financial crisis faces challenges which arefor which no one is exempted. In this context, we are witnessing a debate that questions the dominant paradigm of development and the economy and makes State intervention proposals gain strength and effectiveness in response to the crisis. Above all, it highlights citizen participation to demand such intervention from States.

1.1 The Central American context The region faces a new and complex international situation, due both to its inherent weaknesses as due to the financial crisis that started in the United States of America in 2008, which currently has a global.

The crisishas developed a process to strengthen democracy and open its economy, while also working towards regional integration and the territorial reorganization of production.

In the nineties, Central America has opted in favor of participating in the world market under a model that promoted international trade deregulation of international trade, outsourcing of the economy and the promotion of the growth of gross domestic product (GDP). Under the influence of the Washington Consensus was the primary causes of inequalities whose main causes include the internal armed conflict (Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua), low investment in health, education and promotion of rural productive development, and neglect of land issues and natural disasters, among others. As we know, the problem in Latin America is not lack of resources, but their unequal distribution, reflected in the GINI coefficient that ranges from 0.55 in Guatemala to 0.45 in Costa Rica.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In the seventies, but with an emphasis in the eighties, several factors led to rapid and poorly planned urbanization that is now reflected in unsafe cities, high rates of violence and strong environmental degradation.

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In 1991, the Tegucigalpa Protocolset a new stage for the regional integration process of the seven Central American countries. Institutional integration became consolidated in SICA, an international Agency with the participation of the governments of the region.

SICA countries, also including the Dominican Republic but not Costa Rica, participate in the Central American Parliament. The Central America of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States (DRCAFTA) has five countries. It excludes Panama and Belize and integrates the Dominican Republic. The Central America of the Customs and Migration Agreement involves the CA4 countries.

According to the index ofcompetitiveness growth (ICC), Central America is in a slow path to progress, and needs to develop a strategy to compete and strengthen an integrated region. In terms of human development, only 20% of Central Americans live in geographic areas with high human development in three countries: Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The human development index (HDI) allows us to infer some general trends: few regions in the world in such small area, have gaps such as those existing in the region.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

On the other hand, the region is undergoing a process of demographic transition characterized by lower levels of mortality and fertility. This produces a generational shift that gradually affects the age structure of the population. As a result, the region is going through the so-called “demographic bonus period,” understood as a reduction of economic dependence because of the increase on the population that is in the productive age group (15-60 years) in relation to the dependent population v (under 15 and over 60). This demographic bonuscanbe able to bring adverse effects for young people, especially if they are not equipped with the educational, social and professional skills required to productively enter a job market that is already competitive.

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1.2 Challenges in the region The outlook requires for bold and innovative national and regional responses. According to the Report of the State of the Region, a Report from Central America and for Central America, the isthmus must take action to strengthen institutional and regional integration, taking advantage of its geographic location as a bridge between the Americas and the Atlantic and Pacific; it improves the quality of the workforce through social investment;to achieve productive clusters, enhance regional effort to improve the quality of education system, investment in science and technology innovation.

To these challenges, MyDEL adds two important elements that are highly sensitive and have high impact in development: l

The need to restore Central American women’s economic citizenship and their social and economic rights. It should be recognized not only the demographic (over 50% of the population) but also dynamics agency and its role in the territories, both in the productive sphere and in reproductive health.

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The need to recognize the potential for economic development resulting from the analysis, definition and promotion of participatory development at local level which, socially, economically, politically and environmentally, maintain cultural, historical and economic characteristics that make each territory unique.

1.3 The point of view of women Despite advances in neo-institutional approaches,3 the view on the contributions made by women to the economy is not evident. This is due to omissions caused by gender differences, but also dueto the use of categories that do not get economic value assigned to them (the stereotype of women as housewives, self-employed and with an over-representation ininformal markets or subsistence entrepreneurship). These works are considered as a development issue, but is never considered from the point of view of activities that promote development.

Women are the groupmost affected by the global crisis because they assume responsibility in caretaking economy and in productive economy. This is compounded by the fact that they earn less pay for equal work performed by men. The incidence of poverty is higher in households headed by women (over 50% in Honduras and Nicaragua, more than 30% in Guatemala and El Salvador). 4

1.4 The MyDEL analysis

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The first phase of MyDEL is linked to new territorial dynamics derived from the paradigm of open regionalism. This gives the export sector the role of economic engine and vector for Central American participation in the global economy.

At present there is general discussion about the Mesoamerican region,composed of one Central America and nine states of southern Mexico, based on mega projects that profit from the comparative advantages of territories with an aim at conquering other markets. There are several initiatives in place such as the Puebla Panama Plan (PPP) and the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, which aim to turn the area into a center for global development rather than build a region based on its identity and entrepreneurship.

MyDEL takes into account the problems of heterogeneity and human development and gender backwardness in Mexico and Central America. However, it also highlights the potential of women entrepreneurship and the empowerment in the region; it recognizes the process of integration created from below as well as the role of civil society actors.

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Based on the territorial and gender approach,MyDEL favors action platforms by States are directed to balance the maladjustments between regions or between countries in the Puebla-Panama macro region. It also seeks to ensure the participation of communities and women entrepreneurs in definingthe course of regional development and investment.

3 In 1996, Douglas North restated the economy in his neo-institutional analysis that considers historic aspects, standards, policies and social make-up that mark the performance of nations.

4 According to information from the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC, 2008).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

According to MyDEL, these are the current relevant dynamics for the lives of women who develop enterprises at the base of the economic pyramid:

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WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Profile of the Mesoamerican region: land and people

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Source: FaunĂŠ M.A., based on information submitted by the General Coordinators of PPP, Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretariat. Columns 4 and 7 come from the presentation by Rebeca Grynspan, ECLAC. Regional Forum on Thoughts about Millennium Goals, Gender Equity and PPP, MĂŠxico D.F., 2003.

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MyDEL highlights the negotiation process between the European Union and Central America, which seeks to enter into the Association Agreement, including a free trade agreement. It also considers lessons learned from other trade agreement negotiation processes (Chile and Mexico, for example).

l

The implementation of the competitiveness agenda and the respective national development and competitiveness plans show sector biases, despite the claim of a systemic approach. Local economic development is part of the official discourse, but is ultimately not taken as an inherent component to achieve competitiveness in the new institutional map. MyDEL reveals this bias and emphasizes one of its major constraints: the gender neutrality with which plans are formulated and the competitiveness agenda implemented. Recognize women entrepreneurship is a step to break through that neutrality and minimize the separation between plans and policies for gender equity and the new institutionalism framework that promotes competitiveness, but that fails to recognize women as actors and authors in the economy.

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MyDEL works with two hypotheses: a) towns and territories have varying resources (financial, human, institutional and cultural) characterized by their structure (productive, socio-political and natural); b) women should be taken into account as economic actors and authors.

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One of the most important phenomena in Central America in the last twenty-five years is political and administrative decentralization. While women are able to integrate into the local system, serving in positions of political representation, this does not occur at the expected rate and volume. In the last ten years we have seen a significant drop in the number of women representatives in local governments. Although women change exclusive paradigms and assume collective challenges, education gaps persist (objective and subjective5): and there continues to be a lack of support for gender needs and affirmative action.

In view of the structural constraints faced by women to participate in elective office, new forms of participation have been created to claim the right of women to exercise their full citizenship.6 These expressions suggest that MyDEL should strengthen initiatives, especially in the advocacy work of local women leadership.

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The creation of COMMCA was an important step to includethe subject of women in the process of regional integration. Recognition of the establishment of COMMCA and its inclusion in SICA occurred on June 30, 2005. In its strategic plan between 2006 and 2009, COMMCA promised to includewomen’s interests related to economic empowerment, holistic health and full political participation on the agenda of Central American integration. UN Women UNIFEM (Former UNIFEM) is committed to supporting COMMCA. Despite advances in COMMCA, new barriers to gender institutions in the states of the region emerged, as new governments not only eliminate the rank of Minister for Women’s Affairs (held by directors of several national women’s institutions, as in thecase of Costa Rica), but also tend to shift the functions of national women’s agencies to Family Ministries (Nicaraguan case). These trends are a setback to the conquests following Beijing.

l

One of the main shadows that loom over the region is gender violence. Far from diminishing, this structural phenomenon has acquired the character of feminicide, as shown by the figures recorded in the observatories created by women’s movements. In addition to violence, other issues that are affecting women differently from men are: a) lack of recognition of women’s reproductive work; b) rapid transformation of the wage-based labor market; c) movement of people through borders; d) lack of access to public health; e) insufficient access to basic production inputs.

