Development is making strides in promoting LGBTIQ+ programming & leadership, but there is room for growth

June 21, 2022

By Sabra Ayres

5 min read

Juan Manuel Sanchez, a Chief of Party for Creative Associates International in Central America and member of the LGBTIQ+ community, has led programming with LGBTIQ+ youth in the region. In celebration of Pride Month 2022, we asked Sanchez to share his personal experiences and thoughts on how the development industry is responding to LGBTIQ+ issues around the globe.

Creative’s Chief of Party, Juan Manuel Sanchez

How did you get into the development industry, and what do you attribute to your success?

Sanchez: I worked in the public sector for 12 years, and then joined the Millennium Challenge Corporation´s projects. I have since dedicated the last seven and a half years to development work. I have achieved my success by merit. Because I have demonstrated the talent it takes to make things happen, and that is my greatest added value. I say what I think and feel, and I raise my voice when necessary. My maternal grandmother taught me to be fair, compassionate and to treat everyone equally. It is that mix of talents, family values and my history that makes me who I am today.

I don’t really enjoy social labels; I think they are discriminatory. I never stood up in front of my family to say I was gay. As a young man, I found my path and followed it. In school I was bullied, and in my professional life I have been personally attacked by some leaders in the organizations I have worked for.

That is why I say that my life is a story of resilience, which I proudly share, built on the love of my family, the support of mentors throughout my life, friends who have always been there for me, and work colleagues whose values and attitudes are compatible with my own. The world, companies, colleagues are not perfect, and it helps me a lot to understand that when people make fun of me, try to discredit me, or have tried to discriminate against me, it is not about me but about them, their personal history, their upbringing at home, and their education. This allows me to put a distance from everything that does not add value to my life.

Belonging to both the development aid and LGBTIQ+ communities, I have used my skills, networks and knowledge from the positions I have held in the different projects and organizations to raise awareness and to create opportunities to support other LGBTIQ+ people. “I want, I can and I deserve” is my personal mantra, and one that I pass on to every LGBTIQ+ youth and every person. Life is to be lived and not suffered. As human beings we must dignify life itself.

Although society is evolving, sometimes our time and society’s time do not coincide, however, that cannot stop us. If I change, my family will change, my country will change, and the world will change.

You’ve worked with programs to support LGBTIQ+ youth in in Central America. Could you describe the focus of that programming and why it was important at that time and space?

Sanchez: Countries in the Central America region are conservative. This presents many challenges for the LGBTIQ+ community but, in my opinion, there are two that are most relevant. The first great challenge is that in many countries there are no statistical data or public entities that handle data or qualitative information about LGBTIQ+ people. Although there are civil society organizations that work with this population segment, it is not enough to reveal the problems and needs of this population that must be addressed from public policies and with a public-private approach

The second challenge is cultural and the existing social norms, which make LGBTIQ+ people vulnerable to violence or discrimination from childhood. This can have a huge negative impact on self-esteem and self-confidence, which are central to the successful transition from child to youth to adult. It is not the LGBTIQ+ youth who must become straight, it is the environment that must become more supportive and respectful.

The first thing I have promoted within the projects where I have worked, and particularly in the last five years, is to monitor the LGBTIQ+ youth who participate in our programs. Knowing where they are, what they need and how they feel is just as important as knowing how many of them there are. The point is to break the social invisibility of this group and to respond to their own needs.

The second is to promote safe spaces where young people can feel that they are respected and valued. And third, I am a firm believer that the best help that can be given to a person is to teach them to create positive mindset and to increase their level of emotional resilience in an environment that will change very slowly, but where there are still opportunities for LGBTIQ+ youth to grow.

What were some of the major challenges of working with these vulnerable groups in Central America? Any specific examples of roadblocks or hurdles your programming faced?

Sanchez: One of the main challenges is that the young people themselves do not want to self-identify, which limits the capacity of the program to know their limitations, expectations and respond through with supports and services. Usually only 4 percent of this population has been identified as participating in programs, even though from experience it is known that there are more young people who prefer not to self-identify because of the social stigma that an LGBTIQ+ person faces.

Another challenge is to bring this group to the forefront of the vulnerable groups that are served by the projects. Many times, project teams focus on other vulnerable groups, because they are the most obvious groups to work with without implying a higher level of accommodation in the technical team itself. I encourage each member of my team to be informed, to learn what needs to be learned about each vulnerable group, to improve what can be improved and always, always answer the question: how would I like to be treated?

Has incorporating programming activities focused on LGBTIQ+ into development projects increased or improved during your time in the industry?

Sanchez: Throughout the industry we see how there is more interest in advancing LGBTIQ+ rights and supporting people to reach their full potential, particularly in the health and civil society capacity building projects. In Central America, Creative’s past projects have worked to empower LGBTIQ+ youth, develop life skills, increase their job readiness, amplify their voices and to sensitize companies on good practices of inclusion to generate that supportive environment.

