Project Detail

Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods, Building Resilience - Investments in Cooperatives

Thirteen [13] producers cooperatives in Belize have been identified as enterprises that were severely
affected/impacted by the national COVID 19 pandemic. This led to severe losses of crop, income and
customers and the ability to maintain their livelihoods. This proposal will assist these cooperatives in
making sound investments to enable their members in making environmentally friendly investments
to strengthen their economic activities and become more sustainable. These unique collective based
enterprises have proven to be resilient to national economic shocks but require investments to enable
them to establish an improved production, financial and governance system for their operations to be
more financially stable, sustainable and stronger as they consolidate their endeavors in a rebounding
economy.
All participating cooperatives are located in low-income rural communities in the six districts of Belize
as laid out in Annex1 attached. The proposal is directly related to GEF-SGP Country Strategy for OP7 as follows: · Thematic Area: Sustainable agriculture and fisheries, and food security.
· Project Category: Demonstration Project; and · Grant Maker Plus: Enhancing social inclusion and monitoring and evaluation of knowledge management This national partnership project between CSOs and Government agency will contribute to the following Sustainable Development Goals: 1,2,5,8 and 12.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Belize Enterprise for Sustainable Technology

Country:

Belize

Area Of Work:

CapDev
Land Degradation

Operational Phase:

OP7 Y4 (July 23-June 24)

Grant Amount:

US$ 150,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 172,000.00

Project Number:

BZE/SGP/OP7/Y4/CORE/CD/2023/04

Start Date:

9/2023

End Date:

12/2025

Status:

Currently under execution

Project Characteristics and Results

Capacity - Building Component

BEST will collaborate and work closely with the Cooperative Department in the implementation of this project. The Cooperative Department will work with the individual cooperative societies to ensure that they remain committed to the cooperative's legislation [Chapter 313 of the Laws of Belize] and that each cooperative further develops its internal capacities to become stronger and more financially sustainable. This project is recommending capital investments within existing cooperative operations as a means of diversification, innovation and creating a sustainable financial cushion to future economic shocks. Cooperatives will have to save at least 15% of their sales throughout the life of the project. This will prove that financial resilience can be built within these participating cooperatives. This will also encourage cooperative members to continue showing economic progress. The partnership developed between BEST, the Cooperative Department and these cooperatives from a present project being implemented is indicating that the level of trust among participating cooperatives is being regained. This will assist in ensuring that some of the factors that caused these participating cooperatives to lose income, market and clients are not repeated in the future.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

Between BEST and the Cooperative Department, participating cooperatives will be provided with standardized templates for reporting to their members as is required by Chapter 313 of the Laws of Belize governing Cooperatives. The information gathered from these reports and the lessons learnt from the activities will be compiled and shared in meetings of the cooperatives. This information generated will also be used in cross groups/cooperatives discussions within the cooperative movement

Gender Focus

Most of the cooperatives in Belize have a minimal number of females and youth as members. In the present GEF/SGP project: ?Cooperatives, a rapid response to Covid 19 and 2020 floods in Belize? the challenge of inclusion has seen positive results of 20% more women and youths. Therefore this new project will ensure that in the development phase of the subproject activities, special effort will be made to recruit women, girls and youth to have an increase in female participation and planned succession of the leadership. This area will also be one that will see the expansion of more capacity building in specialized thematic areas as is the case with Gender Inclusion and Women Empowerment.

Policy Impact

The goal of this project is that of sustainable livelihoods, encouraging farmers and productive cooperatives to introduce improved environmentally friendly economic practices. As such, it is expected that all cooperatives will strive towards sustainability. With specifically targeted investments, these cooperatives will improve their production and sales. They are expected to save 20% towards their share capital. This savings will allow them to be able to have funds at the end of this project that will enable them to be able to continue and improve their enterprises.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

Thirteen (13) cooperative enterprises suffered significant losses due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. As a result, they had severe economic and social losses including asset, inventory and customers and the members ability to maintain or sustain their livelihoods. The objective of this project is to increase the production of these thirteen (13) cooperatives by providing needed equipment, infrastructure and inputs. This will allow them to become more sustainable and contribute to much needed food security for Belize. The specific project results are the following: 1. Thirteen (13) Cooperatives improve and expand their enterprises through capital investment in environmentally friendly small development projects. 2. Thirteen (13) Cooperatives income increase by 50% if compared to the peak of the Covid19 Pandemic. 3. Improve the management and leadership capacity of 130 cooperative members through training in entrepreneurship, leadership, organizational development, gender equality and women empowerment 4. Renew and improve the Governance Structures (inclusion of women and youth within the management of these cooperative enterprises)

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Indicators

Empowerment

Number of CBOs / NGOs participated / involved in SGP project 13

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