It is difficult to develop this conceptualization of the daily image that generates an enterprising women from the everyday image produced by an enterprising woman. In principle, it is clear that women entrepreneurs are innovative or have the potential to be. But, what is innovation? Unlike an invention, innovation is a small set of actions generated consistently that produce something unique, are hard to copy and which create value for society. Innovation comes from new combinations of factors and from creating new learning conditions (environment);it is expressed in the form of new products, processes, functions or sectors, including product updates. Innovation is change that comes from within and from any enterprise size (especially small ones).

5 Those subjective gaps include the inner acceptance of inequality resulting from violence, and the lack of self-valuation, as well as the lack of legitimacy that their personal and collective interests obtain.

6 As an example, the National Association of Salvadoran Alderwomen, Receivers and Women Mayors (ANDRySAS) and the National Women’s Forum of Guatemala.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.5 Conceptualization of women entrepreneurship

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With this concept, women take a leap (upgrade) in product, process, function and/or chain quality, capturing different types of income; they produce a better quality product in less time and at a lower cost. That occurs because women combine their assets with building relationships so that, from there, they can generate services and products that will lead to family and community well-being.

The characteristics of women entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid are: l

Women entrepreneurs have assets that are mainly intangible and dynamic (social capital, formal organizations, flat networks, decentralized structures, forms of government that are shared without a clear center, construction of horizons based on access to trade brokerage that generates information, and therefore, insight into where and what to do to adjust to change). Intangible assets are combined with tangible assets, that is, physical infrastructure and investment.

l

The context broadens in two complementary ways: one which is adverse and that is formed by policies, institutions, power relations and social machinery that make women entrepreneurs invisible; another one which involves the building, on the part of women entrepreneurs, of their own morality, other rules of the game and new forms of achieving legitimacy and encouragement.

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Entrepreneurship reflects ethnic and age diversity.

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Degree of well-being of women entrepreneurs as a result of their work strategies and networking.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

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Despite these difficult conditions, women are key players in the economy. According to ECLAC (2004),the rate of participation of women in the economy in urban areas of the CA-4 countries is greater than 70%. Statistical projections of that Commission indicate that by 2020 women will constitute 50% of Central American workforce.

Recognizing the diversity of women assets and protecting them is one of the objectives of MyDEL. Therefore, to identify and bring together women entrepreneurs, organize synergies, create or strengthen value chains, organize structures of mutual credit, and others, is part of the quest for sustainable competitiveness in relevant jurisdictions.

CHAPTER 2

MyDEL, UNIFEM (now UN Women) and the initiative to support land and theme UNDP networks (ART) development approach and vision The human development approach is adopted in the United Nations System (UNS) and UNIFEM (now UN Women) as the option toward the integral development of men and women. MyDEL articulates with this this approach linking the themes related to human rights and the rights of women, especially as a result of the Human Rights Conference in Vienna (1993).

MyDEL seeks to contribute to human development from the local level and with the gender perspective, placing equality and women’s rights at the center, not as a condition, but as a commitment to development. The strategy revolves around women’s entrepreneurship at the base of the economic pyramid in Central America.

MyDEL takes the approach of Amartya Sen and takes into account the considerations of the Quito Consensus for enterprising women to achieve leadership and a new position.7 Thanks to the joint experience with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ART Program, MyDEL endorses the conceptualization of local human development with a territorial approach.

2.1 The philosophical and ethical framework of human development

For his part, Mahube ul Haq established an approach in the first Human Development Report (1990), which survives nineteen years later: the goal of human development is to create an enabling environment where people can live long, healthy and creative lives. According to UNDP, human development means the process of broadening people’s choices; the paradigm means that investing in people is the best strategy for sustainable development, since society progresses only if all the individuals who belong to it see their freedoms and capabilities improve. Institutions focus on working

7 In this regard, the most recent and relevant expression in Latin America is the one presented in the Quito Consensus in 2007. From it came the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, an example of how the State advances towards the concept of good living rather than well-being.

8 B. Klilsberg (2003). «A matter of ethics», Revista Venezolana de Gerencia, October-December, Year/vol. 8, number 024, Universidad de Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

According to Bernardo Kliksberg,8 Latin America needs to recover the close relationship that should exist between ethical values and economic behavior. This means highlighting in public agendas issues such as consistency between economic policies and ethics, social responsibility of private business, ethics in public service, strengthening voluntary organizations and the development of solidarity in general.

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for and with people. The human development paradigm is collective and interdisciplinary. The world will thus achieve fair distribution of resources and opportunities, with full respect for Human Rights, democracy, wealth creation and environmental sustainability.

The Human Development Index (HDI) was created under these assumptions; it complements an economic vision by integrating the following variables: life expectancy at birth, access to education and per capitaGDP. The HDI seeks a broader definition of well-being, beyond production, income, foreign market and consumption. In addition to the HDI, UNDP developed two additional key indicators: the gender-related development index (GDI) and the gender enhancement index (GEI). Both measure the social and economic inequalities between men and women and their access to development opportunities.

2.2 Societies propose good living from the south America

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

MyDEL endorses the human development paradigm and the concept of good living, which is advancing the concept of well-being; it deepens knowledge through exchanges and crossed pollination with the processes conducted in Ecuador and Bolivia, parallel to Colombia and Dominican Republic initiatives.

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MyDEL participates in the Central American Local Development Masters Program (that started in 2008 in Nicaragua and El Salvador); COMMCA; regional microfinance networks; Gender, Economy and Local Development meetings; the ART Initiative and other cooperation mechanisms that address this approach. Local development is viewed as an endogenous approach and strategies and plans are developed to make territories competitive in order to guarantee that their citizens can overcome the crises of previous decades and face the current crisis.

2.3 UNIFEM (now UN Women) and the human rights framework Efforts fall within the framework of the full realization of human rights, for which purpose, the various international instruments that contain and promote them are taken into account. These instruments include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Vienna Declaration and Action Plan, the Millennium Declaration and its Millennium Development Objectives (MDO).

UNIFEM (now UN Women) was created in 1976 to provide technical and financial assistance for innovative programs and strategies that promote women empowerment and gender equality. It focuses on four strategic areas: l

Reducing poverty and women exclusion.

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Eliminating violence against women.

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Eradicating the dissemination of HIV/AIDS among women and girls.

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Supporting women leadership in democratic public management, both in times of peace and war

To achieve these goals, UN Women cooperates with countries in the development and implementation of laws and public policies aimed at to eliminate discrimination, promote gender equality and decent work condition for women. It also seeks to bring change of attitude in the discriminatory practices of society.

2.4 Tenth regional conference on women in latin america integration, development an women’s rights This Conference, held in Quito, Ecuador, from August 6 to 9, 2007, discussed two strategically important issues for the region: l

Political participation and gender parity in decision-making processes at all levels.

l

Contribution

work.9

by women to the economy and social protection, especially in relation to unpaid

The Quito Consensus reaffirms the link between Human Rights, the consolidation of a representative and participatory democracy and economic and social development, recognizing that the secular nature of states contributes to the elimination of discrimination against women and guarantees the exercise of their human rights. It also recognizes the following:

Social

and economic value of unpaid house chores done by women;the need to promote shared responsibility by men and women in the family.

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Importance of social and economic value of agricultural and subsistence unpaid work done by rural and farmers women.

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Significant contributions by women to the economy, in the productive and reproductive dimensions.

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Persistence of the gender-based division of labor, with the resulting maintenance of inequalities and economic injustices that affect women in family, labor, political and community environments.

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Poverty and inequality, deepened by structural adjustment policies, remain an obstacle to the promotion and protection of all human rights for women

9 Both topics are key to MyDEL although the latter refers to employment policies and not to female entrepreneurship. This notwithstanding, it is difficult to separate the issue of employment from that of entrepreneurship because many women participate at least once in the paid labor market before starting their own economic activity.

In addition, the issue of reproductive work concerns both topics, since business women would have huge advantages if the State made child care services available to them.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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2.5 UNDP’S ART initiative and its theoretical approach MyDEL a partner in promoting local human development MyDEL is a partner of UNDP’s ART Initiative, with which it shares approaches and objectives. This initiative is a network of institutions with professionals from different disciplines and areas of performance that work to promote local human development. The ART Initiative supports national and local governments in the implementation of decentralization policies and territorial development.

Through a cross-sector and complementary approach, it participates in supporting political and administrative decentralization policies, coverage, quality and sustainability of regional public services, local economic development, land regulation systems and the promotion and implementation of a gender approach.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

In November 2004, UNDP, ILO, UNESCO, UNIFEM (now UN Women), WHO and UNOPS signed an agreement together with other UN agencies to launch the ART International Cooperation Initiative(Coordination of Land and Thematic Networks of Cooperation for Human Development) whose overall objective is to promote a territorial approach to human development to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in every country.

