MANAGING OUR INDEPENDENCE AND CREATING NEW POSSIBILITIES

This was the theme of the recently concluded Annual General and Network Meetings of the Women Agro-processing Development Network (WADN) which has evolved after several years of agro-process being done mostly from the kitchen of our parents and grandparents and the products sold from small stands near the homesteads or directly from the kitchen door.

While some of this still occurs in Guyana, it occurs in fewer and fewer homes and more agro-processing facilities are being constructed. Agro-processing has become a significant micro-enterprise and our women are major entrepreneurs, producing food, preserves, cosmetics, oils and even medicine from agricultural inputs.

Like many developing business entities, agro-processing businesses owned and managed by women, are not without their challenges. These include highly priced packaging material which require foreign currency for purchases since they are mostly not produced in Guyana; scarcity of capital for investment and high interest rates; fragmented micro-enterprise development support; little faith in this gender as business managers capable of delivering quality products; inadequate supply of consistently high quality raw material, among others.

Over the years, individually, Partners in Development and the Government of Guyana sought to provide technical assistance, training and financial support to family agro-processing enterprise and/or community enterprises. Undoubtedly these pockets of assistance were inadequate and fragmented and did not provide assistance which facilitated sustainable development and did not build capacity for real grown and development.

However, in 2010, VSO (now CUSO) teamed up with IICA under the former’s Accenture Project: Making Markets Work for People(MMW4P) and the latter’s, Market Access Project. This partnership agreed to work towards the formation of a Network of Women Agro-processors. The six Women’s Groups selected were located in Regions 1,2 and 9 and it was felt that they had already achieved a measure of success in the local market place and informally, had a niche market in a few Caribbean countries.

The formation of the Women Agro-processors Development Network (WADN) was agreed to by the six groups invited to participate. The formation and launching took place at the newly refurbished agro-processing facilities of Blue Flame Women’s Group, Hosororo in November 2010. The members of WADN are Aranaputa Women’s Agro-processors Cooperative (9); Blue Flame Women’s Group (1): Helping Hands Women Friendly Society (9); Pomeroon Women Agro-processors Association, Waini Naturals (1) and Wowetta’s Women’s Group (9).

The Network’s Membership has grown to twelve (12) in 2017 and its Membership has been facilitated to attend capacity building activities including training, participation in local, regional and international information sharing and decision fora.

This year, under the theme: Managing Our Independence and Creating New Possibilities, twenty-two women entrepreneurs representing ten (10) community-based agro-processing groups and two (2) family businesses, these Women identified five (5) priorities which the WADN will seek to pursue are: Packaging and Labelling; Improvements in communication and transportation; labelling; product pricing and funding. The Women also examined their individual agro-processing business with a view to identifying the products they produce which has the higher comparative advantage and determining the level of production which would be economically sustainable to produce; possible markets and the resources required the successfully produce at that agreed level of production.

Presentations from the Ministry of Social Protection, Department of Cooperatives, Food and Drugs Analyst Department, Laparakan Shipping and the New Guyana Marketing Corporation addressed administrative, certification, marketing/distribution and shipping challenges.

The increased local demand for their products and enquiries from overseas are all indications that the products are of a high quality, are considered safe and price competitive. As WADN continues to develop and grow, IICA’s delegation in Guyana continues to pledge its technical and some financial support for the WADN and to strengthen existing partnerships and to build its partnership with other stakeholders to facilitate their secure livelihoods efforts and to capitalize on increased market access.

More information: maxine.parris-aaron@iica.int