There is always room for improvement. Most programs and projects are designed and implemented with a rights-based approach, which is correct. However, it is not enough just to teach people about their rights and existing laws. It is necessary to promote changes in the educational model to prepare LGBTIQ+ people for the challenges of life, and to reinforce mechanisms to minimize homophobic and transphobic bullying.

It is very positive that more LGBTIQ+ leadership in the political and social spheres is visible, and that governments or companies move towards positive actions with the creation of units, or leadership positions, or inclusion strategies, to create a more supportive environment for our community. However, we must always be vigilant of the social/political manipulation that can slow down the real shift towards a more inclusive society.

Finally, it is important to make visible the contribution of the LGBTIQ+ community to the economic growth and social cohesion of countries.

Guatemala and USAID’s Peacebuilding Project sign MOU to reduce sexual violence, exploitation and human trafficking

June 17, 2022

By Erin Treinen

2 min read

The Guatemalan Government and Creative Associates International, through the USAID’s Peacebuilding Project, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to help reduceviolence against women and girls, and advise authorities on the detection and prevention of such crimes in the country’s Western Highlands, where incidents of sexual violence increased by 40 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sara Barker, COP of Proyecto Tejiendo Paz, signing the MOU.

Signed by the Executive Director of the Secretariat Against Sexual Violence, Exploitation and Human Trafficking (SVET, its Spanish acronym) and the Peacebuilding Project’s Chief of Party, the MOU is a strategic effort to advise and guide state institutions on issues related to the detection, prevention and protection of crimes involving sexual violence, exploitation and trafficking in persons.

Incidents of violence against women and girls are a persistent problem in Guatemala, which ranks among the countries with the highest rate of violent deaths among women. Combating sexual and domestic violence is also a key priority in stemming irregular migration from Guatemala. Without efforts to prevent, report, and respond to this type of violence, many women opt to migrate despite the risks.

“USAID is an institution that strategically partners with the Government of Guatemala, but more so, it’s an institution that partners with the people, specifically with groups of people that are most vulnerable,” said Guatemala n Vice President , Guillermo Castillo Reyes during his remarks at the event on June 13.

The Peacebuilding Project works in the departments of Huehuetenango, Quiché, San Marcos, Totonicapán and Quetzaltenango to addresses the root causes of conflict in four thematic areas: 1) youth, gender and families; 2) governance; 3) land rights; 4) and natural resources. As part of the first conflict category, the project carries out concrete actions aimed at preventing and reducing violence against women and girls, as well as providing integral and culturally relevant care to survivors.

Sara Barker, who has led the Peacebuilding Project since its inception in 2018, told participants that the MOU is an important piece of the program’s efforts in the region: “We are committed to supporting the work of SVET, facilitating tools and spaces for interinstitutional coordination and interaction between actors at the community, municipal, and departmental levels in the government and nongovernment sectors, while also supporting the training of community leaders, women, and youth.”

During the next year and half, SVET and the Peacebuilding Project will be strengthening the Departmental Commissions for the Prevention of Sexual Violence, Exploitation, and Human Trafficking (CODEVET, its Spanish acronym) and organizing forums and dialogues at the municipal and departmental levels, aimed at raising awareness on the prevention and reporting of sexual violence, exploitation, and trafficking.

Opportunity at home: Building small artisan businesses in rural Mexico

May 31, 2022

1 min read

In Southern Mexico, one of the key drivers of outbound migration is the lack of household income. A number of organizations, including Creative Learning’s Aid to Artisans, are working to provide meaningful, sustainable employment opportunities to residents in at-risk communities.

“I can do it”: Connecting mountains to markets

May 31, 2022

1 min read

Creative Learning’s Aid to Artisans is providing micro and small businesses with the tools, resources and connections to sell their products to global audiences. Focusing on the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche and Yucatan, Aid to Artisans has had a transformative effect on producers that only dreamed of exporting their goods.

SID-US selects a Creative video as a Lightning Talk winner, two others receive honorable mention

May 27, 2022

2 min read

A video about engaging early grade readers in Pakistan through a comic-book style supplemental reading guide was selected as one of three winners in a contest run by the Society of International Development—US during its annual conference May 26.

The video, written and narrated by Creative’s Nadya Karim-Shaw, highlights how the USAID-funded Pakistan Reading Project tried a new way to reach readers ages 9 and 10, particularly girls. They produced a series of comic books focuses on fictional characters, Sheeba, and three private detectives (two girls and a boy with a backpack).

By investigating community issues, the team (along with a donkey and a dog) take readers through history, geography and other topics. Released in 2018, the series had more than 2 million readers, said Karim-Shaw, a Senior Technical Advisor at Creative. Sheeba and the Private Detectives was produced through the Pakistan Reading Program in cooperation with AzCorp.