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The challenge for MyDEL, in alliance with UNDP’s ART Initiative, is to open a route through participatory tools and methodological approaches to collect the voices and experiences of women and their economic contribution to the development process at local level. UNDP’s ART Initiative influences the international community to transform cooperation policies, and promotes a new multilateralism.

Decentralized Cooperation For MyDEL, the modality of decentralized cooperation used in partnership with ART allows it to operate in the current context of globalization, taking into account its new realities and challenges. The link between global economics and local space led to inventing of the term ‘glocal’, to refer to how global changes interact with local dynamics in interdependent relationships. Within the framework of restating the functions of the nation-state, sub-national territories carry out changes at any of their levels, thus becoming responsible players and managers of their own development.

The integration process progresses from a limited management vision of local-national borders, to the concept of open borders. This is called cross-border territorial space, that is,work is conducted in two and three nation simultaneously. These are the characteristicsof the territories where MyDEL operates.

Another important aspect of the program is direct participation of sub-national governments in the system of international cooperation and city networks as mechanisms to become international. Finally, for MyDEL it is also crucial to ensure the association of two partners in a clearly reciprocal action of interests(North-South or South-South), where the practice of unilateralism is rejected to favor a culture of partnership. Hence, decentralized cooperation goes beyond the transfer of financial resources and is oriented toward the transfer of knowledge and experience.

The main ideas of decentralized cooperation Decentralized cooperation “[...] represents a new approach to cooperative relations that seeks to establish direct relationships with local representative bodies and stimulate their own capacities to plan and carry out development initiatives with the direct participation of stakeholders, taking into account their interests and views on development “(European Commission, 1992).

The key ideas are: l Active participation (ownership) of all promoter families l Seeking consultation and complementarinessamong the various agents l Decentralized management l Adoption of a process approach l Priority given to skill efforts and institutional development l Establishment ofpartnerships

Territorial vision The human development approach is complemented by the vision of territory as a space to build the development process. MyDEL’s experience shows that building regional networks, which create dynamic social capital, are transformed into “the glue that holds companies together.” Horizontal associations among people have an effect on the productivity of the community; in this sense, the key is that coordination and cooperation processes benefit territories where women and their businesses make a contribution and take action.

2.6 The effectiveness of aid in the framework of UNIFEM (now UN Women) and MyDEL

This thought process led, in 2005, to the principles of the Paris Declaration, which cannot be abstracted from the approach proposed by MyDEL. These Principles focus on redirecting ODA to help ensure proper impact of aid on development indicators and their implementation with a focus on mutual accountability of donors and host societies. Also, these are principles that complement the MDGs and include mechanisms to facilitate and promote the effectiveness of aid, with implications for the microfinance sector and in defining the size of the specific impact on excluded social groups.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In the framework of international cooperation for the development of Central American societies, one must ask why there has been no real impact despite so much investment and contributions. It is also necessary to ask why, when impact does happen, it cannot be general. This led to a number of questions about what has been achieved and how processes of official development assistance (ODA) have been implemented.

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CHAPTER 3

MyDEL, geography and strategy development approach and vision The MyDEL Program integrates the concepts of human development, territory, gender, rights and aid effectiveness

3.1 MyDEL geography and new territorial dynamics

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The territories in which the program operates are multiethnic, and this is particularly important. These are also territories characterized by higher levels of inequality and poverty, due to the predominance of rural populations (except in Le贸n, Nicaragua) and their richness in natural resources.

MyDEL geography: territories and indigenous populations

Source: MyDEL Centroamerica, 2008.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Between 2005 and 2006 the area of action of the program focused in five regions, four countries and five states: Honduras (Southern region, Valle state), Nicaragua (Western Region, Le贸n state) El Salvador (Western Region, Sonsonate state) and Guatemala (Northeastern Region, State of Chiquimula, and northwestern State of Huehuetenango). In 2007, the program was expanded in Guatemala to two new states in the Southwest Region: San Marcos and Solol谩.

The scenario in which MyDEL operates is nostranger to the emerging dynamics that change the economic, social and political geography of territories (production relocation, trade flows, political decentralization and changes in the spatial distribution of populations).

These new scenariosof territorial dynamics are the result of conflict and peace processes, the process of regional integration initiatives and mega projects promoted by States in the context of trade liberalization, social multilateralism from below, migration and new partnerships, among others.

From this perspective, the following dynamics stand out in the territories that make up the action area of MyDEL:

l

Valle (Honduras) is immersed in the new dynamics of the border area formed by the municipalities bordering the Gulf of Fonseca, La Unión (El Salvador), Nacaome (Honduras) and Chinandega (Nicaragua).

l

Valle (Honduras): Association of Border Municipalities participating in strategic investment projects in the bi-national border of the Goascorán River.

l

Chiquimula (Guatemala), border integration of the region in the three-country plan.

l

Sonsonate (El Salvador), regionalization and micro regionalization process.

l

Huehuetenango (Guatemala), old and new geographies.

l

León (Nicaragua) participates in the process to strengthen the Western region by bringing new life to agro business.

3.2 MyDEL strategy MyDEL was created within the collaboration framework between the Italian Cooperation Agency and UNIFEM´s (now UN Women) Regional Office for Mexico, Central America, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. It is an expression of commitment from both agencies to eradicate poverty, promote human rights and address gender equality issues. It is a commitment to support the empowerment of women, promote territorial development in Central America and recognize the strategic role of women in the development of local economies.

Proposed objetives l

To launch actions to combat poverty by enhancing women entrepreneurship at local level.

Central America: feminization of the base

l To

develop a concerted strategy to empower local women’s entrepreneurship and to advocate for women’s leadership in the governance of economic development.

To define a model to enhance the economic empowerment of women locally and for women leadership to have an impact in the governance of economic development.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

l

19

Strategy actions aim at:

Recognizing

women as an economic force and local women entrepreneurs as important stakeholders in the economics of innovation.

l

Creating businesses and agreements among institutions and sectors (technical assistance and bringing resources back to create companies).

l

l

Cooperation between national and regional women´s mechanisms.

Methodological approach It is based on the human development methodology at the local level that opens up the opportunity to value and know how much women do in terms of gender policies. It also makes it possible to determine what dialogue takes place between them and national and international agencies. This methodology that comes from experiences of relationships between institutions and territory becomes a specific cooperation modality called decentralized cooperation.

This approach fosters relationship with local governments, civil society and social organizations, as well as coordination with the national and above the national levels. A participatory approach is developed towards governance policies where living together in the same territory makes it possible to address relationships among various social subjects in an inclusive manner within the framework of public sphere.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

An important aspect of the methodology is the creationof transnational partnerships among women North/South and South/South.

20

Strategy coordination by scope of action MyDEL is coordinated at three levels: local/State, national and regional Central American. From the strategic point of view, this translates into efforts to influence state, national and regional policies.

At regional level, MyDEL supports COMMCA, women networks in local economic development (women entrepreneurs), and networks of indigenous and afro-descendent women. At the national level, it supports the participation of women associations at national economic work groups as well as in a dialogue with Ministries of Economy. At the local-state level, Program efforts focus on Statelevel Development Councils (CDD), municipal associations and Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDA).

CDDs are intermediate political management bodies that seek to involve women associations acting in the economic sector to promote gender-based development plans and to draft gender-sensitive budgetsin competitive and inclusive development and poverty-combat strategies. LEDA is local economic driving mechanisms. Efforts have been made to include a representative of these associations in the Board of LEDA and to establish a Service Center for Women Entrepreneurship (CSEM) with the support of business women associations (through technological transfer for product and process innovation, and financial support; creation of new entrepreneurship; raising the awareness of young women with regard to business culture and the realization of territorial development projects).

MyDEL strategy in Central America

3.3 The pillars that sustain the MyDEL execution strategy These pillars are linked to territorial and empowerment approaches adopted as well as to policies to partner with LEDA, universities and women organizations.

Pillar I. A bet in favor of enhancing womenentrepreneurship from the local level, recognizing women as emerging actors who are the creators and re-enactors of local economies.

Pillar II. A commitment to explore the possible role of the territory in the search for equality by empowering women.MyDEL views the territory as an active agent of development.

Pillar III. Bets in favor of women empowerment and the exercise of women´s active citizenship in economic governance. In practice, MyDEL seeks to coordinate women entrepreneurship with democratic governance en route to gender equality.

Pillar V. Coordination with local government agencies resulting from municipal decentralization and partnership processes.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Pillar IV. Selecting LEDAas its institutional counterparts at territorial level with the establishment of a strategic partnership (platform from which the MyDEL strategy is executed and developed, particularly as concerns the identification and enhancement of women entrepreneurship in the four Central American countries).

