United and powerful

“United and powerful” (Unidas y poderosas) aims to contribute to the social insertion and socio-economic empowerment of women in the Eastern Region of Morocco through the development of their entrepreneurial, management and leadership skills in the cooperative sector.

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

The priority of this initiative is to reduce the vulnerability of the rural population. To this end, we will work with small cooperatives in different sectors: agriculture, sea fishing, handicrafts and cookery, in order to contribute, through training and a very careful follow-up, to promote the efficiency of their management and their productive capacity.

The cooperative tradition is deeply rooted in this region where there are currently 1,241 cooperatives, grouped into 6 sectors of activity. This project focuses on three of these sectors, the most important since they represent 77% of the total: agriculture and marine fishing (466 cooperatives); handicrafts (352) and cookery (210) according to data from the Office de Développement de Coopération.

The beneficiaries of the project are 54 women, of whom 4 are professionals who will become trainers and coaches and the remaining 50 women, members of the region’s cooperatives, will participate in the training program.

The project is structured around three axes:

• Teacher training program
• Training program for women in entrepreneurship and development of cooperative organizations.
• Launching projects for entrepreneurship and/or consolidation of cooperative organizations.