Guatemala: Verapaz Action for Sustainable Agro-Industry

Verapaz Action for Sustainable Agro-Industry (VASAI) was a two-year program in five targeted communities in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. It drew on mutual past experience with the Swedish Postcode Lottery-funded Verapaz Community Empowerment Program (VCEP) and was designed to address the agricultural production value, economic challenges, and local leadership challenges faced by farmers, especially women, in the agricultural industry.

The program was implemented through a three-component approach focused on producer investment and market links, policy awareness and multi-stakeholder engagement, and strengthening legal participation. Each component was designed to complement the other and ensure the sustainability of the project’s impact. Global Fairness Initiative (GFI) partnered with a local organization, Pastoral Social, to design and implement training and activities that provided the project’s beneficiaries with the skills, technology, investment, and representation necessary to identify and pursue greater economic opportunity in their communities.

VASAI provided farmers with training and activities focused on increasing technical knowledge and skills, introducing new equipment, and providing other resources and linkages necessary to improve their livelihoods and grow their enterprises. Training on market access and Farming-as-Business inspired the farmers to form producer associations, which allowed them to sell directly to buyers at higher prices instead of intermediaries. Farmers are now organized in a coalition around four main products: rubber, black pepper, allspice, and annatto, and trained on processing harvests from the newly diversified farm plots. The formation of the producer’s committee enhanced skills and ability to advocate for their needs collectively, increasing market linkages between the producers and larger buyers throughout the regions. The program observed increased family income and nutritional consumption among the project participants, hence improved quality of life and fewer illnesses, especially among children.

Through the program, multi-stakeholder engagement and leadership training focused on increasing the legal participation of communities were initiated to ensure the gains made by the farmers during this program would be sustainable, with the engagement of a local bank to provide training on financial literacy and management and offer loans with zero interest to producers for local enterprise development. This training was complemented by a partnership with Guatemala’s Ministry of Economy that culminated in the creation of training on social security and taxes and the establishment of a One-Stop-Window in the nearby community of Coban, where Indigenous community members can receive the necessary information to formalize their economic activity.