21

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Gender-analysis matrix of women undertaking and economics at territorial level

22

Pillar VI. Coordination with national women mechanisms.10 Pillar VII. Development of partnerships with universities and public and private sector groups, particularly with those with a presence in territories. These partnerships are developed under the logic of platforms that are defined in cooperation agreements to ensure sustainability. Partnerships are also established with public sector agencies (Ministries of Economy, Presidential Planning Secretariats and Ministries of Agricultural Development, among others) and with international initiatives with territorial presence in countries, that is, innovative networks of women to reinforce economic entrepreneurship, and international cooperation agencies and programs.

10 Presidential Secretariat for Women (SEPREM), in Guatemala; Salvadoran Institute for the Develop0ment of Women (ISDEMU), in El Salvador; Nicaraguan Institute for Women (INIM), in Nicaragua; and the National Institute for Women (INAM), in Honduras.

3.4 Methodological approach They become the analytical-operative axes that make it possible to coherently propose the process and to share the knowledge obtained in the first phase of MyDEL. This is done within a comprehensive framework presented by the Program around the recognition, valuation, and enhancement of women entrepreneurship and the establishment of an adequate service platform.

As a whole, the process involves development and learning. Development in the sense of investing effort and analysis to harmonize territorial economic development with women entrepreneurship enhancement. But it also means learning based on the MyDEL experience which allows building knowledge that translates into specific actions in favor of the full citizenship of women.

Possibly the separation between learning from the experience of specific actions in territories and the theoretical proposals that focus on the macro-social vision does not lead to adequately reflecting on processes, particularly those having to do with womenentrepreneurship enhancement. This means that, with successive operation phases, many programs and projects continue to repeat the same type of intervention without innovating or moving on to the meso-territorial and macro policy levels. For this reason, the global discussion on the effectiveness of aid for development forces the implementation of results-based management processes that make it possible to see an impact and support in longer term processes.

Mayra Falck (2008).

Along the way, together with women entrepreneurs and the partnership platform developed, MyDEL builds an execution model based on the development of methodological paths, the result of a multidisciplinary effort.

The path of paths: a multi-disciplinary and systematic effort MyDEL involves four paths: Path 1. The path of recognition of the the existence of women entrepreneurship and their spatial pattern at the local level.

Path 3. The path of business development and enhancement of women entrepreneurship in local economies and territorial development.

Path 4. The path to enhance women leadership and position it in local-territorial development governance.

Paths 1 and 2 develop a process to make the economic activity of women visible in territories and consistently and precisely evaluate the way in which such entrepreneurship participate in value chains

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Path 2. The path that recognizes the value and role of women entrepreneurship in territorial economic development.

23

or productive chains. In that context, participation by knowledge centers committed with the issue guarantee applied research.

This approach permitted a valuation of possible market chains, management peculiarities and, on that basis, the development of a proposal for Path 3 to design service strategies to strengthen not only market integration but the comprehensive nature of a business approach tailored to users, one that recognizes the characteristics and special conditions of the territory and its governance scheme.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

The paths that have been launched open up a road to produce knowledge and develop tools that will make processes underway sustainable. They also empower women entrepreneurs of the base of the economic pyramid, thus forming Path 4 and challenging exclusion and discrimination in times of global crisis.

24

CHAPTER 4

path 1: recognition of the existence of women entrepreneurship and their spatial pattern at local level geo-referencing, mapping and GIS-Emprede-FEM proposal

Path I: geo-referencing and map of women entrepreneurship

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

UTILIZACIĂ“N SIG

25

Step 1: path proposal

starting point, foundation, purposes, premises and conceptual principles The proposal of Path 1, geo-referencing and women entrepreneurship and mapping, responds to the need to develop and validate tools that facilitate and ensure the visibility and recording of womenentrepreneurship. These are prerequisites to take women entrepreneurs out of anonymity and move forward in their recognition and valuation. Thus, gender stereotypes as well as the gender neutrality with which institutional frameworks responsible for territorial planning and economic development management has been operating become modified.

Despite its importance, it is difficult and almost impossible to include women entrepreneurs of the base of the economic pyramid in public policy agendas. The absence of systematized information, of records or data bases prevents the visualization of the existence, value and potential of said entrepreneurship.

This limitation means that local-territorial development plans are developed and carried out without adequate information about the real size of women entrepreneurship as an economic force, and about womenentrepreneurship as an innovating and transforming activity.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Path 1 is basedon the search of new methodologies to effectively address the problem of women entrepreneurship. Its objectives are:

26

l

To respond to women entrepreneurs’ demand for recognition, one of the pending challenges in the

l

To introduce and validate the use of geographic information technologies (GIT) as a methodological

gender equality agenda.

tool to ensure recognition and recording of women entrepreneurship locally. Within the framework of the Geographic Information System (GIS), geo-referenced information creates conditions to make women entrepreneurs visible and to prove their existence, and to build and keep an updated database of their geography and size.

MyDEL’s proposal on the inclusion of geographic information to recognize women entrepreneurs is based on the importance of their work in public policies. With Path 1, MyDEL seeks to includeon the gender agenda, the generation of geographically located, on line information on women entrepreneurship.It also seeks to change the way to present policies, making them direct and open to interactive network communication tools. The idea to establish the foundations for a GIS of women entrepreneurship responds to this approach: an observatory of territorial transformations. It works, as a dynamic container for different data and information with which applications are developed for planner needs. A GIS includes several levels of knowledge that help decision-makers find solutions to problems encountered.

MyDEL, together with several universities, assumed the challenge to implement this Path 1 with the purpose of validating its feasibility as localwomen entrepreneurship identification, location, recognition and recording instrument. The decision to include the spatial dimension in addressing the problem of inequality faced by women entrepreneurs is based on the premise that the territory is a social dimension. It should be recognized that geography is still a pending matter in gender studies and this is evident in the limited significance assigned to analyzing relationships between space and gender despite the fact that its generic construction includes evident territorial differences.

Thus, MyDEL’s incursion in the use of GITs responds to the relationship among territory, society, gender and economy, since every social process includes a spatial dimension and, therefore, conceptualizing territory is the spatial, real and material expression of those processes and social relations. On the other hand, the precision and efficiency of GITs to locate and geo-reference women entrepreneurship is also based on their linkage with GIS and spatial thinking. MyDEL favors the use of cartography so that information on the entrepreneurship by women may be viewed and recorded to then help counter prevailing stereotypes about women’s economic activities.

The geo-referenced data on womenentrepreneurship is universal knowledge that can become strategic information essential to development. The use of geographic information technology and platforms (GIS-GPS) allows swift and flexible spatial information management and analysis to use in making various types of decisions. In addition to efficient management of territorial information, the possibility to have a new way to read the transformations of local economy actors is considered. Later, information can be related to census databases to know the way in which womenentrepreneurship draw new economic-social geography. The use of maps is particularly valuable, since it is estimated that almost 80% of the needs for information by policy-makers and developers in local governments is linked to geographic location.

As concerns11 the approach from which recognition is assumed, MyDEL readdresses the justice concept coined by Fraser that includes three dimensions: resource distribution, recognition and representation.

For women entrepreneurs, lack of recognition is experienced as disparagement, dispossession. This underscores their right to be identified by their name and valued for what they are and contribute to family and local finances.

Step 2: implementation

MyDEL, university, local stakeholder partnerships and participatory methodology MyDEL promoted its strategic partnership with prestigious universities, most of them present where the program operates. Universities took on the responsibility to lead the process, whose main objective was to referencingthe inventory and mapof women entrepreneurship, with the purpose of validating its feasibility and efficacy. The methodology was agreed on a regional methodological workshop organized by MyDEL (Guatemala, December 2005).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

University teams worked with ADEL to organize the process in the territory. The key to open the methodological path was the partnership among academia, local players and women entrepreneurs.

The partnership with universities to develop the women entrepreneurship GIS was validated, thus ensuring technical follow-up.

11 Arribas, Sonia and del Castillo, Ramón (2007). Interview with Fraser on justice, feminism and women. México D.F., October 30, 2007, CIMAC.

27

Step 3: coding the inventory

of women entrepreneurship at the state-municipal level, and participatory methodology An operational definition of women entrepreneurship was chosen to produce the inventory: initiatives, businesses, or companies underway that are managed by women, individually or in organized groups. We worked together with women entrepreneurs with the support of CESM.All total, some 1,449 business women were identified in the MyDEL area of action up to 2007. This includes four clusters in Le贸n (Nicaragua).

Step 4: geo-reference process

strategy followed to develop a database

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

This entrepreneurship followed a strategy that answered the basic questions of the first phase of MyDEL:

28

l

Where are located women entrepreneurship?

l

What spatial pattern do they present?

