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The Mujerprospera Challenge in Central America

MujerProspera Challenge
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) introduced MujerProspera (WomanProsper) Challenge on January 13, 2022. The challenge encourages applicants to propose innovative ways to promote gender equality in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Overall, this project addresses the relationship between gender and poverty and forms part of a long list of ongoing USAID projects that bolster the opportunities of the world’s impoverished.

Gender and Poverty

Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras noted high levels of extreme poverty even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, although the spread of the virus prompted rises in poverty levels throughout the region. According to the Center for Strategic and Management Studies, the Northern Triangle, of which Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras form part, stands as “one of the [most impoverished] regions in the Western Hemisphere.” Migration patterns and environmental disasters also exacerbate the struggles of those living below the poverty line. As of August 12, 2021, USAID estimated that 8.3 million citizens across these three countries require humanitarian aid.

These facts do not exist in isolation of gender inequality. In fact, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras stand out as nations where gender and poverty intertwine. Data from the Gender Equality Observatory shows that extremely high percentages of women in Guatemala (51%), El Salvador (39.4%) and Honduras (43.5%) had no “incomes of their own.” All of these rates are higher than the regional average, which stood at 27.8% as of 2019.

Evidence proves that changing these statistics leads to positive change. A World Bank report on women’s role in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) economies notes that “an increase in the number of women in paid work between 2000 and 2010 accounted for around 30% of the overall reduction in poverty and income inequality.” Women in these countries receive fewer opportunities and face more challenges than many men in the same social and economic situation. As such, U.S. efforts to combat global poverty must also combat global gender inequality.

Developments in Central American Women’s Rights

Local activists, politicians and international organizations in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras continue to make significant progress in women’s rights. One group, the IM-Defensoras, has launched several campaigns throughout Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras since 2016 to protect women and provide a cooperative network for female humanitarian activists.

In addition, the Regional Office of U.N. Women for LAC launched the Women, Local economy and Territories (WLEaT) program in 2018 with a specific focus on the Northern Triangle countries. WLEaT “contributes to the creation of new and better employment and income opportunities for women entrepreneurs and businesswomen” by strengthening their access to business services and promoting inclusive financial practices in the private sector. The program, therefore, contributes to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as ending global poverty (SDG 1),  combating gender inequality (SDG 5) and promoting “decent work” and economic expansion (SDG 8).

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in June 2021, USAID and several partner organizations provided resources for women in need of humanitarian aid. This includes a total of $60 million spread across the three Northern Triangle countries to encourage employment, train Indigenous women for midwife careers, prevent gender-based violence and more. Most recently, on January 13, 2022, USAID introduced another important program: the MujerProspera Challenge.

What is the MujerProspera Challenge?

The MujerProspera Challenge stands as one of many U.S. programs pushing against multiple levels of inequality. The program’s official request for applications documents states that the project seeks to “advance women’s economic security, employment, and/or entrepreneurship” in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

The lofty document lists different types of solutions that draw from training initiatives in the private sector to the implementation of gender-inclusive legislation. However, overall, MujerProspera provides another way for women in these countries to protect their agency and independence.

Applicants can win funding awards ranging from $150,000 to $500,000 in value. Through these awards, applicants can fund necessary initiatives or solutions that acknowledge the relationship between gender and poverty and promote women’s involvement in the economic sector. The MujerProspera Challenge thus empowers women, local activists, entrepreneurs and organizations to develop solutions to improve situations of gender inequality and poverty in their home countries.

– Lauren Sung
Photo: Flickr

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Humanitarian Need and Conflict in Central Africa

Armed Conflict and Humanitarian Need in Central Africa
An economic crisis ravaging Sudan, Chad and other such nations of Central Africa has made the region a hotbed for protest and armed conflict. As a result, this worsens the living conditions of the citizens residing there. Recently, rising tensions in these nations have contributed to an actively worsening humanitarian crisis. Consequently, this left countless people with homelessness and food insecurity. In Sudan alone, 260,000 people face displacement and hunger due to conflicts in Port Sudan and the Red Sea State. While international relief organizations are administering humanitarian aid, a long list of challenges due to conflict in Central Africa made this process exceedingly difficult.

Crisis and Military Conflict in Sudan

Sudan has been in military conflict since a military coup removed its long-serving ruler Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. The coup removed al-Bashir as a result of austerity measures in response to an economic crisis that has been ongoing in Sudan since 2012. Austerity measures or higher subsidies on products worsened the poor quality of life of citizens living in the area. Instability within the Sudanese reached a boiling point when public protests of living conditions broke out across the country with citizens often calling for al-Bashir’s removal.

Since the April 2019 coup, a council of generals exercised executive power over the nation. However, stability has yet to return. On June 3, 2019, the government of Sudan responded to the protests with violence. The government murdered dozens of journalists and threw their bodies into the Nile. Meanwhile, the military government and armed conflict in Central Africa worsened the humanitarian conditions of the vulnerable citizenry further. Moreover, the nation remains on the United States’ “State sponsors of terrorism” list. Consequently, the nation has less access to debt relief through the United States. This means that the $50 billion debt that Sudan owes to external nations falls on the shoulders of the military government. This will affect vulnerable and impoverished citizens.

Civil Conflict and Resource Scarcity in Chad

Civil unrest in Chad is the primary factor contributing to the depletion of the resources of the already economically insecure population for a number of decades. Since 1990, the Chadian population lived under the power monopoly of the Zaghawa military clan. Its leader is the long-standing president Idriss Déby. Under this military regime, the Chadian population has suffered from political violence and poor social relations due in large part to the nation’s corrupt spoils system. Likewise, poor international relations with the government of Sudan perpetuates conflict within the Chadian border, as each nation offers its support to the other nation’s rebels.

Chad suffers from resource depletion, widespread internal displacement and a high influx of foreign refugees. Protracted internal conflict in Nigeria has displaced more than 200,000 refugees to Chad, Cameroon and Niger alone. As Chad, Sudan, Niger, Nigeria and other surrounding nations participate in armed conflict in Central Africa, resources spread ever-thinner for those in the throes of poverty.

Relief and Reduction of Conflict in Central Africa

Some nations in Central Africa receive funding and foreign aid in order to relieve their populations of the life-threatening stress of resource depletion and military violence. Sudan, however, failed to meet the political requirements for such funding. Likewise, while Chad, Niger and Nigeria all receive funding, these nations are consistently underfunded by 30-40%. Providing guidance to the Sudanese government will foster peace and greater security and end the conflict in Central Africa. Funding goals should be consistent in order to resuscitate the faltering economies of the Central African region.

The Sudanese government has made a recent effort to repair social relations with its citizens. The government prioritizes education and health care as central goals of government funding. Likewise, international partners in humanitarian aid, headed by the U.N., intend to develop programs in the Central African region. This act hopes to align economic stability with improved humanitarian resilience.

Aid does exist for those struggling in Central Africa. However, armed conflict poses a continual threat to the safety and security of the population there. In order for the humanitarian situation to improve in this region, the global community must make a more dedicated effort to support peace and economic stability.

– Anthony Lyon
Photo: Flickr