Women’s Economic Development in Peru

In celebration of Women’s Month, I want to highlight the continued effort to promote and contribute towards better living and working conditions for women in Peru and around the world.

As the CESO Country Representative in Peru, I am truly humbled and inspired by the work accomplished by CESO Volunteer Advisors in supporting Peru’s business owners, community organizations and individual leaders to create more opportunities and better work environment for women.

Through our partnership with business associations, local government and non-governmental organizations, CESO is able to expand our reach and promote equal economic opportunities for women and men across Peru.  We are currently working to pursue a partnership with the Ministry of Women in Peru – a partnership that will open more opportunities to promote gender parity across the country.

In many cases, the impacts of our partnerships go beyond economic opportunities. For example, through our partnership with the Peruvian Cultural Association of Permaculture, CESO is able to work with Yoga Peru Foundation – a local community organization that organizes a project called “New Born Hope”. The project empowers female youth, specifically teenage mothers and victims of sexual violence, to self-manage their emotional health by developing knowledge and tools for peaceful communication and emotional management. In addition, the Foundation is developing a training program for all participants to become effective Yoga instructors to further promote sustainable practice throughout their respective communities. Currently, CESO Lead Volunteer Advisor George Rocoski is working with the Director of the Foundation, Omar Ananías and Project Director, Attorney Ysabel Marín to identify strategic goals and priorities to help expand their programs.

In my role as a representative, I am also fortunate to represent CESO in events that raises awareness on several development topics, such as gender equality. Recently, I was invited to attend the 2nd Gender Mainstreaming Workshop, an event hosted by the Coordination of Canadian Civil Society in Peru – an organization that supports local activities of Canadian volunteers – to mark International Women’s Day. I was asked to co-facilitate a discussion about the inclusion of gender-specific perspective and best practices for daily activities within our organizations. It was a great discussion that truly gave me fresh insight into the remarkable roles of CESO volunteers in advancing gender equality within our partner associations and organizations, and throughout Peru.

I look forward to continuing to work with our partners, clients and CESO volunteers in respectfully promoting gender equality for the progress of both women and men in Peru. The outlook of CESO programming in Peru is focused on fostering sustainable development for our partners over the next five years.