Thegeo-reference strategy to answer these two questions involved a series of steps ranging from obtaining geo-data of entrepreneurship to the elaboration of theme maps. The instrument used was GPS12 that was applied in situ by GIS-university teams based on a routing plan. Other instruments designed and used to obtain information about the attributes of women instruments are inventory records and methodological guides. The records (non-geographic information) were used simultaneously as the GPS routing process to guarantee efficiency. Then, geographic womenentrepreneurship information is presented in a vector topology,the data arerepresented in the form of coordinates. In the case of Nicaragua, the business/entrepreneurship identification code was added (COD-ID).

12 Satellite system used to define the geographic position of an object on the surface of earth, be it static or in movement. GPS allows the definition of the latitude and longitude of each entrepreneurship in state and municipal maps.

Step 5: theme maps

drawn with digital support to visualize the existence of women entrepreneurship and self stamp management strategy The bet of MyDELis to promote the use of cartography as a communication, influence and empowerment element of women entrepreneurs. For MyDEL, maps drawn during the geo-reference process are support to store information on actual entrepreneurship as well as an effective communications, political and economic negotiation tool.

Women entrepreneurship map presentation

The maps allow to visualizethe, existence of womenentrepreneurship by locating them geographically and recording their characteristics on the state or municipal map to be presented publicly to the community, to women entrepreneurs and local authorities.

Source: Faune, M.A., MyDEL, 2006.

Step 6: roadmap

for the public presentation of women entrepreneurship maps presentation models designed

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This roadmap started with an advance presentation to all those involved in the process: business women, partner university teams and other local actors in the process. These presentations produced feedback for those who provided their support in the data search phase. This roadmap covers three MyDEL operation levels: local-transnational, national and regional/international. The participation of relevant actors is considered in each level. In academia we seek to raise awareness about the need to recognize women entrepreneurships though the creation of GIS platforms.

29

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Women entrepreneurship map presentation

30

Entrepreneurship of Amapala, Valle Municipality

Step 7: asessment of the effectivness

of the geo-referencing as a tool to ensure recognition of women entrepreneurs at the base of the economic pyramid The outcomes of the first phase of MyDEL experience on the use of GITs show that the main value of thistool was to facilitate information on the location of women entrepreneurs. Territorial information acquired value when geographically referenced. The use of the tool helped visualize and certify the existence of women entrepreneurs at the base of the economic pyramid, contributing to its recognition (the main result expected) and helps divulge their existence in the territory.

.

Results

The unfinished agenda from the prospective of gender equality implies that, despite their poor conditions, theselocal businesses create, recreate and generate wealth and bring new life to local economies. The wealth created is not fairly appreciated because these works are in the home and therefore become merged with the household and are not recognized as the economic structure of the region. Also, it is wealth produced throughout lengthy, intensive days that usually involve also working at night.

From MyDEL approach, locating the places where womenentrepreneurship take place is a task that must take into account not only geography but also gender. This is the only way to highlights the stereotypes about thesites/placeswhere economic women entrepreneurship takes place and which are delegitimized as such.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

It was recognizes that the economic units of identified project are located in the domestic space, that is, in the household (its environment included) as a place of production. Economic units, also called shops, show additional features: they present basic need in terms of infrastructure, so thatthe scale of production is seriously limited by internal unit factors (space, access to inputs and condition of capital goods, among others). In general, local businesses do not have machinery, tools or the right materials.

The body is the main tool of women entrepreneurs.

31

The inventory helped demystify some prevailing ideas: l

The tendency to classify workshops as improvised and informal production spaces. The inventory confirmed that shops have been designed and assembled by women as a business and family investment where the knowledge of a profession and knowledge of women represent the main driver and asset.

l

The Association ofthe sites where it operates women entrepreneurship with informal work has the aggravating circumstances that informality (structured in turn both in terms of gender and in terms of sites) is symbolically associated with femininity and survival. Added to this is the fact that using the household space maintains entrepreneurship in anonymity. Also to be considered are the disadvantages and costs for entrepreneur women when using their home as a production site: problems setting boundaries between timework time and to leisure; inadequate conditions due to lack of space; negotiation difficulties in the family to have household chores shared.

The fact that almost all business women productive units are in their home, largely due to lack of resources to set their business in an independent site, poses a challenge for authorities in local development agendas, particularly to improve infrastructure in areas where such entrepreneurship are more concentrated.

The geo-referenced inventory is also a tool to recognize the geography of women businesses from the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nature of the Central American region.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Follow-up-platform

32

MyDEL presented to COMMCA the proposal to create the Women Entrepreneurship Geographic Information System (GIS-EMPRENDE-FEM) to make it a part of the Central American Economic Integration Secretariat Information System (SIECA) as well as to produce a Women entrepreneurship Atlas as a communication and negotiation tool for business women in the sub region.

In addition, the proposal was made to the network of partner universities to create capacity in the use of the Geographic Information System to analyze gender in local development. There are two steps involved in this effort: training social researchers in the framework of MyDEL/university partnership and, two, democratizing access to existing GIS information.

CHAPTER 5

path 2: recognition of the value and role of women entrepreneurship in territorial economic development

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Path 2: recognition of the value and role of women entrepreneurship in TED

Source: FaunĂŠ, M.A., MyDEL, 2007.

33

Addressing the recognition of women entrepreneurship requires going beyond theoretical assumption and statements of principles that, which themselves, do not change policies and the status of the women of the base of the economic pyramid. This is the scope of action of Path 2 that involves valuing the potential and the contribution of women entrepreneurs to the territorial development. Part of the Alliance of MyDEL with Universities in support of the objective was to overcome the categorization of women entrepreneurs as ÂŤvulnerable sectorÂť or, in other words, as poor.

5.1 Conceptual basis for the territorial study generation of value of women entrepreneurship

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

MyDEL uses a triple operational approach: (a) the activation or enhancement of territorial development processes with a gender approach; (b) the development of comprehensive knowledge for action; (c) the intentional and evident promotion of women entrepreneurship. This approach includes two trends: the first one is that the process is built from down up (endogenous development). The second one is the concept of value chains, a novel approach that promotes business competitiveness under a comprehensive analysis that includes all actors and activities participating in productive processes, from suppliers to end users. The value chain is a set of macro processes structured to provide a value proposal to clients and generate economic value for shareholders.

34

MyDEL recognizes that the value chain approach cannot be taken for granted because it is a relatively new methodology that is not yet applied in LEDA intervention areas or to business women or micro entrepreneurs of the base of the economic pyramid. Applying the approach in the territorial development framework requires innovating the analysis to make it a contribution to women leadership and to position entrepreneurship. MyDEL accepts that, even if progress is made in the conceptual framework, it is necessary to discuss, review and enrich the approach before applying it.

5.2 Value chain analysis

partnershipprocesess, competitive advantages in value-generating activities Applying the value chain approach is useful in different productive Project experiences to establish linkages among producers, distributors and consumers as well as between industrialized and developing countries. From this approach, value generation involves design, input provision, production, marketing and consumption. It helps define where costs may be reduced, how to improve the final product and meet client demands. It therefore permits the identification of competitive advantages.

The value chain concept adds two new features: (a) generating backward value, in product, business and organization design; (b) generating forward value in the marketing phase.

The value chain approach proclaims that, regardless of size, several companies together can have the potential to scale up to another more convenient phase. Therefore, it is possible to ask about the best way to include micro and small businesses in the global economy and find more defined answers on how to include women in the economy.

MyDEL and partner universities suggest competing as business implicitly or explicitly organized in chains, as coalitions or clusters in a territory. The hypothesis is that much of the socio-economic novelty in the region has to do with SMEs and entrepreneurship, particularly those of women.

5.3 Added value

academic rigor and cross pollination in value chain recognition and analysis approach The aim in applying the value chain approach is that the analysis of contributions by women enterprises to the economy follow academic rigor. Knowledge management entities should do their work in situ which generates crossed pollination: academia/local players/womenentrepreneurship/development agents. The added value is defined from the following angles based on a win-win approach: Knowledge wins because new analysis categories are developed.

l l

Universities win when they learn from local actors and a process, which, in addition to being real, is

l

Local stakeholders win when they have a tool to negotiate access to assets, but cooperation and development organizations also win.

l

Territories win when they have good quality information to negotiate new ways of doing territorial

not a theoretical model, and this enriches teaching/learning.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

policy and move away from the micro/paternalistic policy approach.

35

CHAPTER 6

path 3: business development and enhancement of the stimulating role of women entrepreneurship in local economies and territorial development

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Path 3: business development and enhancement of the stimulating role of women entrepreneurship to local economies and territorial development

36

Source: FaunĂŠ, M.A., MyDEL, 2007.

Path 3 focuses on enhancing the role of women entrepreneurship as a stimulating factor of local economies, by means of business development through strategic partnerships with LEDA. It is the operational face of MyDEL and therefore, the most complex.