SID-US sought submissions of “Lightning Talk” videos about a topic or issue related to global development, with each video running no longer than five minutes. Karim-Shaw’s video was one of three selected by SID-US judges as finalists, which were shown during the organization’s Washington, D.C., conference on May 26. In addition to Creative, a video by FHI360’s Habtamu Buli and a piece by Abt Associates’ Sarah Romorini and Yuliya Rakhimova were selected as finalists.

Two additional Lightning Talk videos by Creative were selected as honorable mentions and featured on the SID-US Lightning Talk page. Mariellen Jewers, Associate Director of Creative’s Center for Migration, presented a video called “Virtuous Migration,” and Yasmina Sarhrouny, Chief of Party in Burkina Faso, entered a film called “Dance of the Telegrams.”

SID-US (formerly SID-Washington) is the largest and most active chapter of the Society for International Development (SID), an international network founded in 1957 to serve as a global forum dedicated to sustainable economic, social and political development. Creative is a member of SID-US.

See videos below:

“Sheeba and the Private Detectives” by Nadya Karim-Shaw

“Virtuous Migration” by Mariellen Jewers

“Dance of the Telegrams” by Yasmina Sarhrouny

“I Can Do It”: Connecting Mountains to Markets

March 14, 2022

1 min read

“I Can Do It”: Connecting Mountains to Markets from Creative Associates Int’l on Vimeo.

Creative Learning’s Aid to Artisans is providing micro and small businesses with the tools, resources and connections to sell their products to a global audience. Focusing on the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche and Yucatan, Aid to Artisans has had a transformative effect on producers that only dreamed of exporting their goods.

Aid to Artisans’ Manos Vivas program is supported by the Kellogg Foundation.

Creative Learning is the nonprofit sister of Creative Associates International, a social impact company with development programs in more than 30 countries.

Small plans are big steps in the fabric of change for women in rural Mexico

March 8, 2022

1 min read

Small plans are the fabric of change for women in rural Mexico from Creative Associates Int’l on Vimeo.

Women in rural and remote communities in Chiapas, Yucatan and Campeche states are receiving much-needed skills that boost their household incomes through Creative Learning’s Aid to Artisans Mexico. Beyond livelihoods, Aid to Artisan’s Manos Vivas program provides the women with training in leadership and other soft skills that are essential to becoming advocates for themselves and their futures. Manos Vivas is supported by the Kellogg Foundation. Creative Learning is the nonprofit sister organization of Creative Associates International.

Indigenous authorities and youth leaders strengthen sense of community

January 5, 2022

By Sara Barker

7 min read

For the Maya, “nahual” is the energy, spirit or strength that brings to life and guides a person each day. Everyone has a nahual, which is based on the day that they are born, and it connects them with nature to promote harmony and balance. Nahual represents the wisdom, qualities, strengths and weaknesses of each person and is a protective spirit.

The nahual day of Kawok, Dec. 13 – which symbolizes community and connects the Maya to their ancestors and future offspring – was chosen by indigenous authorities and youth leaders from San Andrés Sajcabajá in the Guatemalan Department of Quiché to hold an exchange to strengthen their bonds with youth and to provide hope for the future.

“The youth are very important for us. If we lose our youth, we lose everything,” said Cirilo de León, an indigenous authority from San Andrés Sajcabajá. “That is why we are here today, with the youth. It is important that they do not lose hope.”

Leaders selected the Qʼumarkaj ruins, which was once the capital of the Maya Kʼicheʼ people, for the Dec. 13 gathering. Youth leader Gersón Ixcuná explained that “this place is very special for our roots; our ancestors came to the place, which represents our indigenous Maya origins. So, we’ve come to this place to share with the indigenous and political authorities.”

The Dec. 13 exchange was organized by the USAID-funded Peacebuilding Project, known as Tejiendo Paz in Spanish, and implemented in coordination with the Guatemalan government initiative known as La Ruta – Reunion entre Pueblos, which includes the municipality of San Andrés Sajcabajá. The Peacebuilding Project began working in San Andrés Sajcabajá in 2021 with funding from the Complex Crises Fund.

Peacebuilding Project addresses four categories of conflict: youth, girls and families; governance; natural resources; and land. The five-year program is implemented by Creative Associates International with partners Fundación ProPaz and PartnersGlobal.

Peacebuilding Project has identified inter-generational conflict as a priority. As youth are exposed to different cultures through technology and migration, adults fear that youth are losing their traditional identity or are becoming involved in criminal activity. These factors have resulted in an inter-generational gap.

Indigenous authorities respond to local conflict

The communities where the project is working are predominantly indigenous. The Peacebuilding Project has developed an Indigenous Peoples Engagement Strategy, which ensures the active participation of indigenous groups in the design and implementation of local initiatives.

To further make certain that the identity, promotion and rights of indigenous practices and rights are fully integrated into initiatives organized by Peacebuilding Project, the project has a community implementation team that is comprised of professionals who come from the Western Highlands and are fluent in the indigenous languages.

