Study elaborated by UN Women and Asociación Civil Lola Mora, carried out by the research team of Fundación Gran Chaco in the communities of Campo del Cielo, La Bomba and Km 30 (municipality of Las Lomitas); communities of Barrio Toba (municipality of Ingeniero Juárez); Creole and Wichis communities of El Quebracho and Wichis communities of Lote 8, Santa Teresa and María Cristina (municipality of Ramón Lista).
This report summarises the main results of the research that took place during the second half of the year 2023, and that had as a goal to relieve the existing demand of care and community care in rural areas of the Gran Chaco, to describe its resolution strategies and build a mapping of policies at the national and local levels. Although this is a more extensive study that considers other provinces of Salta, Santiago del Estero, Jujuy and Chaco), this summary presents the findings for the case of Formosa.
The province of Formosa is part of the Gran Chaco region of Argentina. This region is characterised by a combination of high climatic vulnerability and high poverty rates. This ecoregion exhibits exceptional environmental, social, cultural and ethnic diversity, and has a vital climatic value as it is home to the second largest forest mass in South America after the Amazon.
The Gran Chaco has a population of 3.98 million people, 362,000 of whom are indigenous peoples. The population density in rural areas, where 30 per cent of the population lives, is extremely low, with only one inhabitant per square kilometre. Despite its cultural, environmental and resource wealth, the region has deficits in access to basic services, physical and digital infrastructure, and economic and technological resources that imply a growing asymmetry between urban and rural populations, deepening the isolation of the latter.
The rural population of Formosa is represented by two main groups: indigenous people (Wichí, Qomle’ec or Western Toba, Pilagá and Nivaclé) and peasants/creoles. In this research, Wichí, Qomle’ec, Pilagá and Creole women from various departments in the central western part of the province of Formosa participated, with diverse ruralities that include distant communities with more than 200 km of dirt roads to access essential services, and small nearby towns or peri-urban neighbourhoods with typically urban problems but with the restrictions of rurality. Participants included members of the communities of Campo del Cielo, La Bomba and Km 30 in the municipality of Las Lomitas (Patiños Department), communities of Barrio Toba in the municipality of Ingeniero Juárez (Matacos Department), Creole and Wichí communities of El Quebracho and Wichí communities of Lote 8, Santa Teresa and María Cristina (Ramón Lista Department).
The importance of national state benefits is reflected in the number and variety of allowances received by rural women. Indigenous and Creole women in central western Formosa receive monthly family allowances and pensions. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) training provided in local organisational spaces has trained women in the online processing of social benefits such as Potenciar Trabajo, IFE (Ingreso Familiar de Emergencia), AUH (Asignación Universal por Hijo) and Becas Progresar (Progresar scholarships).
At the provincial level, care policies are integrated into the agendas of ministries and other decentralised bodies. The main strategic lines are education and health (for example, through policies such as Intercultural Bilingual Education -EIB- or the NUTRIR Food Plan). Social assistance programmes (for the elderly, the disabled and vulnerable populations) and rural and productive development are also identified. In addition, stimulating local production, in its various branches, has a significant weight in the distribution of care roles and tasks; an example of this is the Productive Development Programme for the textile sector, FONTEX, which is aimed at substituting textile imports, promoting the employment of women who manufacture clothing for public institutions in the province.
Access the full report Rural Women and care in Gran Chaco, Province of Formosa.