Women entrepreneurs participating in the program live in conditions of precariousness and much exclusion. Many of them cannot read or write and many of them do not even exist formally because they do not have identification documents. CSEM offers non-financial services to these women, as well as opportunities to be recognized, which we hope will help them gain access to financial services in the medium term.

From the perspective of territorial influence, MyDEL, in general, and Path 3, in particular, open up new opportunities for analysis and intervention for LEDA as catalytic of local economic development processes. The establishment of a CSEM is the most interesting novelty in the Program; therefore, they should continue to be strengthened within the framework of LEDA.

6.1 Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDA) These agencies are the outcome of a local development participation experience. They have a long history and involve a process of over fifty years, from the post-war in Europe. In Central America, ILO, UNDP, UNOPS and the Italian Cooperation Agency established the first LEDA. Each one has its own peculiarities, which respond to the dynamics of the context and its actors. It is for that reason that one cannot write only one story about them.

LEDA emerged from the need to overcome the fragmentation of micro-development projects that used to be abruptly interrupted or offered services that were not contextualized or were insufficient. They performed a relevant role in the reconstruction of the Central American countries that went through peace processes.

LEDA were established on the basis of principles such as acceptance of the fact that local actors are the ones that have the most accurate knowledge of their own reality and therefore those who can determine what actions are timely and appropriate.

LEDA perform their work through activities that are grouped in three strategic areas: l

Local economic stimulation. Involves the diagnosis of opportunities for productive development.

l

Business

l

Improvement

Projects identified receive technical support to write business plans with assistance to overcome education gaps and evaluate feasibility based on economic, technical and social criteria.

of Economic climate. The idea is to promote a favorable climate of institutional policies to support local economic planning processes and to create or strengthen infrastructure aimed at improving the productive system.

LEDA therefore represents the materialization of an agreement among development, public and private agents. They have the potential to influence public policy formulation and/or facilitate their enforcement in local contexts more effectively and efficiently.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

development services. Includes activities to support productive development and which stimulate the labor market.

37

Names of LEDAs associated to MyDEL and legal status

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Source: prepared by FaunĂŠ, M.A., based on database review APPI.

38

6.2 The strategic role of LEDAS

local development in capital and territorial marketing promotion LEDA has both a long-term as well as spatial vision of territories. This means that, together with CDDs, they can negotiate proposals that link the municipal level with other levels (State and sub-national levels) until they reach the national level. One of their main competencies is the identification and analysis of territorial capital. On this basis, LEDA and universities13 favor territorial marketing within the MyDEL framework. This means creating territorial product in its full complexity.

Territorial marketing is a strategy through which stakeholders in communities promote the identity, image and potential of their territory, and define specific actions to enhance internal cohesion and attract local, national and international resources. The main instrument for territorial marketing and to build territorial or theme-based partnerships is a document that describes the territory with its resources, institutions, products and services, experiences underway, investment opportunities, needs and other. This document is a letter of introduction of local collectivity and comes from the joint work among institutions and social stakeholders.

13 Particularly with Zamorano university.

6.3 Service Centers for women entrepreneurship (CSEM) CSEM are the most innovative experience, the heart or core of the program. They coordinate financial and business services and bring them close and tailor them to rural women entrepreneurs.

Objectives of CSEM General objective To promote and drive the development of women entrepreneurs and of competitive and profitable businesses that may contribute to create productive, incomegenerating jobs and help improve access to goods and services by women and youths in the territories where the MyDEL program operates.

Specific objectives l

To

create an institutional mechanism to facilitate the development of womenentrepreneurship at local level.

l

To

l

To help stimulate local economies by supporting and implementing productive, profitable and sustainable initiatives.

l

To

contribute to develop a business culture and business capabilities (women and youths).

help design a methodology to stimulate women entrepreneurship and empowerment at local level.

l

To strengthen and consolidate institutional capacity and LEDA sustainability in order for them to provide efficient and effective services to women users.

l

To help develop and strengthen businesses and self-sustained productive capabilities of women by facilitating adequate and timely financial, marketing, production transformation, technology transfer and technical assistance services.

To

favor the establishment of partnerships, as well as integration and coordination among local institutions and associations linked to local economic development.

l

To facilitate decentralization of public and private service systems to support women economic entrepreneurship development.

l

To help rescue the culture of indigenous people as it relates to economic and productive activities.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

l

39

Services provided by CSEM l

Participation and contributions to researchthe potential of local women entrepreneurship through geo-referenced inventories and value chain analysis.

l

Coordination and dissemination of information from institutions, programs or public and private programs that provide financial and business development services tailored to local users.

l

Coordination

and management of agreements with local, national and international organizations.

Promotion of economic initiatives and businesses for women, whether existing or potential, as identified locally.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

l

40

l

Receipt and analysis of support requests and definition of service requirements.

l

Awareness-raising and stimulation actions, with the purpose of promoting new

l

Support

l

Managing

l

Managing

l

Support

l

Facilitating strategic information on access to distribution channels.

l

Information

l

Promotion

l

Promotion

entrepreneurship.

forbusiness women in local and national trade fairs to promote their products. technical assistance services for users to help them develop and implement their business plans. and coordinating training services to build business and business management skills. for users in the presentation of their business plans to financial and development agencies.

on business creation, training and work, laws and standards and national programs. training.

of women leadership and empowerment through education and

of discussion and reflection events on the economic autonomy of women and on gender equality.

The strategy of the program focused on initiatives linked to territorial development, including textiles and apparel, food processing, fibers, clay and various ethno-tourism initiatives.

CSEM operate in LEDA facilities; they have a full time coordinator who is experienced in economic development. During the first year, the program pays for the coordinator. After that, LEDA covers this payment together with the cost of operations from interest from the revolving credit fund created

by MyDEL. These coordinators receive assistance from the staff of other areas of LEDA; they receive training and advice from MyDEL.

CSEM services are dynamic and are organized in four phases: i.

Research, promotion and dissemination of the Center

ii.

Awareness-raising and training

iii.

Technical assistance to develop business and resource management plans

iv.

Project implementation and technical support

6.4 Lessons learned in the business development path In the regional context, construction paths become the analytical-operational elements that make it possible to consistently propose the process and share the knowledge acquired in the first phase of MyDEL. The first two paths were significant in defining the territorial approach, associating it to value chains and, at the same time, on the basis of the analysis, building a management and association strengthening proposal. The first path is able to develop a process whereby the economic activity of business women in the territories becomes visible, as well as to consistently and precisely evaluating the way in which the business participate in value chains. In this context, the contributions made by knowledge centers provided applied research. This approach makes it possible to value potential linkages to market, the peculiarities of management, and, on this basis, make proposals for the second path to design service strategies that might strengthen not only integration to market but also the comprehensive nature of the approach, the peculiarities of the territory and its governance scheme.

MyDEL shows how one can have positive impact on the livelihoods of locally entrepreneur women from a value chain-focused financial approach. The premise is that a development agent, as a project or another modality, can achieve effective and inclusive processes through the use of flexible financial mechanisms adapted to the different levels of operation (micro, meso, macro and meta).

Studies show the difficulties that woman in rural areas face to gain access to financial mechanisms. The data available indicate that Central American Governments need to develop public policy definition processes (multi-level) that allow financial operations taking into account gender differentiation and the fact that equal opportunity is a development commitment. Within that framework, the following challenges are presented as public policy innovation: l

Promotion of financial technology breakthroughs to guarantee a financial model tailored to meso

l

Development of financial products and services that adapt territorial entrepreneurship and at the

l

Reconcile the financial service model with monetary policy elements, particularly on the issue of regulation and risk.

meta level.

The financing model promoted by MyDEL is justified with first-hand experiences on financial schemes for rural women, to use those systematized experiences to inform public policy decisions. The model retakes the territory as its operation center and involves:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

and micro level functionality.

41

l

Participation of public-private representation locally.

Coordination between technical assistance and financing in a CSEM platform.

l

Implementation of a financing approach to value chains.

l l

Operational development of financing by specialized entities that acts within the framework of regulation and risk control.

The strategy consider three elements: (a) the territory as coverage approach; (b) women entrepreneurship associated to value chains; (c) services for users from a platform that guarantees funding.

From the classic financial perspective, the model contains three elements: (a) the establishment of trusts in each country; (b) regulation design; (c) CSEM platform coordination.

In the first two Paths, the process involved identifying entrepreneurship with potential. In the third Path, MyDEL earmarked USD 500,000 to fund entrepreneurship whose business plans are feasible and showed potential. A USD 100,000 trust was established in each country with one of the major banks in the system because this is a versatile and functional financial mechanism.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

The operative framework of the trust includes UNOPS as trustor, the bank as trust entity and LEDA as trustees. The financial entity is responsible for managing and keeping custody of the fund and of providing teller service. LEDA/CSEM are responsible for the analysis and efficient and sustainable credit portfolio granting and recovery, as well as for the organization, training and technical assistance of women’s credit committees and forwomen entrepreneurs participating in the initiatives receiving funding.