Miguel Balán, who is Maya Qʼeqchiʼ and the Social Conflict Manager with Peacebuilding Project, explained how the team uses the strategy to support the target communities.

“Indigenous authorities, particularly in this exchange, promote one of the principles of indigenous law called Komonil, [which is] the sense of community,” he said. “This is a form of peacefully resolving conflicts. They provide ancestral knowledge to youth in order to preserve their traditions.”

Indigenous authorities are key project partners in resolving social conflict and preventing conflict from escalating into crisis and violence. Their ancestral knowledge, systems and practices are fundamental for the implementation of effective, alternative mechanism of dialogue, mediation and negotiation.

During the Dec. 13 gathering, indigenous authorities spoke about their successes in resolving land conflicts during the exchange, including the use of dialogues among neighbors to resolve property boundaries. They also discussed the importance of protecting natural resources, engaging in reforestation and preventing illegal logging.

“We do not use violence or lynching [to resolve conflict]. We use dialogue and coordination with judicial authorities,” said Cirilo de León.

Conflict also happens at home. “Of the conflicts that exist in our communities, the most common is inter-familial violence,” said Cirilo de León. He explains that lack of access to economic resources limits the ability of women to pay for transportation and other costs to report the violence. The indigenous authorities are committed to supporting the women, either through dialogue or through formal legal mechanisms.

Youth want spaces for meaningful participation

“Conflicts that youth face are different from those of the adults,” said Gersón Ixcuná, a youth leader who participated in the Dec. 13 exchange. “The adults fight over land rights, they fight over access to water and there are conflicts within families. But for youth, the biggest obstacle is the lack of access to opportunities,”

Youth are often not included in decision-making bodies, such as local development councils. When they are allowed to participate, unfortunately, they struggle to make their voices heard. Some adults have fears about youth delinquency, which leads to repressive responses and erodes trust. The project views youth civic participation in local peacebuilding initiatives as an opportunity to strengthen inter-generational relationships, bridge the inter-generational gap, and promote positive perceptions of youth.

Exchange between ancestral authority and youth.

“The youth have an essential role in making decisions and transforming our community and society,” said Gersón Ixcuná. “Doors are often closed to us due to lack of experience and lack of knowledge, but we are capable of learning and we need doors open to us.”

Youth leader Karla Hernández said youth need to take an active role in making change happen. “It is our responsibility as youth to make change. We often say that the adults should do it but if they aren’t going to do it, we can do it. We should not limit ourselves as youth. Sometimes we are afraid, but we need to lose the fear and raise our voices.”

During the exchange, Pedro Tix Gonzales, the Mayor of San Andrés Sajcabajá, announced the planned opening a Municipal Youth Office in 2022. He highlighted the strong youth participation in the municipality and encouraged them to stay engaged so they can improve the situation for others from those spaces.

Karla Hernández shared that she “hopes that the municipality and indigenous authorities take into consideration the youth. There have been activities with youth, but they give us spaces related to sports and recreation. But we want to be taken into consideration in important decisions. So, it is important that municipality does not open its youth office, like the mayor mentioned, just for recreation but also so that youth have opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship.”

The risks and reality of migration

A reality that was addressed during the exchange is that youth continue to their irregular migration to the United States in search of economic opportunities. On Dec. 9, there was a catastrophic crash in southern Mexico that killed at least 54 and injured more than 100 people who were migrating from Guatemala to the United States. One of the people who died was a 21-year-old from San Andrés Sajcabajá.

During his speech at the Dec. 13 event, Mayor Tix Gonzales acknowledged the loss for the community and that these are the real risks of irregular migration. He told the youth that he hopes they will not think about migrating and will look for opportunities in their communities.

Youth leader Karla Hernández recognized the factors that drive irregular migration. “Something that often influences migration, other than lack of economic opportunities, is the lack of family integration,” she said at the gathering. “Frequently, there are conflicts within families” that drive irregular migration. It is a vicious cycle; migration contributes to family disintegration and increases vulnerability of children and youth, she added.

Cirilo de León said irregular migration was one of the factors behind the Dec. 13 event.

“What we thought [in organizing] this activity is that the youth will not think about traveling to other places. If we abandon them, they will start to think about leaving for other places,” he said.

When speaking about the causes of migration, Gersón Ixcuná shared that “this is our reality and we do not want the future to be the same. We are youth and we want a better future for our children. For this reason, we raise our voices.”

A beginning

Florinda Puac, who is Maya K’iche’ and Peacebuilding Project Community Supervisor, acknowledged that the Dec. 13 event is a step in the right direction. “This exchange is important because it is expected to be the beginning of inter-generational relaying of information and allowing the youth to have substantiative participation in their communities,” Puac explained.

Karla Hernández echoed Puac’s comments. “We hope that the indigenous authorities will invite the youth to participate because as youth it is important that we know we have roots, that we are not stuck here and do not know where we are going. We have a past, and we will have a future. But in the present, we should have the support of adults and we should look for opportunities.”

