The following is a post written by Breese McIlvaine, a former intern with the Vital Voices Latin America & the Caribbean Program.

Small agricultural projects are developing around the world that empower marginalized populations, create livelihoods, improve health, and help the environment.

All around the world, women face societal restrictions that inhibit their social and economic independence and rights. Many traditionally lack the opportunity to create a livelihood of their own, and as a result, rely on male family members or husband. Their dependence on others can make women vulnerable to abuse of all kinds, including verbal, physical, or sexual. They lose their independence and lack equal rights.

Historically, the role of women in many cultures throughout the world has been to tend to the home, but also the garden and the family’s crops. Therefore, developing women’s capacity to sustainably grow their own food and earn an income from the surplus has proved a successful way to alleviate poverty, improve health, and improve women’s self esteem and social status in their communities as they become more independent and confident.

In the provincial town of Natagaima, Colombia, a local NGO called Manos de Mujer (Women’s Hands) started a project in 2001 that engages local women in cultivating plants that are compatible with the local ecosystem using natural techniques without pesticides or weed-killers. The women are diverse – white, mestizo, and Pijao (the indigenous tribe of the region) come from many villages, towns, and Pijao reservations in the area. The region that used to be mostly tropical dry rainforest has over time become increasingly more desert-like due to unsustainable agricultural methods, deforestation, and cattle ranching. The project has not only given the women a livelihood and self-sufficiency they are proud of, it has also helped restore the ecosystem that had been destroyed.

Such projects not only serve to help women in rural areas. Similar projects are undertaken in cities around the world, several in Africa. In Zimbabwe, urban gardens help women and their communities survive while facing increasingly difficult economic, political, and health circumstances. In Ethiopia, a USAID-funded urban garden project works with HIV/AIDS-positive women and their children to help provide them with sustenance, incomes, and to help build and incorporate them in their communities.

Some of the positive effects of small agricultural projects such as these include improving gender equality, poverty alleviation, helping to address health issues such as malnutrition, and restoration of ecosystems. The communities and countries where they take place benefit from the easing of tensions resulting from the problems addressed by the project, and the increased productivity of its population.

“Colombia: Women Empowered by restoring desertified land,” by Helda Martinez.

“POVERTY-ZIMBABWE: Gardening Lifeline for Urban Women,” by Ignatius Banda.

“Beyond Urban Gardens: Meeting The Growing Needs Of Ethiopia’s Urban Population.”