42

Thoutcome of the funds is diverse and may be placed in one or several links of the chain. Funding seeks to strengthen Adel and CSEM platform capabilities. MyDEL actions in territories are financed with the interest earned from credit to women entrepreneurs, thus favoring sustainability. The maximum amount to grant in funding to a legal person (or one in the process of becoming legal) is USD 30,000. In the case of individuals, the maximum amount is USD 4,000. The main funding lines are: (a) work capital; (b) seed capital; and (c) innovation capital.

CSEMs allow MyDEL to evolve in the operative proposal of how to accomplish a legitimate framework to support user entrepreneurship, exceeding expectations and take the various levels into account in a coordinated manner (micro, meso, meta and national). All the CSEM are linked to national Ministry of Economy agencies that support SMEs. At the end of the first phase of MyDEL, CSEM operate as the operative arm of funding, with clear objectives and in agreement with banking language. Simultaneously, they serve as a link for business incubation and training assistance actions.

MyDEL financial service interaction in the business development path and to enhance women entrepreneurship

The MyDEL model faces several challenges in terms of future design and implementation, namely: l

Improving public policy inefficiencies (macro level), organizations and agencies (meta level), social capital (concerning partnerships in entrepreneurship) and their coordination with public-private agencies.

l

Expand

the insufficiency in coverage and extending to correct through institutional innovation, incentives for financial institutions and investment.

Expanding markets while measuring feasibility ofproduct and service (micro level efficiency).

l

l

The need to balance the social approach of entrepreneurship with productive efficiency aspects.

l

If

l

As

the aim is to focus, it is necessary to take into account the type of entrepreneurship that needs focus because many are more commercial than productive. The MyDEL approach emphasizes the need to promote strategic economic initiatives linked to the potential in the territory and included in local or national development plans. we know, the entrepreneurship of women at the base of the economic pyramid do not have access to assets in the same way as those led by men. Therefore, the most important innovation of the MyDEL model is to establish a relationship between credit collateral and a partnership scheme that allows follow-up from the CSEM platform. The novelty involves not using solidarity collateral but rather promoting users partnering directly with the platform.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Among the dilemmas of the model, we should consider:

43

l

Portfolio diversification usually minimizes risk, but it is clear that, due to their nature, size and focus,

womenentrepreneurshipis subject to risk. The MyDEL model seeks to backed by a business plan.

Regarding its strategic thinking, the MyDEL vision and mission seek to contribute to produce applied knowledge on the territorial approach focusing its efforts in showing that value chains are a relevant mechanism to enhance women entrepreneurship and businesses in rural areas.

The strategy itself involves three basic elements: (a) CSEM as a support, management and strengthening platform for entrepreneurship and partnering; (b) the use of the trust as a versatile instrument to implement a funding scheme adapted to the territory and with the guarantee that it is operated by a regulator; (c) the use the institutional framework of LEDA as a public-private development integration element.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

The financing component is based on three elements: (a) adequate conditions adapted to the regulator framework; (b) commitment by entrepreneurship to assume this challenge with a non-welfare approach; (c) the territorial approach that guarantees adequate management of the meso level. Outcomes to date indicate an adequate level of empowerment, management that promotes the sustainable governance of the mechanism, a process of transparent funding and a management framework promoted by MyDEL but executed by stakeholders linked to the territory. It is not financing that makes the model sustainable, but rather the fact that experience guarantees financial sustainability, social capital and the promotion of entrepreneurship in value chains at the territorial level, with or without the Program.

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CHAPTER 7

path 4: women leadership enhancement in local/territorial development governance

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Path 4: women leadership enhancement and positioning in local territorial development governance

45

Path 4 introduces the issue of women empowerment to enable them to exercise economic and political governance. Through CSEM services, women entrepreneurs associated to MyDEL can gain access to opportunities to exercise power and to obtain education they did not have access to before because they were anonymous and invisible. Not only women entrepreneurs are key players in the participation process: all women and men involved in the Program grow in Path 4: from the members of LEDA and local authorities to Ministry of Economy officials and the MyDEL team.

From the subjective perspective, empowerment may be viewed as the road to liberation that covers external and internal oppression patterns (those recreated by women due to their education and social experience which reflect the gender order in place). When we speak about empowerment, reference is made to awareness of our own capabilities, our role and individual enhancement in order to influence the environment. Related to the invisibility of women entrepreneurs in Central America, empowerment involves more than access by women to production factors and, eventually, to decision-making: it is a process that requires self-perception, self-recognition and self-valuation of women’s capabilities but also the right to have rights and carry out changes. Only when women entrepreneurs see themselves in the mirror and in the social and community mirror, not as housewives but as economic agents and therefore political agents in their territories they will be able to bring changes in their environment and in society.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Path 4is the culmination of the three preceding paths: women entrepreneurs are recognized, valued and supported specifically by development services for their enterprises and, in their new condition, are able to exercise local power that can then extend to the national arena. In the path towards empowerment, trusting them, having initiatives, the ability to adapt and being flexible, being motivated and trusting their intuition, listening actively and showing good empathy are the basic ingredients that characterize the new styles of women leadership.

46

The perspective used by MyDEL to address the issue of economic empowerment has to do with the strategic needs and practical priorities of businesswomen in the region. Together with them, it is necessary to develop empowerment strategies adapted to territories. MyDEL recognizes that it is not a question of including women in the economy or in local and national development processes because women are already involved in them (even when their contribution has been generally devalued or not recognized as such because uncompensated reproductive work by women is considered natural).

Therefore, it is a question of making their contribution to family and community, to development and the economic dynamics of countries, visible and valued. In this process, MyDEL favors facilitating dialogue among women entrepreneurs, women movement leaders, feminists, political representatives, etc., so that the activities of some will create synergy to strengthen others to enhance the combat of exclusion and marginalization. In Central America, these scourges are also driven by racism, classism, discrimination and physical, psychological, patrimonial, cultural and sexual violence against indigenous people. For this reason, the Program implements a territorial approach that values differences and favors coordination of inclusive and democratic local development processes, promoting the establishment of new citizen and solidarity life agreements from below. In this framework, state decentralization processes offer opportunities and potential, but these are not socially or politically neutral spaces, since they involve institutional, political and social biases. For that reason, one of MyDEL’s proposals is to open the road in representative and discussion power groups to have gender and cultural differences, among others, valued as positive resources and not as a source of discrimination and oppression.

7.1 Areas of influence MyDEL operates at different levels of influence to empower business women in territories: l

At the level of those business women

l

At the level of the Program team

l

At the level ofLEDA and their directors and operations staff

l

At the level of CSEM (with their managers)

At the level of women movements, Municipal Offices for Women, women mechanisms in Development Councils

l

l

At the level of national coordination of local realities MyDEL supports and coordinates its work with

l

At

l

At the level of SME mechanisms at Ministries of Economy

agencies that represent women who are active in politics

the level of the university and their research and knowledge production and management centers

At the level or national and regional mechanisms for women

l l

At the level of the Central American Integration System

l

At the level of the United Nations System

l

At donor level

In the process of empowering women entrepreneurs, MyDEL focuses on creating capacity, access to financial services and promoting partnerships (with CSEM, universities, LEDA, SME mechanisms, that is, with mechanisms for women). MyDEL places LEDA at the center of its women entrepreneurship promotion, and of its local, national, regional and international partnership-building strategy. CSEM seeks to make the social and institutional composition sensitive to a business, solidarity culture that includes gender, territory and multi-cultural approaches.

In the case of universities, the conceptual-analytical framework used for research begins to be taken into account in their academic strategies. The involvement of students and researchers in fieldwork makes them sensitive and promotes their social commitment. MyDEL yearns for students to leave university buildings to go to communities with those responsible for CSEM to disseminate more knowledge and recognition of the reality of territories. For LEDA and CSEM, research is not only the

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

7.2 Some empowerment experiences in the framework of MyDEL

47

foundation of strategy planning but also an instrument to promote and institutionalize participation in defining economic territorial development principles, by gradually increasing the number of projects and resources in their portfolio. The multi-cultural approach of research also helps LEDA place the issue of indigenous people identity at the center of their planning strategies. For women users, the outcomes of research work and making their presence and activities visible in geo-referenced maps are an awareness moment: of their own existence as subjects but also as a collective force. Simultaneously, maps equip them with useful information to improve their economic activities (location of alternative supply markets, marketing paths, and so on).