Sara Barker is the Chief of Party of the USAID-supported Peacebuilding Project/Tejiendo Paz in Guatemala.

Strengthening institutions and promoting peace in Guatemala’s Western Highlands

November 19, 2021

By Janey Fugate

5 min read

Departmental governments in Guatemala’s Western Highlands are on the front lines of addressing social conflict, relying on Departmental Commissions for Attention to Conflict and Security to respond to and resolve some of the most difficult and entrenched conflicts in the region.

Because the agencies are often under-resourced and poorly equipped, resolutions are often stagnated at the community level.

In response to requests from the CODESACs, as they are known in Spanish, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Peacebuilding Project (Tejiendo Paz in Spanish), along with Guatemalan NGO Fundación ProPaz, designed an intensive series of conflict transformation workshops that culminated in a formal commitment to peacebuilding. The workshops were tailored to strengthen CODESACs ability to respond to conflict.

“A key challenge for us is to increase coordination between the municipal and departmental agencies so that they have more fluid responses to social conflict,” says Norman Martinez, Tejiendo Paz’s Senior Institutional Strengthening Specialist.

Fostering inter-institutional collaboration is part of Tejiendo Paz’s broader vision to build bridges between the communities and the government authorities and agencies tasked with addressing conflict. Working in the Western Highlands, Tejiendo Paz gives communities tools to identify, address and mediate social conflict through trainings, creating networks of mediators, and fostering civic engagement.

Beyond symbolism

On Oct. 12, the CODESAC of San Marcos became the third commission to complete the trainings, which bridge a symbolic commitment to renewed peace with the hard skills to make tangible progress towards reducing social conflict.

San Marcos, like other rural departments in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, experiences high levels of poverty and social conflicts related to land and natural resources with deep, historical roots. These workshops were designed to strengthen the CODESAC’s capacity to effectively address the causes of these conflicts.

“The process of these capacity building workshops took place over three months in which members of our commission gained tools to address conflict through dialogue, creating a map of actors and peacebuilding exercises,” says San Marcos’ governor via Facebook, Luis Carlos Velásquez Bravo.

In 2020, Tejiendo Paz signed agreements with four departmental governments: Huehuetenango; Quiche; San Marcos; and Totonicapán. These agreements set the stage for the project to work with the CODESACs and implement the workshops designed to bolster each conflict resolution agency’s capacity to resolve conflicts at the root of the issue.

A roadmap for addressing conflicts associated with distribution of electrical energy

A common type of conflict the CODESACs address is related to the distribution of electrical energy, which leads to tensions between communities and electricity companies frequently lead to protests and roadblocks.

In both Huehuetenango and Quiche, the Tejiendo Paz provides technical assistance to working groups, which are part of the CODESACs, created to specifically address energy related issues. Technical assistance includes conflict analysis and conflict mitigation strategies, such as early management, dialogue and transformation.

“The goal is to be proactive and preventative, facilitating dialogue and offering tools that can lead to solutions before the conflict culminates in a protest or demonstration,” says Luz Lainfiesta, Tejiendo Paz’s Deputy Chief of Party.

In a mediation session held in Quiche, ENERGUATE, the region’s electrical provider, presented the company’s key areas of concern related to conflicts around access to electrical energy and their plan to address these conflicts. The CODESAC presented their experiences in addressing energy conflicts, and the National Electric Power Commission presented on the legal framework of the electrical subsector in Guatemala. The meetings culminated in the development of a roadmap for addressing these conflicts.

Similarly, in Huehuetenango, the departmental delegate of Community Violence Prevention Unit of the Ministry of the Interior and the departmental government have been leading these working groups, ensuring ownership and sustainability. Members of the working group held an outreach meeting in the municipality of Santiago, Chimaltenango to address conflict associated with the distribution of electricity.

A top-down approach

Addressing specific issues like energy distribution give communities tools that can be applied to other conflicts and contexts. The workshops and mediation groups are designed to empower communities beyond the project.

“Thus, at the end of the project, four CODESACs will be left with a strengthened legal framework, with a manual of functions and protocols of handling conflict and with staff with greater capacity to address and respond to local conflicts,” says Martinez. “This ensures sustainability of the actions, beyond the life of the project.”

In addition to inter-agency coordination, the workshops also covered early warning and response mechanisms, how to more effectively activate the local response of the departmental governments in accessing relevant services and development programs, promotion of leadership and empowerment of local governments as well as productive engagement with the private sector.

“There isn’t a week that passes without a conflict being addressed, and these workshops provided by Tejiendo Paz have helped us a lot and have given us new tools,” says Rudy Mazariegos, Coordinator of the Departmental Bureau of Security and Attention to the Conflict of Huehuetenango, during the series’ closing ceremony held on Oct. 19.

