Rural Women In The Windwarde Islands

From January - october 1999, the CAFRA Secretariat administered a project geared towards capacity building of rural women in four Windward Islands - Grenada. Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines - following the results of earlier research on the impact of new trade agreements on their living conditions.

CAFRA Coordinator Nelcia Robinson visited the islands to monitor progress and to facilitate some of the sessions. Funding was provided by OXFAM. The findings showed that the living conditions among the sample of women had declined significantly. There is an urgent need to build their capacity to undertake alternative projects in the wake of a loss of income from a declining bnana industry. On all four islands, seminars/workshops were held on self-esteem and personal development; opportunity identification and project development; negotiating/lobbying; and WTO/globalisation.

Some fo the objectives of the capacity building programme were:

• mobilise 260 rural women in each of the four islands- a total of 1040 women

• train the women in agricultural practices, advocacy/lobbying skills and the development of self-esteem;

• strengthen community interaction and networking;

• improve the visibility of CAFRA and strengthen collaboration with government agencies and other NGOs.

CAFRA National Representatives played a key role in organising these sessions.

Grenada
The programme was done in collaboration with GRENCODA. Focus was on the community in which the research was conducted and the communities of Dougaldston and Grand Roy. The seminars on opportunity identification and project development also offered practical suggestions for alternatives such as booths along the tourist routes; ripening room for bananas; and sale of craft and floral arrangements.

Thier national consultation, which attracted 90 persons was held in June, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture Farmers’ Association, Community Development and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA). Recommendations coming out of the consultation included: linking tourism with agriculture; making craft items; processing and packaging fruits to be sold in stalls set up along farms; food processing through strengthening the Grenfruit Women’s Cooperative.

Dominica
Some 85 persons attended the national consultation including representative from the Farmers Association and the Agricultural Extension Workers. Recommendations included seminars on banana upgrading programmes and the provision of financial resources to upgrade farms including irrigation measures to increase yields and improved packing for produce.

St. Lucia
There was close collaboration with the National Farmers Association, the National Council of Women in St. Lucia and the Small Business Association of Women Entreprenuers. Here, the seminar on building self-esteem was particularly useful as there is a major gap between the oder folks who speak mainly French Patois and the English-speaking youth. The older citizens felt isolated by their language as it posed a major challenge when engaging in business transactions.

In each of the selected communities participation was high, reaching upwards of 400 women. Recommendations coming out of their national consultation included exploring the possibility of making banana chips, packing juices and making paper. The raw material is available for these projects and with some training these projects are well within the capabilities of the women.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines
An average of 40 persons came to the workshops, which were held in collaboration with the Windward Islands Farmers Association, the National Council of Women and the National Workers Movement.

An economist from the Ministry of Planning provided an overview of the socio-economic status of the country, the importance of bananas to the economy and government’s plans for safety net support for communities.

Recommendations included the need for in-depth business management training and the building of economic farming units for animal rearing and the processing of peanuts.

Training Opportunities
Grenada’s agro-processing facility was the centre for training in this area while Trinidad and Tobago provided training for the other islands in the presevation and packaging of seasonings and fruits. A total of 12 women benefited from the Trinidad leg of the training.

Further Work
Some further work will be done to build lobbying skills in the communities. In addition, identification of funding sources and the preparation of projects are key areas of assistance that would benefit these communities.