On the occasion of the celebration of International Women’s Day, and within the activities related to the empowerment of the rights holders of our projects, on 21 March, and within the framework of the Rural Development Agreement in Palestine, round tables have been organised with women’s cooperatives/production groups from three localities in Nablus (Burqa and Beit Dajan) –West Bank– and Khan Younis (Al Manara) –Gaza-, as a follow-up to those that took place in March 2022.

Thirty-nine rural women with whom we have been working on socio-economic empowerment activities since 2019 participated, sharing the challenges they face in carrying out their economic activity, especially in the face of the escalation of violence that the north of the West Bank has been experiencing in recent months.

The second working session was dedicated to the identification of lessons learned and the analysis of the defence mechanisms put in place by the women’s groups, confirming how, despite the adversities, they continue to resist and seek creative alternatives for the positioning of their products in local markets.

Through this collective action, many stories of mutual aid and solidarity between the groups have also been shared, demonstrating that the cooperative movement is a driving force for social change at the community level.