Advancing Opportunities for Women in Golfo de Santa Clara, Mexico

In 2009, I co-led a community project to advance gender equality policies. The one-year project, funded by the State of Sonora's Commission of Ecology and Sustainable Development, involved eleven housewives from El Golfo de Santa Clara, northern Gulf of California, Mexico.

The project was born at the initiative of the women's group. They were interested in bringing some income to their families but did not know how to approach private or public opportunities. We encourage the groups to pursue a grant from the Temporary Employment Program offered by the state government through the Gender Equity, Environment, and Sustainable Program. My colleague and I worked together with the group to define needs and prioritize them, and find their unique internal strengths that could contribute to the group. This iterative exercise that extended beyond the life of the project empowered them.

The group of women saw an opportunity to offer a cleaner environment to the community and bring extra income to their families. They identified PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) as one of the most problematic issues. Plastic bottles were all around their town and decided to take action. The grant application they submitted to the state government was a simple but powerful business model; they would commit to collecting and selling plastic bottles in exchange for the funds to buy proper machinery to compact and transport them. They got the grant, and we conducted several workshops about solid waste management, environmental legal framework, and caring for the environment.

As part of the initiative, they presented the project in front of state authorities and other stakeholders, making them self-confident. The project impacted not just the group of women but their families and the broader community.