With the participation of 16 women representatives from seven social centers of the Comparte network (Yomol A´tel–Mexico, SAIPE–Peru, Hogar de Cristo–Ecuador, Solidaridad CVX–El Salvador, Suyusama and IMCA–Colombia, Alboan–Basque Country), two producer organizations from Mexico and Colombia, and two partner universities (LAINES–Ibero Puebla, Mexico, and Deusto Business School–Basque Country), the first Meeting of the Gender Working Group of the Comparte Network began on October 20 at IMCA in Buga (Valle del Cauca, Colombia).
The opening day included a visit to the village of La Feria to learn firsthand about the experience of the La Feria Agricultural Cooperative, a mixed initiative led by women for over a decade. Its main project is a milk collection center that facilitates the marketing of milk produced by small-scale farming families in the region.
Claudia Paredes and Marta Jiménez, president and vice president of the Cooperative, shared their journey, highlighting how women’s empowerment and persistence have been key factors in the project’s sustainability and continuity. They noted that the equitable distribution of household care work remains a challenge for women’s active participation in the cooperative without it becoming an excessive workload, even though they carry it out with great satisfaction and love for their community.
They also pointed out that tools such as the Socio-Environmental Audit System (SASA) and knowledge exchange spaces promoted by the Comparte Network through the Instituto Mayor Campesino (IMCA) have strengthened the cooperative’s project. Based on their experience, they identify dialogue circles —with both women and men— and collective psychological support as strategies that can help reduce resistance to participating in training processes that promote gender equity.
The Meeting, which will run until October 25, includes a program of experience-sharing activities and working sessions aimed at advancing the collective construction of Comparte’s Common Gender Framework and systematizing gender equity actions carried out during 2023 and 2024 by various producer organizations supported by the Network’s social centers.