The training sessions addressed critical and specific pain points experienced in each department. In all four departments, high levels of poverty, discrimination against indigenous communities and women and violence related to land and natural resource disputes hinder development and feed a cycle of conflict.

Faced with such challenges, often community development projects are stagnated due to unresolved conflicts at the community level, preventing CODESACs and other government agencies from functioning as designed. Tejiendo Paz worked to give the departmental commissions more tools in conflict transformation for the purpose of advancing other objectives.

“Our goal is to prevent discrepancies on different issues from becoming conflicts, and that conflicts are dealt with in a timely manner,” said Luis Velásquez, Governor of San Marcos.

For several of these departments, this was the first time they had undergone such a comprehensive training on conflict resolution.

Jorge Cabrera, Governor of Totonicapán, expressed his support for these efforts. “Without the support of Tejiendo Paz this [training] wouldn’t be possible. I believe we now have a great network in eight municipalities that allows us to better address conflict across the department.”

Since Tejiendo Paz has been working together with CODESACs, these have become commissions that not only work to settle conflicts and increase the security of their own departments, but are also initiating work for peace through inter-agency meetings.

Jorge Cabrera, Governor of Totonicapán, echoed support for the work. “We want to treat conflict not as a problem, but as an opportunity to promote development in the department,” he said.

Tapping on culture to promote sustainable development

October 21, 2021

By Semere Solomon

3 min read

Culture is a broad concept and can sometimes be controversial. It embodies who we are, how we perceive our surroundings and how we interact as a society. Culture can influence the course of human progress and has a symbiotic relationship with sustainable development.

Culture has been used to both build empires and raze them to the ground. The obsession with cultural supremacy can create chaos and anarchy, like we saw in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It can also be the driving force behind military action and subjugation of races — the colonization of Africa, the rise of Nazi Germany and the annihilation of indigenous people across the Americas are cases in point.

Culture can also be liberating. For example, culture played major roles in liberating human beings from the servitude of feudal land ownership, spurred the industrial revolution, and drove the revolution to make France a republic.

An understanding of culture can help us harness it as a tool for progress.

Sustainable development depends on culture

I believe that communities who take pride in their culture, identity, history, values and norms are likely to make sustained, albeit slow, progress.

Culture is an effective instrument in building a good governance structure based on societal values and norms. In many developing economies or traditional societies in Africa, traditional governance systems, such as councils of traditional leaders, provide a cohesive connection between local communities and the central government. This link can serve as a support system for sustainable development.

Norms and values anchored in national pride, consensus building, respect for one’s identity, respect for diversity and constructive dialogue can create stable and resilient communities. Norms and values that strongly advocate representation and inclusion can be liberating and constructive. They can solidify and set progress in motion.

There can never be human progress — social, economic, political — when fellow human beings are treated unequally. We can see this with the caste system in India, the subjugation of indigenous communities and the practice of systemic racism in the United States.

Culture Action Europe maintains that the concept of sustainability should add culture as a factor on top of the normally accepted three-pillar paradigm: economic, environmental and social.

It perceives culture as an essential ingredient to create collective narratives, consolidate communities and foster diversity as an essential element in sustainability. It also recognizes it as possessing a transformative power crucial for building a sustainable future for all.

Economic and social development is unsustainable when it does not bring people to the center of the process and when it is not responsive to their social and economic needs.

Applying culture to education development

In the education development sector, it is incumbent upon us to understand that education should be responsive to local needs and culture.

The curriculum should reflect the environment and socio-cultural setting to make it relevant and appealing to pupils. For example, promoting the mother tongue as a medium of instruction in the early grades helps better address children’s educational needs.

The curriculum may also need to be responsive to the skilled labor needs of their surroundings. For instance, communities living along the coastlines, where fishery is the mainstay of their economy, need to learn how to increase productivity in the fishing industry and not forestry or subsistence farming. Netmaking, boat manufacturing, fish preservation, and fish export, for example, are far more relevant.

The curriculum should also address harmful social norms such as traditional societies’ attitude towards women and other marginalized groups, the caste system, and attitudes towards science.

Programs that used religious text to combat gender inequality have been very successful in several countries. Education programs that recruit more female teachers are likely to encourage girls in traditional societies to attend school.

Making education relevant to the needs of society is one way of ensuring sustained social and economic progress.

To read the full publication, please click here.

Semere Solomon is the Senior Director of Creative’s Africa Strategy and Program Director of Northern Education Initiative Plus education program in Nigeria.

Guatemalan women protect cultural identity and promote gender equity through footwear

October 19, 2021

By Janey Fugate

5 min read

In the Western Highlands of Guatemala, 40 women gathered to practice the ancient art of weaving traditional Maya patterns. Participating in the first session of a three-part workshop series, they were learning a new skill: Weaving these designs into footwear.

“I’ve never been to a training like this,” says Heidi Ortiz, a participant in the workshop. “I know that this will be useful in the future for me and for my kids.”

