Empowering women associations as drivers for agro-ecological transformation to generate income for Mountain farming communities.

About

MountainHER wants to put rural women front and center as the true drivers for social and economic progress in remote mountain communities of Algeria, Croatia, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia. Barley and durum wheat are the target crops, and traditional foods and malt products the target value chains. The project will promote sustainable business models that better distribute profits along super-short value chains - and involve women’s associations. Existing governance system of the women’s associations will be revised to unlock their full economic potential, and to offer equal and advantageous conditions for all their members. OUR IMPACT

The role of women’s associations in converting farm harvests into high-value food and malt products will be supported to generate 10 to 100 times more income than the simple harvest. Adequate connection with physical retailers and digital markets will be ensured, while in parallel, preliminary consumer appreciation studies will be conducted to assess the potential for gaining market shares.

MountainHER provides training and tools to favor the purchase of local harvests at higher prices by the women associations. In exchange, farmers are prompted to produce following agro-ecological practices, which are on one hand more respectful of the environment, and on the other, can generate higher prices for the food produced.

Impact

Goals

MountainHER aims at taking advantage of nascent marketing opportunities in the agroecological food system approach ‘from farm to fork’ to empower rural women associations to become true drivers for social and economic change.

Objectives

In addition to the impacts and goals, the project objectives include utilizing living labs to pilot and assess the validity of the projects new technologies and practices together with mountain farming communities; include these communities in participatory research to identify the best durum wheat and barley varieties derived from ancient grains adapted to agroecological production; establish community-based seed enterprises to create employment for women and youth; promote circular economy opportunities for local businesses to produce non-synthetic organic fertilizers starting from farm waste; and generate road maps for scaling MountainHER interventions across countries and communities.

Locations

Algeria

Croatia

Italy

Lebanon

Morocco

Tunisia

28, 3

45.1667, 15.5

42.8333, 12.8333

33.8333, 35.8333

32, -5

34, 9

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Blog

September 19, 2022

The MountainHER project kicks off!

Empowering women associations as drivers for agro-ecological transformation to generate income for Mountain farming communities. This project will also promote ‘circular economies’