“Political training for women’s organizations in Ecuador” is one of the best resilience practices developed by the organization Movimiento Nacional de Mujeres Luna Creciente, from Ecuador, one of the members of the Feminist Land Platform (FLP).
The work of Luna Creciente has been extremely relevant for empowering women leaders on political knowledge, mechanisms, and tools to drive processes to conduct the local development based on their own culture and goals.
“Luna Creciente brings together more than 300 organizations of women from popular sectors, with a great diversity regarding age, nationality, and geographical location, encompassing all the regions of Ecuador”, says Clara Merino, the organization’s executive director.
FLP mapped some of the best resilience practices of our members so that other communities and organizations can learn and adapt tools and strategies to their local realities. This is part of a series of articles detailing the practices of each organization. Check out our blog to read the others!
Political training for women’s organizations in Ecuador
Working towards advocacy and incidence in the municipalities, this practice was designed by Luna Creciente to include activities that stimulate the exchange of knowledge, cultural values, and traditions between the various groups of women’s organizations involved in it.
About 4.500 women from 322 communities in 6 provinces of different parts of Ecuador (coast, mountains, and Amazonian region) have already been beneficiaries of this practice, that started in June 2001.
The activities performed by Luna Creciente include:
- National and local schools of political and feminist training, integral health, women’s rights, and conjuncture analysis.
- Comprehensive mapping of each province and/or communities led by grassroots women.
- National Congresses once per year (when they had greater economic resources these were done up to 3 times per year and in different provinces).
- Spaces for analysis of the SDGs, climate change and local, national, and international situation.
- Small economic ventures and bartering.
- Defense of women’s land rights together with men, especially young people, having already formed three groups for land defense and support for women’s organizations.
This was considered a best practice that serves as inspiration to other FLP members and women’s rights organizations in general because it has allowed the growth of the Luna Creciente movement and helped empower of women, increase the respect for their families and communities and promote greater awareness of the rights of women and impoverished communities.
The practice is developed fundamentally in indigenous communities (68% indigenous, 7% quilombolas and 25% mestizos) made up of organized women. The valorization and respect of the various cultures and traditions and their participation in a national movement has been fundamental to the process.
“Our Feminist Political Training School has been promoting, throughout all these years, the confluence, understanding and organized political work of women from different organizations who fight for land and territories, also contemplating our body as the first territory”, explains Clara Merino.
For developing the actions, Luna Creciente has counted on the partnership of theNational Coalition of Women of Ecuador and the Plurinational Platform of Women and Feminists, besides Indigenous Movement, Workers’ Movement, Alternative Media, and Other Feminist Organizations.
Among the results of the work, Luna Creciente pointed out the affirmation of proposals and enforceability of rights to local governments and in conjunction with other organizations to some spaces of the Government, National Assembly and State.
In the current political situation of Ecuador, extractivism, laws against women and impoverished peoples and different kinds of violence are increasing. Therefore, actions like these are extremely important in the fight for a just and equal society.
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