Santiago, Chile, September 5, 2023 - Women play various roles in the Latin America and Caribbean cotton value chain. To assess their contributions, challenges, and opportunities in this productive sector, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ABC/MRE) are supporting the implementation of the Global Survey on Women in the Cotton Sector - Americas Region. 

This initiative results from a collaborative effort between the +Cotton project of the International Brazil-FAO Cooperation Program, the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), and the "Women in Cotton Committee" of the International Cotton Association. It contributes significantly to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), which specifically focuses on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. 

Women working in the cotton sector across the region can participate in the survey anonymously until September 20, in Spanish, Portuguese, or English. Participants can include farmers, artisans, technicians, workers in cotton-related companies, associations, warehouses, and logistics, as well as ginners, traders, textile and garment factory workers, and employees of brands and public institutions, among others. 

The survey questionnaire is organized into seven sections covering essential topics such as general information (territory, income, educational level, among others), digital access to ICTs, women's participation in the cotton value chain, capacity development, associativity, access to finance, gender equality, and women's empowerment within the cotton sector, as well as gender focus within cotton institutions. 

The +Cotton project is a trilateral South-South cooperation initiative developed since 2013 to strengthen the cotton sector. It is implemented in partnership with the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Paraguay, and Peru, with the aim of promoting sustainable and inclusive production systems, taking a comprehensive view of the cotton value chain to foster rural development through value addition, fair trade, and the promotion of the agro-textile system. 

The significant role played by rural women in the cotton sector is one of the cross-cutting themes of the project, recognizing the multiple contributions these women make, not only in cotton cultivation or animal husbandry but also in transformation through handicraft activities and marketing, as well as in the food security of their families through associated food crops.