Caribbean Rural Women from ten countries to strengthen the creation of social capital in farmer organizations

Twelve rural women from the Caribbean Network of Rural Women Producers (CANROP) membership including Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago are now better equipped with soft skills such as conflict management and effective communication strategies. These new skills are a result of a joint five-day training workshop between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and CANROP held in Panama from 11 to 15 July 2022, implemented under the Programme Farmers Organizations for ACP (FO4ACP).

The aim of the Training Workshop was to empower farmers and their organizations by focusing on strengthening the women’s ability to work together at the regional level and in their national groups. The training comprised of 16 sessions and was facilitated by CANROP Members, who received a two-month long training course to prepare them for their facilitator role. The contents of the sessions were both people-focused and process-focused and the discussions focused on tools and strategies to identify and build strong leadership, working together to reach consensus based on a shared vision, and to effectively manage conflict in complex organizational environments.

Carmen Nurse, CANROP President stated that, “This workshop has provided a roadmap on how we, the executive members, can improve our present management structure and guidance of the farmers and organizations. We have received the keys for governance using the ‘social capital theory’, which is people working together as groups. While the bonding relationships presently exist among the chapter members, at the executive level we now need to focus more on bridging the gaps among chapters and network with external entities with the goal of creating a CANROP brand for groups, services and products. Together with our external partners we will make it happen”.

Hedda Rose-Dunkley, a course facilitator from Jamaica said that, “The concept of bonding bridging and linking came out in the 5 days. Members were able to share practical experiences/ exchanges and this augured well for the sessions delivered. The concepts were clear on day four and the importance of partnerships and networking was highlighted as a feature for farming organizations to thrive”.

Meanwhile, Frances Redhead, a participant from Grenada stated that, “This training is essential for the building of the national and regional agrifood systems in order to better enhance the efforts of women in meeting food security mandates for our countries”.

Pedro Boareto, FAO Project Coordinator highlighted the importance of the training and explained that the methodology used in the sessions supports the farmers and their organizations to acquire knowledge and tools to implement learning activities for building three types of relations, i.e. bonding, bridging, and linking, which are core relations for an organizational development process of farmer organizations.