Waters
Corey Waters
11 September 2009
Summer Field Research Grant Terminal Report
Framing my field research with the preliminary working title, "A NonGovernmental Organization's Initiative to Advance Gender Equality in El Salvador," I
conducted four weeks of participant observation research, semi-structured one-on-one
interviews, and focus group interviews in conjunction with the Asociación Salvadoreña
Pro-Salud Rural (ASAPROSAR) in rural communities of western El Salvador in July
2009. Founded by a medical doctor in Santa Ana, El Salvador in 1972 and legally
recognized as a non-governmental organization (NGO) by 1985, ASAPROSAR is a
versatile institution that promotes health via a variety of programs in marginalized rural
and urban settings. While working with ASAPROSAR in 2002 and 2004, I recognized
its ability to advance gender equality. As a health organization providing services to
marginalized populations, it possesses access to males as well as females and seizes
advantage of this access in specific programs to promote both male and female
community leadership in a society in which females are a minority among public leaders
(UNDP 2009).
I sought to learn how the organization's strategies and practices advanced gender
equality in a project that featured male and female leadership and negotiation. Among
the organization's numerous programs and projects, I studied the Proyecto Desarrollo
Agropecuario, or the Agricultural Development Project. The principal objective of the
project is to develop sustainable agricultural practices. Interlaced with this principal
objective is the promotion of female participation and female leadership. The vision of
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the project is "men and women living in harmony with their environment and satisfying
their necessities in sustainable form" (ASAPROSAR 2009).
In July, the project was concentrated in eleven rural caseríos1 in six cantones,2
including La Magdalena, the cantón of six of these eleven caseríos. I conducted research
in nine of the eleven caseríos. ASAPROSAR trains community leaders and forms
committees to facilitate and lead the project in each project community, one per project
community. I employ the term, project community, because two project communities
cross caserío borders and two caseríos include two projects. The committees, which
range from four to ten members depending on the project community, are annually
elected by project participants, which range from eight to forty-one families depending
on the project community. Families receive goats and hens as potential incomegenerating resources and for consumption – milk and eggs – on specific conditions,
which include caring for the animals (before killing the goats for meat consumption),
maintaining appropriate living environments for both the animals and the family, and
cooperating with fellow participants in sharing and breeding. These conditions are
reviewed at monthly meetings in each project community and enforced via checklist
house visits by the ASAPROSAR project técnica en promoción social, the on-site
coordinator who travels to each project community on a regular basis to facilitate. In
some project communities, committee members conduct informal house visits. The
project is and will be funded by United States-based Shield-Ayres Foundation until July
2010, when funding will be discontinued.
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hamlets, geographical subdivisions located within a cantón
geographical subdivisions located within a municipio (municipality)
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I observed and interacted with project participants in four venues: project
meetings that included the respective committees and project participants; project
meetings that included only the respective committees; checklist house visits with the
ASAPROSAR técnica; and independent house visits I arranged through acquaintances
and friendships I developed. I conducted about forty semi-structured interviews with
committee members and project participants; two focus group interviews with committee
members and project participants following project meetings; and three semi-structured
interviews at ASAPROSAR headquarters in urban Santa Ana with the project técnica, the
office-based program coordinator, and the founder of the organization. During all
interviews, which varied in length from about five to ninety minutes, I sought to learn the
strategies, results, and consequences of the project with a focus on gender.
I will produce a written thesis based on this research as a contribution to academic
discussion of gender, empowerment, and NGOs, but more importantly as a contribution
to ASAPROSAR and its objective to advance gender equality. The organization is eager
to read my findings, and I am eager to humbly share my four weeks of graduate research
with the organization. Therefore, I will produce a thesis based on this research with
English and Spanish versions. The English version will be submitted to Tulane
University, the Spanish version to ASAPROSAR.
Relevant Research Findings

According to project participants I interviewed, the principal objective of the
project is achieved. Most participants claim that they are more self-sufficient and
that they and their children are physically healthier as a result of the project.
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The majority of committee members is female. Females have emerged as
community leaders via the project. For most females, the project serves as their
first experience in a public leadership role.

Males are underrepresented on the project committees. The interaction between
male and female committee members is respectful, productive, and conducive to
the advancement of gender equality, but such interaction is limited or nonexistent
because male presence is significantly lacking or completely lacking.

Males engaged in the project, though not as members of the project committees,
recognize the benefits of the project and respect with varying degree their
respective committee leaders, therefore demonstrating respect with varying
degree for their respective female leaders in the project.

Females cited personal changes as a result of their participation with their project
committee. These changes included, but were not limited to, increased selfesteem; the ability to express oneself; the ability to speak in public; the desire to
initiate new friendships; the acquisition of skills relevant to the project, including
the ability to vaccinate animals and/or castrate goats; the ability to teach; and
increased respect from male domestic partners.

Some committee members – both female and male – want greater male
involvement, while some do not. Some that want greater male involvement
theorize that engaging males in a project with female as well as male leadership is
an opportunity to advance equality and to enhance the overall mission of the
project. They offer potential strategies on how to engage males, but do not yet
employ them. Female participants that do not want greater male involvement
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consider the female's growth as a public leader to be more attainable in a femaledominated or exclusively female space.

Project meetings are always scheduled at 1 p.m. and generally commence by 2
p.m. Most adult males are working in the milpa3 at this time, preventing the
possibility of engaging some of them in the meetings.

Most committee members state that their work with the project has not altered
their time devoted to domestic tasks; that is, if the female generally commits x
hours per day to domestic tasks, on days of meetings and project obligations,
despite possessing less time with these obligations, she still commits x hours to
domestic tasks.

Project meetings remind committee members and project participants of healthy
and effective practices and inform them of new practices. The most common
topic is the animals and how to care for, handle, and utilize them for healthy
family consumption. Each meeting commences with a prayer. Reflecting the
country as a whole, the majority of project participants practices Catholicism or
Evangelicalism.

The project técnica dominates the meetings and controls the activity of the project
to a significant extent, maintaining community dependence on ASAPROSAR and
limiting leadership growth and empowerment potential.

The consumption and health of a traditional family is generally a female
responsibility in this society.
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field for crop cultivation
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References
(ASAPROSAR) Asociación Salvadoreña Pro-Salud Rural. 2009. "Proyecto Desarrollo
Agropecuario." Asociación Salvadoreña Pro-Salud Rural, Santa Ana, El
Salvador. Unpublished manuscript.
(UNDP) United Nations Development Programme. 2009. "Human Development Report
2009 – El Salvador." United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved
October 2009
(http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_SLV.html).