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Original article: Abandonar el desarrollo de las comunidades rurales: Los riesgos del recorte del programa Mujeres Rurales con 34 años de implementación

By Researchers from the FONDECYT regular project 1230530: The Community Approach in Gender Social Policy: Exploring Public Action and Women’s Participation in Contemporary Chile. School of Psychology, PUCV

When a rural woman first earns money from her own project, it not only transforms her household economy but also reshapes her self-perception, influences family decision-making, and alters her standing within the community.

Living as a woman in rural areas presents challenges that necessitate diverse and sustained support. Here, the role of public policy is crucial; addressing historical gaps and fostering community strengthening in isolated and marginalized territories cannot rely solely on individual efforts. Such an approach would shift state responsibility onto personal trajectories, thereby obscuring inequalities built over decades.

With deep concern, we have observed budget cuts affecting various sectors of public policy, reaching INDAP (Ministry of Agriculture), the agency responsible for enhancing agricultural development and rural economies.

One of the most significant and enduring strategies impacted by these cuts is the Rural Women Program, implemented in collaboration with Prodemu, part of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity, and operating uninterrupted for 34 years.

The Rural Women Program has enabled women in rural settings to gain access to their own resources, expanding their decision-making authority and autonomy regarding their life paths. This principle, which represents a concrete transformation horizon for each group of participating women, has led to substantive changes in the environments where they live daily.

We have directly witnessed these processes, as the program was the subject of study in a recently completed research project ¹. Our findings are revealing, demonstrating how community-focused programs can strengthen collective capabilities and resources to enhance community well-being.

One of the key results associated with the work developed through the Rural Women Program indicates that the effects of gender-focused public policy extend beyond the provision of resources or training. Their true value lies in creating conditions for women to organize, build support networks, and transform social relationships in the territories they inhabit.

These processes manifest in new forms of association, collaboration, and collective care among women who sustain their communities daily. Preserving programs that strengthen women’s organization in the countryside leads to better living conditions for families and the territories as a whole.

Discontinuing this program does not merely equate to halting funding for activities for a year. It means suspending collective processes that require time to solidify: trust built among women, local organizations, support networks, and skills that cannot be quickly reconstructed once a policy fades away.

Today, over three decades of gender-sensitive public policies are at risk, interrupting the strengthening processes built from pertinent designs, accumulated experiences, trained professional teams, and women participants who have invested their trust in the state.

From our position as researchers in the fields of public policy and community approach, we observe with great concern how knowledge produced within the framework of science and technology programs (dependent on ANID) is not always considered in decisions regarding which policies are maintained or cut during periods of public adjustment.

Gender public policies are not isolated actions nor immediate responses to temporary needs. They are long-term processes that build capacities, strengthen communities, and broaden the possibilities for autonomy for those who participate in them.

Therefore, when a well-established policy that has endured for over three decades is interrupted, it does not only affect a budget line: it jeopardizes knowledge, relationships, and social transformations that were built with considerable effort. Its impact also leaves marks that do not appear in budgetary indicators: a woman who dares to start a business, a group that learns to organize, a community that forges new forms of collaboration.

These transformations require time, support, and a state committed to reducing historical inequalities. The question we must ask ourselves as a society is what kind of rural development we want to build and what role women will play in that future.

Before closing a program developed over more than three decades, we must consider what learnings we are losing and what transformative opportunities we are leaving behind.

By María Isabel Reyes Espejo, Bárbara Olivares Espinoza, Javiera Pavez Mena, María José Martínez, Jaime Alfaro Inzunza, Luisa Castaldi, Valentina Vallejo Correa, Ketty Cazorla Becerra, and Nicolás Gómez Núñez, Researchers from the FONDECYT regular project 1230530: The Community Approach in Gender Social Policy: Exploring Public Action and Women’s Participation in Contemporary Chile. School of Psychology, PUCV.

1 FONDECYT REGULAR 1230530

La entrada The Critical Risks of Scaling Back the Rural Women Program After 34 Years of Empowering Communities se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.