In the communities of Calpi, located in the high Andean region of the central highland of Ecuador, Catholic Relief Services and the Inter-American Development Bank supported the execution of the Calpi Project (1998-2000). The project supported the construction of the Irrigation Infrastructure, the Microcredit through the Community Development Banks, the Agricultural Development, the Marketing, and the Land Legalization. Afterwards, initiated by the women organizations, the Integral Health Service was incorporated, with the resources recovered from the investment in the irrigation infrastructure.

Thanks to the participation of women in the administration of the Banks, important changes were brought about in the collective cognition about the role and work of the indigenous mestizo women. The project has enabled a more equal relationship between men and women to be established, where both share the spaces, complete the actions and decisions in the field of the production and use of the economic resources within their production units, and the actions traditionally denied to women in the field of the community development.

“The development of the innovative strategies makes the difference of the paternalistic rural development, traditionally supported by the public and private institutions, in the name of the poverty”

The results of this project are embodied in the GSD website, because the staff member who integrates this Foundation designed and implemented the Calpi Project under the direction of CRS and its strategies have constituted a benchmark for the elaboration of its development proposals.