Hosted by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Peacebuilding Project (known as Proyecto Tejiendo Paz in Spanish), a project that works with remote and often under-resourced communities to address and resolve social conflict, the workshops were about more than making shoes. Tejiendo Paz created the series as part of a multipronged response to what the San Pedro Necta community expressed as its greatest challenges – gender discrimination and violence against women.

“An approach to this conflict is to empower women economically,” says Marlyn Garcia, a community facilitator for Tejiendo Paz and native of Huehuetenango. “They know how to weave their garments, so it was essential to give them a new tool or knowledge of how to make something else with this fabric.”

Tejiendo Paz organized the event along with national and municipal partners, including the Municipal Commission for Food and Nutritional Security (COMUSAN), the Municipal Women’s Office (DMM) and the Secretariat for Food and Nutritional Security (SESAN). The government partners provided the women with a sewing toolkit, initial supplies and fabric, as well as branding and marketing guidance for their products. Tejiendo Paz hired the instructors and facilitated the workshops. The goal was to give them the skills to create a niche product with the potential to generate a new source of income.

Promoting economic agency and eliminating barriers to participation – with an emphasis on women and youth – are central components of Tejiendo Paz’s work in the Western Highlands. Recent research affirms that societies that oppress women are more likely to show higher levels of violence and instability. In this way, Tejiendo Paz organized these workshops to promote gender equity in the region.

“Building skills and supporting a paradigm shift in gender roles in terms of both economic and civic empowerment are part of building more peaceful communities that are better able to cope with conflict,” says Sara Barker, Tejiendo Paz’s Chief of Party.

Preserving cultural identity

In San Pedro Necta, women reported another layer of gender discrimination. In community meetings, they shared that not being able to afford traditional clothing prevents them from participating in leadership roles and decision making in their communities. This new source of gender discrimination adds to what they already experience in a country with high levels of gender violence.

“There is a lot of embarrassment around not being able to afford traditional clothing,” says Marlyn. “The migration of women to other countries for economic resources and for the ability to afford this kind of clothing contributes to the disintegration of families.”

As globalization affects indigenous communities around the world, it becomes increasingly difficult for people to sustain traditions while making a living in the modern economy. The first workshop in Tejiendo Paz’s series, called “Conservation of Cultural Identity,” addressed that issue in the context of gender equity and economic empowerment.

“It’s important to preserve our traditions and customs so we don’t lose them,” says Felina Bravo Lopez, president of a women’s group in San Pedro Necta. “I see many women wearing pants and a blouse because it’s cheaper and they lose the use of traditional clothing, but it shouldn’t be that way. But I understand how expensive it is to buy traditional clothing, so the fabric [the course] donated will mitigate this cost.”

These trainings are also intended to be a launching point for future projects and community work.

Matilde Bravo, Manager of the Municipal Women’s office in San Pedro Necta, expressed her enthusiasm for the workshops.

“I am very proud to be here and I’m very proud of the other women with me, they are really enthusiastic about this course in making traditional shoes,” she says “And we don’t want this activity to end here, we want to continue doing activities like this with our partners.”

A broader vision for gender equity

In meetings facilitated by Tejiendo Paz, members of target communities identify key conflicts and obstacles to finding peaceful resolutions. These sessions culminate in “community visions,” which become guides to point both individuals and governing bodies to appropriate resources as well as roadmaps to shape community development. Tejiendo Paz has delivered 27 such plans across the departments of Huehuetenango, Totonicapan, Quetzaltenango and San Marcos.

In many of these communities, Tejiendo Paz organizes women’s networks that offer leadership support and solidarity in addressing gender violence and discrimination. Along with economic empowerment, civic empowerment is the other side of the coin in shifting gender paradigms. Marlyn describes how a host of obstacles bar women from civic participation.

“In theory, women’s rights are the same as men’s, but in practice this isn’t the case,” she says. “Inequality in education, discriminatory attitudes and institutions and lack of access to other services prevent women from getting involved politically.”

The sewing workshop series was thus a space to share information about women’s rights and capacity for meaningful civic engagement in addition to small business advice.

“We see that the women that participated [in the sewing workshop] are leaving really motivated to continue promoting the improvement of their communities,” says Beldis Vasquez, an employee in San Pedro Necta’s municipal office.

USAID Peacebuilding Project expands coverage in the Western Highlands

October 7, 2021

By Aja Beckham

5 min read

In late August, authorities from six Guatemalan municipalities signed agreements that seek to resolve conflict and restore peace in Guatemala’s Western Highlands. These new Memoranda of Understanding build on the agreements signed with four departmental governments and four municipal governments in 2019 and 2020.

The memoranda were signed by Creative through the Peacebuilding Project (Proyecto Tejiendo Paz in Spanish). The six-year project works on conflict mitigation and peacebuilding in the Western Highlands. It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by Creative Associates International with partners Fundación ProPaz and PartnersGlobal.

