{"id":24418,"date":"2023-05-30T16:44:20","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T16:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highatlasfoundation.org\/?p=24418"},"modified":"2023-05-31T15:29:37","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T15:29:37","slug":"women-transform-their-horizons-in-rural-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/women-transform-their-horizons-in-rural-morocco\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Transform their Horizons in Rural Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"

– Women Transform Their Horizons In Rural Morocco<\/a>, Scoop<\/strong>.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 <\/strong>French: Article19<\/a>, 30\u00a0Mai 2023.<\/p>\n

By Yossef Ben-Meir<\/em>
\nMarrakech<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Imagine empowerment workshop participants join hands in a closing ceremony. <\/em>
\nPhoto by HAF<\/em><\/p>\n

A research study reveals the positive community impact of sustainable agricultural initiatives when preceded by women\u2019s empowerment workshops, leading to participatory action, enhanced community well-being, and decentralization. <\/em><\/p>\n

Since 2016, the High Atlas Foundation has implemented self-discovery workshops that encourage and equip women to recognize their intrinsic value, identify their goals, and strategically consider their plans for the future. The \u201cImagine\u201d program takes place over four days and provides a space for pursuing personal and collective empowerment.<\/p>\n

Imagine utilizes a rights-based approach that integrates Morocco\u2019s Family Code \u2013 Moudawana \u2013 and facilitates women\u2019s exploration of their legal protections. Cooperative-building activities also enable women to increase their financial independence and access to equitable development.<\/p>\n

The High Atlas Foundation recently conducted a comparative impact analysis with two groups of women in the Toubkal rural municipality of the Taroudant province following two climate actions. In 2017, HAF hosted an Imagine empowerment and development experience with women in the Aguerzrane village. During the experience, the participants examined social relationships in their lives that influence their ability to advance their goals.\u00a0 Throughout the workshop, participants further considered their outlook on work and money, emotions and body, sexuality and spirituality (in a Moroccan-Islamic context), and their vision for the future.<\/p>\n

After the participatory planning experience, the Aguerzrane women decided to build an organic fruit tree and medicinal herb nursery. This method of cultivation, the women realized, would generate income through plant sales in their region as well as contribute to the existing household needs of the community. The nursery was built in 2018 on newly constructed agricultural terraces built on formerly eroding mountainsides, and the nursery has been productively operating ever since. The provision of regular technical training has been provided by highly qualified volunteers through the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program.<\/p>\n

The second village, Missour, is one kilometer north of Aguerzrane. In 2018, HAF received a request from their farmers for cherry, walnut, and almond trees, and HAF met the request. The Imagine workshop and participatory methods were not facilitated in this community, but the farmers received, planted, and maintained the trees based on the quantity and variety they preferred.<\/p>\n

HAF then assisted a graduate thesis study that examined the social and economic effect on both villages: Aguerzane, which participated in the women\u2019s empowerment workshop prior to receiving seeds and materials; and Missour, where trees were provided without inclusive participatory planning.\u00a0 The researcher, Nora Martetschl\u00e4ger, spent three months living with the communities, engaging in individual and communal data gathering procedures to analyze multidimensional poverty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In her published summary of the analysis<\/a>, Nora found that \u201calthough the other village [Aguerzane], where fewer trees were planted, performed worse overall on most poverty indicators, women\u2019s participation in education and employment was higher because of more individual and collective awareness and action in those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Missour, however, there was a negligible income benefit for the women despite reported increases in household earnings and food security. There was no increase in girls\u2019 participation in education or women\u2019s literacy. However, two families moved to the city \u2013 likely partially enabled by the new income \u2013 where there are more opportunities for girls\u2019 participation in education.<\/p>\n

This study illuminates a significant challenge in the connection between women\u2019s empowerment and scalable climate action for inclusive systemic change and national resilience. HAF\u2019s women\u2019s empowerment workshops have proven to be an effective strategy for improving cross-sectoral sustainable development. However, the demand for such strategies is limited by organizational capacity. Upon reviewing Nora\u2019s study, HAF took remedial action in Missour by facilitating Imagine workshops. Funds from the Darden School of the University of Virginia will be used to build agricultural terraces on an eroding mountainside the Missour community designated for the women’s group.<\/p>\n

However, the limiting issue of capacity remains: HAF has 15 empowerment trainers and anticipates planting a minimum of 1.7 million trees with 10,000 farming families in 160 municipalities this year. These objectives are indicative of a broader structural challenge to the implementation of strategic, community designed solutions. HAF lacks the finances and personnel to implement and monitor climate-smart agriculture to ensure that women and girls are the direct beneficiaries, despite having a strategy to acheive national scale.<\/p>\n

This study also reveals the potential challenges to implementing decentralization without first solidifying participatory experiences at the local level. The enhanced subnational power afforded by decentralization will entrench existing class and gender based stratifications in subnational jurisdictions. Climate-smart agricultural projects could have the same effect of affirming inequitable power and resource distribution if such projects are not founded on participatory experiences. Women\u2019s and girls\u2019 participation and management in all phases of development must be front and center in order for climate actions to positively impact their lives, families, communities, and country.<\/p>\n

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is President of the High Atlas Foundation and a Visiting Professor of the University of Virginia.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

– Women Transform Their Horizons In Rural Morocco, Scoop. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2022 French: Article19, 30\u00a0Mai 2023. By Yossef Ben-Meir Marrakech Imagine empowerment workshop participants join hands in a closing ceremony. Photo by HAF A research study reveals the positive community impact of sustainable agricultural initiatives when preceded by women\u2019s empowerment workshops, leading to participatory action,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Women78.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24418"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24428,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24418\/revisions\/24428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}