El Salvador
Although El Salvador has only about 6 million inhabitants, it is the most densely populated country on the American continent. The country, which is located on the Pacific coast of Central America, suffered a civil war from 1980 until the signing of the peace accords in 1992.
We Effect began its development cooperation projects in El Salvador in the 1980s, four years before the peace agreements. Three decades later, we continue to support the cooperative movement and people with high social and economic vulnerability.
We Effect supports local housing cooperatives where members build homes according to a cooperative housing model that focuses on self-determination, joint construction and collective ownership. The cooperatives lobby decision-makers to push for the approval of new housing laws that facilitate more equitable access to housing.
We Effect also supports local farmer organizations and cooperative associations, building capacities so that they can better defend their interests and demand better conditions for production and commercialization. In El Salvador, We Effect works on the principle of fair resource allocation, ensuring that at least half of our aid targets women.
Twelve years of war left a country wounded, and many of the problems it faced in the years afterward unfortunately continue to this day. Lack of opportunities, violence, and housing shortages are inequalities that residents face every day — especially women and young people and children. Violence and inequalities often push people to migrate north, a problem that El Salvador shares with its neighboring countries.
To combat these and other problems, we provide funding and strategic assistance to cooperatives, community associations and women’s groups. We work with people who are highly socially and economically vulnerable, such as those who are engaged in the agricultural sector, self-employment or women in single-parent households.
Most of the partner organizations represent the Salvadoran cooperative movement. However, we also collaborate with social movements, community organizations and women’s groups that promote the construction of a just and democratic society.
Photo by Philip Krook
The housing and habitat program consists of the vindication of inclusive, sustainable and safe housing as a human right. Over the years of cooperation, We Effect has managed to establish El Salvador as a benchmark country in the region in the area of housing. In the sustainable rural development program, we work on agricultural production with an agroecological approach. In both programs, we give priority to women and organizational development.
Currently, we cover 12 of the 14 departments of El Salvador, working in rural, peri-urban and urban areas.
Housing cooperative in El Salvador
In northern El Salvador women from our partner housing cooperative are building homes for 62 families. Most families had to leave their homes due to gang violence. In this video Daisy Méndez tells us about the project.
A successful recipe for women’s empowerment
In the agricultural cooperatives of El Salvador, women have historically had no, or very little, participation in the productive work, and even less in formal decision-making. But in a cooperative in western El Salvador a bakery has started to change things.
