December 23, 2011

Women Struggle to Enter Paraguay’s Productive Sectors

Panel Addresses Gender Constraints in Key Value Chains

On a macro level, Paraguay’s economy has seen healthy growth in recent years, thanks largely to agricultural exports. But in a country that is known for its wide gap in wealth distribution, many of the rural poor do not benefit from this growth; women in particular have limited access to economic opportunities.

ACDI/VOCA collaborated with the government of Paraguay’s Women Secretariat and the Ministries of Agriculture and Industry to address this issue at a recent panel discussion in Asuncion. The panel, titled Women and the Productive Sector, was organized through the USAID-funded Paraguay Northern Zone Initiative (IZN) program.

Panel Proposes Practical Ways to Bring Women into the Economy

The panel featured 12 prominent Paraguayan development practitioners who represented public, private and civil society perspectives. The panel members discussed their experiences and ideas and proposed practical measures to integrate women into local value chains and development initiatives.

For example, panel members recommended that the state should adopt and implement public policies that guarantee women access to credit services, technical assistance, technology and land. The panel’s government representatives agreed on the need for greater coordination of state programs for rural women.

At the same time, they noted, initiatives do not have to rely solely on government funding or iniatives: The IZN program, for example, has found that strategic public-private alliances can help further the role of women in development.

ACDI/VOCA’s IZN staff has also had success supporting women in getting compensation for activities that they were already doing by, for example, creating textile and bakery microenterprises.

The panel noted that the incorporation of women into the productive sector should not create additional work for women—the “double- or triple-shift” effect. To this end, they said, it is important to raise awareness within families of co-responsibility for household tasks.

Gender Equality Benefits Everyone

The participants agreed that any investment in women, in terms of education, access to resources, supportive legislation, etc., can have immediate positive social and economic impacts, not only for women, but for families, communities and the whole country.

The goal of the IZN program is to help establish greater stability in the Canindeyú, Amambay, Concepción and San Pedro departments of Paraguay as the country transitions to a multiparty democratic system.

Learn more about our work in Paraguay.