Project for labor inclusion in favor of women, youth and small farmers in the tourism sector is presented.
This project, in its first phase, will be developed in the rural communities of the provinces of Pedernales, Samaná and Montecristi, with an execution period from May 2022 to November 2023.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), together with the Ministry of Tourism (MITUR), presented the project “The inclusion of women, youth and small farmers’ associations in the value chain of the tourism sector”, with the fundamental objective of promoting the generation of jobs, as well as the strengthening of family agriculture.
During the presentation of the project, the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, expressed his happiness at being able to support this FAO initiative, as it fills him with pride and satisfaction to see how women and young people have the desire to undertake and move forward.
The official also indicated that the Dominican Republic is working to ensure that tourism reaches every Dominican. “Our primary interest is to lift the country’s economy, but horizontally and not only vertically,” he said.
The FAO representative for the Dominican Republic, Rodrigo Castañeda, emphasized that this project proposes to connect hundreds of rural women and young people to the tourism chain through agriculture and the production of high quality food.
According to Castañeda, this project will not only benefit the tourism sector, but its main pillar is to generate benefits for farmers and rural communities.
“The Dominican Republic has the challenge of rebuilding tourism better than before, making it more sustainable, fairer, promoting non-traditional rural destinations and creating more resilient livelihoods for rural communities, and one way to achieve this is through agrotourism,” he said.
He also informed that this project includes the aspect of digitalization, both in production efficiency and connection with markets, promoting the access of rural associations, cooperatives and MSMEs to information and communication technologies.
The president of Asonahores Rafael Blanco Tejera, congratulated the inactive partnership between FAO and the Ministry of Tourism, for being a generator of equity, sustainability and inclusion of women, youth and small farmers to the value chain of the tourism sector, pillars that are fully in line with all the strategic axes that are being promoted.
This project, in its first phase, will be developed in the rural communities of the provinces of Pedernales, Samaná and Montecristi, with an execution time from May 2022 to November 2023, in line with the priorities of the Dominican Government to expand the tourism offer by 2024 and link it with family agriculture and other rural associations and enterprises.
It is being executed within the framework of the FAO Technical Cooperation Program, with a budget of US$220,000.00.
This initiative seeks to strengthen the associativity of women farmers, young people and small farmers’ associations, with a view to linking demand from the tourism sector with the supply of products and services offered by rural associations, cooperatives and MSMEs.
Its priorities include promoting entrepreneurship in rural communities, especially among young people and women, so that their products can have access to both the local market and tourism.
It also includes institutional strengthening of the ministries of Tourism and Industry and Commerce to develop the associative, managerial and productive capacities of rural enterprises.
