Unidas y Poderosas project concludes in Nador

Nador, 30th of March 2021. At our African headquarters in Nador has finished the Unidas y Poderosas project which, for two years, has worked with more than 50 women in the Eastern Region of Morocco to contribute to their empowerment and promote social insertion in the region of Morocco.

To this end, small cooperatives, especially those from rural areas, were offered training in entrepreneurship, management and leadership in the cooperative sector with the purpose of promoting the efficiency of their management and their productive capacity.

The cooperative tradition is very rooted in this region where there are currently more than a thousand cooperatives, grouped in six sectors of activity. This project targets three of these sectors, the most important ones since they represent 77% of the total: agriculture and marine fishing, handicrafts and cooking.

The project has been structures around three exes:

• Training of trainers programs.
• Training program for women in Entrepreneurship and Development of cooperative organizations.
• Implementation of projects for entrepreneurship and/or reinforcement of cooperative organizations.

The beneficiaries of the project have been 54 women from 24 cooperatives, of which 4 are professionals who have become trainers and coaches, and the remaining 50 have participated in the training program.

In addition, four of these cooperatives have received financial support to continue with a project or initiate a new one after competing on good terms. They are the Babas cooperative, in the agricultural sector, dedicated to cow rearing; the Anas Nador cooperative, in the handicrafts sector; the El Ouriachi in the cooking and pastry sector; and the Nadornissalgue Aquamed cooperative, created under the project, in the marine fishing sector, to initiate its activity in the cultivation and transformation of algae. Also, thanks to the support received in Unidas y Poderosas, the Ramendage femme cooperative, of net makers women, has been constituted, the first cooperative initiated in Morocco on this field.

Financed with European funds delegated to the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the British Council, we will conduct it in collaboration with several local partners: the OFPPT – L’Office de la Formation Professionnelle et de la Promotion du Travail, the CECODEL – Centre d’Études Coopératives pour le Développement Local and  IYF – International Youth Foundation – Maroc.