For their part, women entrepreneurs acquire instruments that help their active participation such as training. This represents an opportunity no only for technical learning but an actual process to build their autonomy and self-esteem and to socialize. We should highlight that CSEM do not only provide training services regarding business, but also channel access to support services demanded by women that approach them. In this same framework, training also covers economic, political, social and cultural rights, access to justice and environmental management, among others.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Partnering and networking through a broad spectrum of partnerships make it possible to scale-up advocacy to give shape to a critical, plural and diffuse mass that tackles the mainstreaming of gender in Central American economic policy. CSEM promote the creation of state and nation-wide networks of women entrepreneurs. In some cases, it is possible to institutionalize the presence of LEDA and CSEM in state or nation-wide coordination. At the national level, the natural allies of MyDEL are SME mechanisms of Ministries of Economy as well as women mechanisms. Despite the differences that characterize them, the latter face common obstacles: fragility, limited resource availability, prevalence of discourse and practices that widen the gap between the sexes and increase women marginalization.

48

UNIFEM (now UN Women) recognizes and promotes the relationship of women with national gender institutions; MyDEL, as an important node of the regional UNIFEM strategy, builds dialectic relationships inspired by two priority objectives: (a) to institutionally strengthen national women mechanisms through methodological instruments to improve gender advocacy in public policies; and (b) to reinforce representation and the ability to have a dialogue with women who are in different positions of class, ethnic group, culture, age, etc., and with their ways of partnering, which mark the national territory in a different way, thus promoting the ability to respond as well as accountability from national to local levels.

MyDEL addresses the issue of gender inequality from the perspective of building active and substantial citizenship for women based on the valuation of their contribution to national economic growth through their productive and reproductive work, with their own strategies to get out of extreme poverty. The economy, then, is recognized and reconstructed as an issue for women through the institutionalization of gender in the public agenda.

The methodological paths of the Program are an innovative process that provides tools and knowledge to give visibility to the contribution made by women entrepreneurs of the base of the pyramid to the national economy and local development. For gender institutionalization this means the possibility to acquire ownership of instruments to induce changes in the traditional perception on the economy (what it is, who does it, where and how).

On the one hand, recognizing the active role played by women in the economy reinforces gender as an institution face by other ÂŤproductiveÂť Ministries: Economy, Agriculture, Trade, etc., thus promoting their involvement in defining subjects, content and budgets for local, national and regional development policies. On the other hand, this process opens the door to the assignment of visibility, measurement and economic value to reproductive work.

Cooperation between MyDEL and Ministries of Economy stands out as a strategy, particularly within national agencies that support micro, small and medium enterprises.

MyDEL strengthens gender as an institution in the countries where it operates to enhance its presence in the territory and approach women, thus contributing to their representation, legitimacy and ability for dialogue. The Program offers the possibility to reconstruct communication and collaboration channels between State and society, by indirectly addressing this complex and stratified relationship from the practical point of view: that is, bystrengthening individual and collective strategies to get out of poverty through the economic empowerment of women. In perspective, it is a gradual and incremental process to reconstruct the political capital of State agencies that coordinate visibility and presence of the center in the periphery, not as a vertical relationship but as a systemic and complementary relationship.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Finally, the regional level complements the work of MyDEL by reinforcing its ability to advocate in the medium and long terms through joint economic actions in UNIFEM’s (now UN Women) regional strategy.

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CHAPTER 8

balance of the first phase of MyDEL accomplishments and lessons learned Regarding political support measures, there is a commitment among national and cooperation agencies and national women mechanisms to respond to the following strategic objectives: l

to

open up a public reflection and discussion forum on the relationship between gender and economy, and gender and territorial development;

l

to

enhance economic development coordination, particularly the economic entrepreneurship of women.

This commitment means that MyDEL paths, as analytical-diagnostic practices, can include elements of strong innovation in gender equality policies.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

Regarding socio-cultural aspects and benefits, MyDEL directs its efforts to revaluing territorial resources, with two objectives in mind: (a) ensuring inclusion of economic initiatives for women from rural areas as promoters of territorial development; (b) ensuring that institutional and economic development processes give visibility to contributions by women from their identity and cultural diversity.

50

In terms of institutional aspects and management capacity, the multi-level strategy guarantees sustainability and impact on the various aspects of inequality in the exercise of economic citizenship by women. The decisive role, the experience and contribution by LEDA to validate and apply the strategy are notable, and for this reason, these Associations are key to make the model institutional in the territory.

The fact that MyDEL is structured with a gender approach results in the formulation and execution of empowerment actions with a positive impact on the position that women’s economic activities occupy, as well as in their leadership in development governance in the various levels of institutional management.

In terms of access to technology and strategic information, MyDEL has achieved sustainable technology transfer as well a promoting access to strategic information. As we know, this is at the base of accomplishing entrepreneurshipup-scaling.

In environmental aspects, MyDEL manages gender-sensitive planning capacity development, resource development and sustainable management through agreements between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UNIFEM (now UN Women).

Regarding economic and financial sustainability, the MyDEL strategy is guaranteed through partnerships with national governments, regional Central American Integration agencies, civil organizations, international cooperation agencies (particularly UNDP’s ART initiative) and university programs. The framework of alternative financing model relationships and development allows MyDEL to go beyond the traditional welfare approach and achieve not only women banking but also contribute a financial management model that is shared with LEDA-CSEM (local institutional financial sustainability).

Finally, at the regional level in Central America, the Program provides to the Technical Secretary of COMMCA (Women Ministers Council of Central America), necessary tools that can be used for advocacy with other agency of the Central America Integration System (SICA) as CEMPROMYPE (Foundation to Promote the Competitiveness of Micro and Small Enterprise in Central America) and BCIE (Central American Bank for Economic Integration).14 At this level MyDEL’s action is complemented by other initiatives of UNIMEN (now UN Women), strengthening its ability to impact in the medium to long term through a joint action in the framework of the regional strategy of the institution

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Thanks to strategies that allow inquiring about the practice itself, MyDEL can make significant contributions to the international and multi-lateral levels, in the sense of helping to rethink development and how to face the crisis. At national level, it can help formulate public policy on the basis of local demands; at the local/trans-national levels, MyDEL can make contributions to consolidate multi-actor and multi-level partnerships.

14 The incidence of the SICA Organisms is part of II Phase of MyDEL.

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CONCLUSIONS

MyDEL’s action horizon l

The sustainable human development paradigm, gender equality and rights approach become important in the current context. All these are built from the territorial level where women entrepreneurs at the base of the economic pyramid are key actors and promoters.

l

Although MyDEL did not start as a program to respond to the current financial crisis, it inscribes itself in the collective exercise to build human development, social and gender justice models that involve deconstructing dominant growth paradigms that represent the ideological roots of a profound and structural crisis that comes before current circumstances.

l

The Program seeks to be valid in the current context, since it offers both research as well as action opportunities from the local to the national and international levels. The critical path of MyDEL identifies a possible road: among other things, a space for action and collaboration with local, national and regional leaders, with civil society organizations, with the private and productive sector and with universities. From the territories, women entrepreneurs do development, build the present and the future and ensure good living for the local collectivity. They also demand the right to claim their full citizenship.

With its range of partnerships, knowledge and coordination, MyDEL is a laboratory of teachings that can be made available to all (Northern and Southern hemispheres).

l

MyDEL

recognizes that the decision to allocate resources to support knowledge generation was determinant in the construction of the path initiated. From the perspective of lessons learned, it is an essential condition to deconstruct paradigms and myths that devalue local communities, solidarity economies and the promoter role of women.

WOMEN AND LOCAL ECONOMIES, TERRITORIES, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER

l

52

l

It is necessary to open the range of synergies with the donor community and decentralized cooperation to mobilize resources to generate knowledge that will demystify economic thinking and lead to the construction of own thoughts from the region and perspective of political and moral economy.

l

More financial and human investment is required to achieve effective impact in the lives of women entrepreneurs of the base of the economic pyramid and their communities. It will be necessary to establish mechanisms to promote effectiveness in local aid.

l

It is necessary to create a critical mass of enterprising women in the area of multi-stakeholder strategic partnerships, in order to influence and transform the system from below, in the territory.

l

It

is necessary to invest in creating local capacity to ensure that the paths that have been implemented generate sustainable processes and become the quarry for new women leadership.

This book presents the theoretical reflections and practical experiences of women and men, whom, with in different levels and rolls, have contributed to the first phase of the Program for the economic empowerment of women and the strengthening of their leadership in local-regional development governance, named MyDEL. This is the executive summary from the book published on 2009 by the UN Development Fund for Women --UNIFEM, shows the pioneering experience in Central America, which is inserted into the new institutional framework of UN Women, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women.

The creation of UN Women in July 2010, is part of the reforms of the U.N, by bringing togheter the resources and mandate to achieve greater impact. UN Women merges and continue the important work of four components of the UN System, in order to focus exclusively on equality and the empowerment of women: i. Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW); ii. International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW); iii. Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI); iv. United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).