by Victoria Díaz-García and Urs Bernhard

30 November 2006

Rio Coco is the natural borderline that separates Nicaragua and Honduras and one of the poorest and most remote regions in Central America, which is often only accessible by panga, a canoe made out of one single tree and with an outboard motor.

Victoria Díaz-García, an Irish Aid sponsored UNV intern and Urs Bernhard, a Swiss sponsored UNV intern, have done the arduous six-day-long trip along Río Coco to provide gender training and technical monitoring to the indigenous Miskitu communities of Raití and Walakitán, two of the most Northeastern communities located in the department of Jinotega. In these two communities, the Small Grants Programme (SGP) carries out two community based projects on promoting the preservation and sustainable use of native medical herbs for therapeutic purposes. Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as a corporate programme, SGP is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and channels financial and technical support directly to NGOs and CBOs (Community-based Organizations) for activities that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing people's well-being and livelihoods.

After 12 hours on a panga we arrived into Raití at 6 p.m. and were met by a striking sight: a man dying of TB was being taken out of another panga to his home. We had met the same man in Wiwilí at 6 a.m.. He had traveled 12 hours upriver the day before to the nearest health post in Wiwilí
hoping to receive treatment for his long advanced lung disease. We learnt later on that he had sadly passed away. This episode highlighted the plight that these remote villages find themselves in to access health care in a speedy manner and the importance of their traditional healing
methods in the absence of public health services.

Both of the projects that Urs went to monitor for the SGP were about promoting the preservation and sustainable use of native medical herbs for therapeutic purposes. The domestication and conservation of medical herbs with the objective to produce traditional medicine and the capacity building of local traditional healers are the main pillars of the community based initiatives. Even though the communities are located
within the biggest Natural Reserve of Nicaragua, excessive use of the natural resources is common and a major threat to the region’s biodiversity and, thus, to people’s livelihood. Through work-shops and exchanges, traditional local healers, midwifes, nurses and health promoters
strengthen their knowledge about sustainable environmental management, complement their traditional methods with modern medicinal methods and
contribute to an improved health system and broader awareness of biodiversity issues in one of the most remote areas of the country.
As an Environment Programme Officer Urs monitored the projects and checked on how relevant activities were progressing, analyzed the situation in the communities, determined whether the inputs in the project were well utilized, and ensured that all activities were carried out properly by
the right people and in time. In conjunction with all projects’ participants, issues were discussed and irregularities and difficulties expressed and corrected. In-situ visits were proof of the counterpart’s contribution in kind such as construction of botanical gardens or project-related acquisitions.
During the same trip, Victoria provided gender workshops to the local Miskito communities of Raití, Lakusta, Kayo, Tingni, Walakitan and Aniwas on basic gender issues such as the difference between sex and gender, the socio-cultural creation of gender identities, the sexual distribution of
the workload and the impact that these have on women and men in their daily lives and community work. The target group of the workshops was the project members such as local healers, midwives, midhusbands, bush-doctors and local health promoters, as well as the wider community leaders and members.

These workshops are part of the effort that the Gender Area of UNDP is carrying out to mainstream the gender perspective in all its programmes and projects. As Gender Programme Officer, Victoria is in charge of ensuring that gender-equality promotion objectives, results and activities are
included in UNDP programmes identified as "good practices" of which the Small Grants Programme is one. As Victoria explains, "by training the project members and community leaders and members about the importance of distributing the private and public workload and decisionmaking
equally among women and men, we try to break with the traditional projects which overload women of extra tasks by not recognizing the roles that they
already have in the family and community: children-upbringing, household maintenance, community work, elderscaring, harvesting, etc. In addition, we also try to break with the traditional roles that are assigned to women in development projects such the planting of seeds and harvesting, so that they can also access other roles traditionally reserved to men such as decision-taking, commercialization of medical herbs, etc". The workshops are carried out in a participatory manner in which the exchange of views from women and men is essential to generate a dynamic environment and encourage reflection.

Victoria summarizes her work as Gender Programme Officer as follows: “Gender is a cross-cutting programme, which means that I have had the chance to work at all levels, both local and national, and with all the areas of development that UNDP in Nicaragua is involved in: Democratic Governance, the Environment, Economic Development, the Caribbean Coast Programme and the HIV-AIDS programme. Quite a thrill! The work is consuming but quite rewarding!"

Whereas Urs reflects on his UNV intern experience in this manner: “The Small Grants Programme works on a community based level which allows me to gain a vast insight in the functioning of small scale projects. I´m in charge of monitoring and evaluation so I have the great opportunity to travel to the most remote areas and work together with local partners in order to find the best solutions to achieve sustainable environmental management. Shortly I will return to our projects in Río Coco and I wonder how the hurricane Félix hit the already poor and deprived region".