Herlinda Caal Tzi is a 48-year-old Q’eqchi’ woman from rural Guatemala. She lives in the village of Panzós, in the country’s Alta Verapaz department, with her husband Tomás Cac, their three sons and two daughters-in-law.

Chandra Kala Thapa is a thirty-year-old smallholder farmer living in Ranichauri, a village in the Sindhuli District of south-eastern Nepal. Like many women farmers here and in other parts of the developing world, she has faced a number of barriers to improving her agricultural productivity and increasing her income.

“I could not write my name. I did not understand how to do my business. I only did the business and was not saving any money.”

“As a market woman, I never understood my business. But I now understand my business because I learnt about the importance of saving money.”

“Before the training, I was unable to manage money. I spent carelessly and did not even recognize that there is a future.”