In Colombia, despite having made progress in various areas, women continue to face situations of inequality and discrimination that affect their well-being and full enjoyment of their rights and abilities. The municipality of Yondó, in particular, presents significant gender gaps in these dimensions, which motivated the realization of a quantitative and qualitative diagnosis to deepen knowledge of the situation and make evidence-based decisions. The diagnosis, funded by UN Women through the Multidonor Fund for Sustaining Peace and carried out in conjunction with the Hypatia Corporation, aimed to identify the general conditions of women in the economic sphere, the dynamics of inequity and discrimination they face in the territory, and the main gender gaps and tensions among actors in this field.

Yondó has an intimate relationship with the extraction of hydrocarbons and it was with this vocation that it originated. In addition, it is part of the network of municipalities of the Program for Territorial Development with a Territorial Approach (PDET) because it is one of the municipalities most affected by the internal armed conflict (CAI). In the municipality, 6,828 people are the subject of attention, of which 51% are women, and there is a record of 19,730 people recognized as victims of a victimizing event (RUV, 2022). Also, of the population settled in the territory, 3.7% self-identify as black, mulatto, Afro-descendant or Afro-Colombian.

In Yondó, 48.7% of the population resides in rural areas, and women constitute 48.7% of the total population. However, women's access to rural property is limited: in only 17.5% of Family Farming Units (UPAS) are women responsible for production. In addition, 44% of the UPAS where women make decisions have less than 10 hectares. Although the Ministry of Agriculture has been issuing regularized titles in the municipality since 2018, benefiting an equal number of women and men, it was found that the extension of regularized properties is greater in men, so the average area given to women is 7.75 hectares and for men, it is 31.2 hectares. This shows the existence of a significant gap in access and land tenure between women and men in Yondó. In the field of agricultural credits, the situational diagnosis identified that 38% of credit applications for agricultural promotion were made by women, and of the total approved credit in this period, 18% was directed to them. Therefore, the average of the credits granted to men was 33.4 million, while for women, it was 18.8 million. Access to training and technical assistance programs offered by these entities is also lower, limiting their capacity to improve productivity and the quality of their products. In short, rural women in Yondó have less access to land, credits, and training, limiting their opportunities to generate income and contribute to the economic development of the municipality.

Regarding access to the labor market, the situational diagnosis identified that the employment rate for women is 19.03 per 100 working-age women, while for men, it is 44.25 in the same ratio. Meanwhile, the gap in the General Participation Rate is 26.57 percentage points, and between urban and rural women, this gap is 19 percentage points. The unemployment rate, for its part, is more than three (3) times higher in women. Regarding the salaries of the employed population, women's income is at least 7% lower. In addition, women have a lower participation in formal jobs and a higher presence in informal and low-quality jobs, limiting their possibilities of access to social security and labor benefits. As an example of this situation, for every 100 men contributing to the social security system, there are only 45 women. Under these conditions, women concentrate on unpaid domestic work, so that only 1 out of every 10 rural women in 2018 had any income from any type of work carried out in the week prior to the application of the National Population and Housing Census instrument (2018). Related to this, women who have economic dependents, such as children or sick or elderly relatives, face even greater challenges in accessing the labor market and generating income. These situations of inequality limit women's well-being and the full enjoyment of their rights and abilities.

Finally, regarding the establishment of businesses by women, in Yondó there are several micro-businesses led by women, however, most of them are informal and have low profitability. These are initiatives motivated by the need for self-employment and the generation of basic income to subsist; it is not for nothing that 1 out of every 2 initiatives surveyed has invested at most USD 352. There is a need to promote the formalization and association of businesses led by women to increase their productivity and improve their working conditions. In addition, there is a need for a greater supply of financial services that meet the needs of this type of business and women in general.

