Rights in the American Chaco

Strengthening Women’s

Defense of Environmental

Rights in the American Chaco

The program Strengthening Women’s Defense of Environmental Rights in the America Chaco (Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia), is an initiative led by the Fondo de Mujeres del Sur. The fund is also working with two other organizations with extensive experience in the area of environmental rights and women in these countries. These organizations are the Fundación Plurales and The Center for Training and Research for Rural Women in Tarija (CCIMCAT).

This program began at the end of 2014 thanks to funding from the European Union. The principal objective of this project is to contribute to the strengthening of women’s grassroots organizations in the eco-region of the American Chaco (ERCHA). These organizations fight for their economic and social rights from the persepective of sustainable development and a focus on gender.

To achieve this, the program envisions the following as core strategies:

-The general and flexible financial support for women’s groups under high socio-environmental vulnerability that fight for accessto water and land ownership, and fight against pollution and deforestation in the ERCHA.This support is complemented by additional support for urgent situations and emerging opportunities as well as for the acquisition of communication tools.

-The technical-political accompaniment, support, and advocacy in order to strengthen the organizational capabilities of the groups defending the ERCHA. This will include workshops about resource development, sustainability of women’s grassroots organizations, public advocacy, communication tools, planning, and internal reinforcement.

-The promotion of networks and alliances between the defense groups for the ERCHA with emphasis on the consolidation of the already existing Women’s Collective of the American Chaco, a network that gathers about 400 women that are fighting for their rights in this eco-region.

-The monitoring and diffusion of human and environmental rights violations in the ERCHA from the perspective of sustainable development and gender.

Through this initiative, 11 women’s grassroots organizations from Argentina (5), Paraguay (3), and Bolivia (3), which were selected after an open call, have already received financial, technical, and political support.

The selected organizations are composed of and led by rural, indigenous women that live in small towns or rural areas. They have made enormous efforts to organize and build more just and equitable living realities in their region.

The partners of the Program are groups of women with tenacious leadership. With their actions the hope to politically influence their right to land, water, and food sovereignty. This includes their fight against fumigations with agrochemicals and the advance of monoculture. They also will promote the empowerment of mixed women’s organizations, the conservation of the culture, and the knowledge of women in the communities.

The success of the open call, which received a total of 60 proposals, reflects the pressing need for financial support spanning throughout the groups defending environmental rights in the different areas of the ERCHA. Of all the applications received, 31 were from Argentina, 12 from Bolivia, and 17 from Paraguay.

60% of the proposals collected belonged to groups composed of and led by rural women or indigenous women (25% and 35% respectively).

Besides the satisfaction of knowing first hand the valuable organizational experiences that exist around the issue addressed by this program, we feel we have a great responsibility, because there were at least 20 excellent initiatives that we could not finance due to insufficient funds.

It is because of this that we are in permanent search for resources for the women that defend the environment in the ERCHA as well as other eco-regions in the countries that we work in such as the Amazon, Patagonia, Puna, etc.

In this program, as well as the other initiatives of FMS, we maintain and reiterate the need to channel direct financial resources to grassroots women, most specifically those whom are in direct contact with the region and those who can capture most effectively the deepest needs and interests of the communities themselves as well as the surrounding areas.

Hand in hand with this, we address the need to strengthen women’s movements, expand the social base of feminism, and contribute to the emergence of other voices and perspectives.