New opportunities for rural women in Antioquia: organizations finance productive projects in 7 municipalities

August 17, 2023

The “500 thousand Agroempresarias CCI” project seeks to finance productive projects of rural women in Antioquia. The announcement was made by Corporación Colombia Internacional and the Medellín Chamber of Commerce for Antioquia.

Good news for rural women in the department of Antioquia. Corporación Colombia Internacional (CCI) and the Medellín Chamber of Commerce for Antioquia entered into an alliance to strengthen business projects led by and made up mostly of rural women, through productive investment, commercial strengthening, and comprehensive support.

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This is the 500 thousand CCI agribusinesswomen program, through which the two organizations seek to give more than one hundred women in the Antioquian countryside the power to make decisions about their lives through economic independence, while seeking to strengthen, initially, eight agricultural projects for corn, vegetables, leguminous plants, fish farming and beekeeping in the municipalities of Angelópolis, Támesis, Jardín, Cáceres, Valdivia, Ituango and Santa Rosa de Osos.

The program also extends to the entire national territory so that by 2030 there will be 500,000 women entrepreneurs in the Colombian countryside.

For the president of the CCI, Adriana Senior, the objective of the initiative is the transformation of the lives of these women, “Supporting these initiatives generates empowerment and the breaking of gaps because, for the most part, these are women who are victims of violence, displaced, reincorporated, disabled, elderly and mothers who are heads of household”, explains Senior.

For her part, Nathalia Figueroa, vice-president of Corporate Projection and Environment of the Chamber of Commerce, said that, “Together the CCI and the Chamber of Commerce are working so that these women have a second chance”.

nuevas oportunidades para mujeres rurales en antioquia organizaciones financian proyectos productivos en 7 municipios 1 — .

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Financing of agricultural projects led by rural women in Antioquia.

In Colombia, only 12% of the rural population is female, and within this group, 76% face informal financial, labor, and social situations. In addition, 20% live in extreme poverty, while only 4% are women entrepreneurs or enjoy economic independence.

The objective of the alliance is to directly impact 160 rural women in the department of Antioquia in seven municipalities and, through them, their families. To achieve this, the two organizations have secured a budget of $280 million pesos to receive applications for rural women’s productive projects.

The organizations emphasize that to achieve the consolidation of new agribusinesswomen in Antioquia, in addition to financing, donations are required from all economic sectors of the country, since the ideal investment for each of the enterprises is between 6,000 and 50,000 dollars, “hence the need to have the support of regional, national and international economic actors”, the organizations point out.

So far, more than 3,000 women in Antioquia have applied for 142 business initiatives in areas such as handicrafts, bio-inputs, clothing, agriculture, forestry, livestock, recycling, commercial establishments and restaurants, as well as agro-industrial transformation and tourism.

For its part, the CCI’s “500 thousand Agroempresarias CCI” program has already reached 31 departments and 520 municipalities in the country. The organization emphasizes that the goal is to cover the entire national territory.

The CCI analyzes the proposals that apply and selects those with business potential to develop them with special attention to commercialization.

Adriana Senior explains that, “This program implies a true social revolution in the Colombian countryside, which includes lines of business in agricultural production and transformation, livestock, tourism, crafts, environmental services and circular economy”.

And she emphasizes that, by backing these projects with adequate economic support and guaranteeing constant accompaniment, rural women in Antioquia will be able to lead initiatives that will enable them to take control of their economic lives and enhance their social position. A rural woman’s financial autonomy plays a fundamental role in transforming circumstances of abuse, exploitation and other forms of vulnerability, Senior assures.