Strategic Line (1) Affirmative Actions for Care and Female Inclusion in Employment 

• Action 1.1: Municipal Agreement. Establish a municipal agreement with affirmative measures such as: (a) the inclusion of a minimum of 30% of women in the local workforce in public works and construction projects in conventional and non-traditional performance areas, (b) the promotion of women's participation in the public procurement system, based on differential weighting criteria according to Conpes 4011 of 2020, and (c) the creation of the Gender Equity Seal, through which employers' commitment to the inclusion of women in the workforce in the territory is recognized and stimulated. These actions aim to contribute to increasing female participation rates in dynamic sectors of the municipal economy and reducing gender gaps.

• Action 1.2: Women Builders Training Plan. This gender-focused training plan aims to include female labor in the construction environment, based on a diagnostic work carried out with at least 5 companies in the municipal productive sector, the signing of an intersectoral and inter-institutional agreement, and the implementation of a pilot plan aimed at providing basic knowledge so that women can have the possibility of inclusion in this sector. 30 women will benefit, in 2 cohorts of 15 rural and urban participants each, who will be trained in 4 thematic modules, over 48 hours per cohort and with a maximum duration of 3 months, developed at the facilities of the Women's House available to the OFP in the municipality of Yondó. Human talent resources are planned for this action's development, and articulations with SENA (National Learning Service) are foreseen to increase its impact.
  
• Action 1.3: Agreements with the productive sector. Agreements are sought with the productive sector to encourage the implementation of actions in favor of women from the area of corporate social responsibility, based on the Women Yondosinas Creciendo pilot initiative that seeks the commitment of companies to finance the following actions: (a) financial inclusion through the granting of seed capital for a minimum of 10 women entrepreneurs, (b) educational inclusion through the granting of a scholarship or subsidy to a minimum of 10 young women for their technical training, (c) labor inclusion, through the opening of selection processes giving priority to women and/or through the development of at least one campaign to prevent gender-based violence in the workplace, in order to strengthen the gender equality approach in various productive sectors. The pilot strategy will be agreed upon with Yondó's productive sector and seeks to contribute to closing gender gaps.
  
• Action 1.4: Gender-Based Violence Prevention Campaign. This activity is focused on designing and producing an audiovisual, digital, and printed materials kit with educational content on what gender-based violence is, its regulations, how to prevent it, and pointing out the established care routes in Colombian regulations, which will be complemented by training events aimed at employers, educators, public officials, police, military and surveillance forces, and women leaders. Each event will have a minimum duration of 1 day with an estimated maximum participation of 30 people and will aim to sensitize and motivate in the prevention of gender-based violence in the workplace, with the objective of reducing workplace harassment towards women and generating a safe working space. A total of 6 training events will be held every 2 months, and the audiovisual material will be distributed on digital media, social networks, and the commitment of public and private entities will be sought to distribute them through their networks. A commitment of at least 3 companies in the municipality is expected.
• Action 1.5: Yondó Care House. This activity aims to respond to the care needs of children with disabilities. It also provides a safe space for women to access care services for their children, with the purpose of reducing the burden of care and increasing their access to decent work. The Care House is proposed to have the capacity to attend to 12 to 15 children, with the support of 2 professionals in Psychopedagogy, 2 pedagogical assistants and the accompaniment of a professional in Psychology. Its implementation has been planned for a second phase of the Program, which is why no resources are included in the budget of this proposal. However, it will be part of the tasks of the dynamic team to advance in the management of technical and financial viability for this initiative.

Strategic Line (2) Women Integrate the Productive and Business Fabric

• Action 2.1: Technical and Financial Assistance. This action focuses on providing technical assistance, financial guidance and comprehensive support to a minimum of 40 women during 2 cycles, each lasting 5 months and with 20 beneficiaries respectively. This will be carried out through a human team composed of an economist, a lawyer and a social worker, who will promote the obtaining of commercial agreements, the management of seed capital and/or credit for companies led by women and/or ventures predominantly composed of women. Another purpose is to encourage women to adopt a savings culture, through the use of appropriate financial instruments, as well as their access to the Fund for the Promotion of Women's Autonomy and Entrepreneurship existing in the country under the leadership of the Presidential Council for Women. This activity does not have a specific budget assigned, although it will be driven by the human talent that will act as a dynamic team in the management of these agreements with the relevant entities.

