Social Innovation in the Agri-food sector for Women’s Empowerment in the Mediterranean sea basin
On both sides of the Mediterranean Sea, there is a common trend in terms of low women empowerment and participation in the labor force. InnovAgroWoMed project aims at boosting women labor participation and entrepreneurship, by leveraging on the potential of the agri-food sector - an industry closely linked to the cultural identity of the Mediterranean region - and showing a significant level of untapped potential in terms of innovation and growth. While countries such as Spain and Italy feature comparatively high levels of growth in the agri-food sector, albeit, with very low levels of women participation, the MENA agricultural business is still fragmented, and with low women employment. This project will focus on two European regions (Valencia, Spain and Sicily, Italy) and two MENA areas (Béja and Médenine in Tunisia, and Palestine), identified as suitable for the implementation and scaling up of a sustainable value model in the agri-food sector: Rural Social Innovation (RSI). RSI redefines the boundaries between organizations and the community, addressing broader societal challenges by seeking economic, social and environmental sustainability, balancing tradition and innovation and explicitly seeking community development at the local level.