The agreement is an initial step in addressing social conflict, and municipality officials will now begin to co-create an action plan to resolve conflicts called Municipal Peace Plans.

Sara Barker, the Peacebuilding Project’s Chief of Party, says these new municipalities signed on because the agreement creates opportunity for community development.

“The Peacebuilding Project works with local leaders to transform conflicts into opportunities for development,” says Barker. “Municipal authorities expressed their commitment to supporting communities in identifying locally-led solutions to conflict. They believe that these efforts will increase social cohesion and strengthen roots in the communities.”

The Western Highlands has one of the highest rates of migration in the country, as people flee their communities in search of safer environments.

The project will also implement activities aimed at reducing violence and conflict in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Entry into new municipalities was on hold for much of the past year due to the pandemic and limitations in funding. The project recently received funding from the Complex Crises Fund in response to the urgent need to mitigate conflict and violence during the COVID crisis.

COVID-19 and social conflict

The citizen-state relationship is weak in some areas due to poor services and infrastructure such as schools and health centers. Photo by: iStock; Peacebuilding Project

The COVID-19 crisis is devastating for vulnerable communities in Guatemala that already experience social conflict, have limited access to services and experience high levels of poverty.

The Peacebuilding Project addresses the underlying causes of social conflict by focusing on four categories of conflict: youth, girls and families; governance; land; and natural resources.

Luz Lainfiesta, Deputy Chief of Party of the Peacebuilding Project, says the ongoing COVID crisis is worsening existing conflicts and contributing to new ones, particularly related to governance and youth, girls and families.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the structural conditions and the foundation for the emergence of conflict. It’s added pressure on families and systems and caused negative impacts, triggered new conflicts and exacerbate existing ones.”

With the Complex Crises Funds, the project has expanded into communities located in the six new municipalities to develop action plans, known as community visions, that respond to conflicts resulting from the pandemic. Municipal authorities, who are on the front line in responding to community needs, play a critical role in mitigating conflict in the context of continued COVID-19 restrictions and responses.

“Domestic violence conflicts, unemployment and poverty have increased during the pandemic,” says Maria Elvira Batz, Councilor 5 of the municipality Totonicapán.

Violence against women and girls has been identified by communities as a priority issue because it contributes to the disintegration of social cohesion and limits effective civic participation of women.

The project will implement a communication strategy to prevent and reduce domestic violence and provide grants for violence against women and girls prevention services, which the municipalities agreed to support through these MOUs.

Another reason that local officials signed on to the project is because community facilitators are from the Western Highlands, speak the local Mayan languages and work collaboratively with officials. Photo by: Peacebuilding Project

Locally-led solutions that contribute to lasting peace

Fernando Miranda, a supervisor of Peacebuilding Project community facilitators, says another reason that local officials signed on to the project is because community facilitators are from the Western Highlands, speak the local Mayan languages and work collaboratively with officials to improve cohesion and peace.

“The idea is to count on community facilitators to lay the foundations for building strategic relationships with local authorities that can support the achievement of the project’s results and its long-term sustainability,” says Miranda. “The support of local authorities is key to ensuring a smooth and successful implementation of the community visions.”

The facilitators also build relationships with community leaders to strengthen their engagement. The community facilitators also establish women and youth activist groups at the community level and meet with the groups to understand the type of conflict — land and natural resources, violence against women and girls — identify causes, and create a community-led action plan.

Approximately eight or nine communities develop community visions in each municipality. The community visions are then consolidated into Municipal Peace Plans. Municipal authorities and government agencies then work with community members to implement their peacebuilding priorities. These efforts rebuild trust and relationships between citizens and government agencies.

Timothy Feliciano Velasquez Bamaca, Municipal Mayor of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, San Marcos, says that he looks forward to building a team to collectively resolve concerns and foster peace in the area.

“There are conflicts everywhere. Resolving them is complex,” says Velasquez. “Through the signing of the MOU with the Peacebuilding Project and the municipality, a team will be created to address and solve them, and we’ll seek tranquility and peace together.”

In late August, these six new municipalities signed on: San Juan Cotzal, San Gaspar Chajul, San Andrés Sajcabajá and Santo Tomás Chichicastenango in the department of Quiché, San Miguel Ixtahuacán in the department of San Marcos and Huehuetenango in the department of Huehuetenango. The project re-signed MOUs with the following four municipalities in September: Chiantla and San Pedro Necta, Huehuetenango; Comitancillo, San Marcos; and Totonicapán, Totonicapán.

The Peacebuilding Project will continue to expand its geographic coverage. While the project currently works on conflict mitigation and peacebuilding in 10 municipalities, it plans to enter five more in early 2022. The project goal is to work in 130 communities in the 15 municipalities by the end of 2022.

Vivian Jacobs and Olga Lorenzana Alvarez contributed to this article.