• Action 2.2: Commercialization Spaces - Bazarte. This activity is aimed at increasing the income of urban and rural women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, through the promotion of permanent points of commercialization and marketing in places within the public space previously agreed with the institutional framework. It also seeks to strengthen initiatives such as Bazarte, which is being developed by the OFP in the municipality. Additionally, it promotes the use of digital tools to encourage e-commerce by women in their communities, favoring the closing of gender digital gaps. With this action, a minimum of 50 women will be benefited with inputs and logistical supports for the development of these scenarios, which will be executed every 3 months.

Strategic Line (3) Inclusive and Innovative Education for Territorial Development 

• Action 3.1: Science, technology, and innovation seedbeds. This action consists of promoting an agreement with a Higher Education Institution (HEI) and Basic and Secondary Education Institutions (IE) to offer the annual creation of science and technology seedbeds made up of girls and adolescents, in order to promote their access and full and equitable participation in these sciences, as well as to strengthen vocational guidance in technologies, engineering, and mathematics. This action does not contemplate resources and foresees the management of articulations with the educational sector for its implementation.
• Action 3.2: Toolbox for gender equality. This activity contemplates the production of an educational and didactic material kit of 3 modules or booklets with content on gender equality, women's and girls' rights, prevention of discrimination, and promotion of gender equality, as well as a pedagogical guide. These materials will be distributed in urban and rural educational institutions as pedagogical material to be incorporated into the socio-occupational orientation plan implemented in public and private sector IE in the municipality. This action will be accompanied by pedagogical guidance to teaching staff to strengthen their capacities in its use and aims to raise awareness about gender biases and stereotypes that restrict equal access to opportunities for women, young people, and girls. The purpose is to deliver a kit to each of the 16 IE existing in the municipality of Yondo, both rural and urban areas.
• Action 3.3: Itinerant school for rural entrepreneurship. This action is aimed at the development of administrative and leadership skills in women with an entrepreneurial vocation from the perspective of popular, solidary, and sustainable economy, based on a pilot experience in the municipality developed by the OFP. The objective of this action is to strengthen and improve women's entrepreneurial skills. It includes a technical team responsible for the training process composed of 3 professionals that will benefit a population of 100 women, distributed in the 2 districts and at least 15 hamlets. The training action will be developed with an intensity of 8 hours in each school and through visits by the team to agreed locations, which is why it also includes the respective logistics.

Direct Results

• A municipal agreement reached.
• A training plan implemented for 30 women builders (15 urban and 15 rural).
• Four agreements reached with companies in the productive sector as a pilot strategy for corporate social responsibility.
• A campaign for raising awareness and preventing gender-based violence implemented.
• 40 rural and urban women benefited from technical assistance, financial support, and comprehensive accompaniment.
  
• Five Bazarte spaces for commercialization and marketing executed, benefiting 50 women from Yondo.
• An agreement with a higher education institution promoting the creation of science and technology seedbeds for girls and adolescents.
  
• 16 public and private educational institutions provided with a toolbox for gender equality.
• 100 rural women strengthened in entrepreneurial competencies for their businesses.

Expected impact

• The occupational gap between men and women is reduced by 2.7 percentage points and female economic participation increases by 1.9% in two years.
• The number of stable and sustainable micro, medium, and large companies and ventures established by women from Yondo increases by 7% in three years.

• The Yondó Territorial Planning Council
• Women's Association Representative of the Yondó TPC
• CREDHOS
• ASOCOMUNAL
• Yondó Government Secretary
• Families in Action Yondó
• Community Action Board - El Dique Village, Yondó
• Fishermen's Association Representative of the Yondó TPC
• Victims' Table of the PDET

• Graciliana Moreno Echavarría, M.A. in Management and Public Policies, Corporation for Equity, Democracy and Good Living, Hypatia (graciliana@yahoo.com)
• Gloria Amparo Suarez, Project Coordinator, Popular Women's Organization (admon.ofp@gmail.com)