Indigenous women accessing local markets

COMAL Network

 August 01, 2024

Third Report for GlobalGiving

 Project Title: Indigenous women accessing local markets

Indigenous and rural women have historically been excluded from development processes and are generally not taken into account when designing public plans and policies at the local and national levels. In addition, women assume greater responsibility for household and family care tasks and agricultural production. Women take on the role of commercializing the surplus production and also suffer exploitation as they receive unfair prices for their products.

 The COMAL Network accompanies and advises women's organizations so that they can produce better quality products and achieve fair prices in the local and national market.

 Main achievements:

 During this period, the processes of accompaniment and technical advice to indigenous and farmers women have continued, at least 98 women members of nine community organizations located in the municipalities of Marcala and Chinacla in the department of La Paz, participated in training processes and received clothing and basic equipment for apiary management.

 Support has been provided for the design of labels and packaging for bee honey, and a sanitary registration is being processed so that the honey can be sold in formal and dynamic markets.

 In coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock, we participated in a fair in the city of Siguatepeque where we promoted the products produced by women and youth.

Finally, we would like to express our deep gratitude to all the donors who, through GlobalGiving, contribute to the mission of our organization and especially to the generation of market opportunities for women.

COMAL Network

April 11, 2024

Second Report for GlobalGiving

Project Title: Indigenous Women Accessing Local Markets

At Network of Commercialization Comunitaria Alternativa (COMAL), our mission is to promote fair market relations for small-scale producers. We seek to strengthen the community economy through the production of nutritious food and the commercialization of products in local markets.  

In rural and indigenous communities, women play an important role in the commercialization of products. Women are in charge of selling products in local markets. However, when analyzing the benefit/cost ratio, it can be observed that in most cases, farmers families do not receive fair prices for their products and the majority of the profit is in the hands of the intermediaries. In Red COMAL we promote training and capacity building processes so that women can have greater opportunity to access the best market and in better conditions.

Main achievements:

In this period we have carried out training and education processes aimed at farmers and indigenous women who are participating in the honey bee production chain, 96 people participated in this process, including 79 women and 17 men from six communities: Cones, Camalote, El Zapote, Llanito Verde in the department of Lempira and San Nicolas and Llano de la Virgen in the department of Intibuca. The topics covered were Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).

Technical assistance was also provided to the women in the first honey harvest; honey harvesting began in five apiaries with a production of 400 bottles of honey. The honey has been sold by the women in the local market; as production increases, they will be seeking access to formal market channels in the country's main cities.

On behalf of the indigenous and farmers women accompanied by Red COMAL, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the donors who through GlobalGiving contribute to the capacity building of women farmers in rural Honduras.