Mujeres echando raíces

The crisis in Venezuela has forced 6.81 million people to leave their country. There are currently 5.75 million refugees and migrants in Latin America, mainly in Colombia (2.48 million) and Ecuador (502,200). Only 12% of the financing needs for Venezuelans was covered in 2022, making this migration the most under-funded in the world. While public services and labour markets are saturated in the host cities, vulnerable people, especially women, have very few rights.

Migrant women, who account for at least 50% of Venezuelan migration, face even more difficulties in terms of socioeconomic integration due to the high levels of risk during their migration process, especially if they are undocumented.

While tackling gender equality is recognised as a priority for all the parties concerned, an operation to fight inequality between women and men in migration situations is necessary and expected by the Colombian and Ecuadorian authorities.

In this context of migration, the Mujeres Echando Raíces project aims to strengthen the protection and socioeconomic integration of Venezuelan migrant women within the host communities in Cali in Colombia and Quito in Ecuador. It will also extend to Peru and Costa Rica, targeting the Nicaraguan migrant population in the latter country.

The project focuses on access to decent housing and the socio-professional integration of vulnerable migrant and local women. It is based on a “Housing First” approach, considering that housing is essential for the empowerment and inclusion of women. It also comprises training for institutional actors on migration and gender issues, with the aim of strengthening institutional capacities.

The project activities aim to achieve the following specific objectives:

• Support the implementation of a pilot project for a local public policy in Cali and Quito to provide Venezuelan migrant women and women in the host communities with access to decent housing, an income, and a life free of violence

• Conduct a feasibility study, with the aim of extending this approach to Peru (for Venezuelan women) and Costa Rica (for Nicaraguan women)

The Mujeres Echando Raíces project is based on four lines of action.

1. Improve access and conditions for rental accommodation

One of the project activities involves defining arrangements for access to decent housing, and contract procedures with partner civil society organisations for access to housing, identifying housing for rent and raising awareness among their owners, granting financial aid to the women beneficiaries, and carrying out works to improve housing conditions. The project will also serve to capitalise on this pilot experiment to consider a public policy for access to rental housing including migrant and vulnerable women.

This will enable the women beneficiaries and their families to benefit from access to decent and permanent rental housing.

2. Support the economic integration of women

The project will mobilise partner organisations on the issue of the socioeconomic integration of the women, who will be able to benefit from vocational training, support for their integration, and assistance or financing for the creation and development of their microenterprise.

These activities will provide the women beneficiaries of the project with access to the labour market and will help create or strengthen their economic activities.

3. Improve the women’s empowerment by preventing gender-based violence and providing access to sexual and reproductive healthcare

The women beneficiaries are offered social assistance to help empower them and give them a life free of violence. Awareness-raising and information sessions are organised on gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive rights. Women rights advocates from Quito are also included in the project and can benefit from training sessions.

Two centres have also been equipped to receive victims of gender-based violence: a sexual and reproductive health centre for adolescent girls in Quito and a shelter for women victims of violence in Cali.

4. Conduct a feasibility study for the extension of the project to Peru and Costa Rica

Experts are mobilised for the collection and analysis of data to consider the feasibility of extending the project to Peru and Costa Rica and prepare a project proposal.