Ecuador

	Progressio country representative in Quito:
	Luis Camacho
	Programme Coordinator in London:
	Belisario Nieto
	No. of development workers currently in post:
	9
	We have been working in Ecuador since 1974

Progressio has been working in Ecuador since 1974. The current focus of Progressio's work is the creation of a sustainable environment, HIV and AIDS prevention, and the development of civil society organisations that enable Ecuador's people to have greater involvement in decision-making on issues that affect their lives. About 70 per cent of Ecuador's population live below the poverty line, and most are people of indigenous or African descent. Furthermore, much of the country's wealth goes to service its foreign debt, currently standing at more than US$14 billion.

Progressio has increased awareness of and debate on alternatives to free trade agreements and their economic, environmental and political impact on those they most affect in Ecuadorean society: women, indigenous people and small-scale farmers.

In particular, Progressio's development workers have:

• strengthened organisations for women, indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian people as part of an ongoing process to overcome their marginalisation and oppression
• increased the participation and political influence of civil society organisations, by promoting their access to the media. Progressio enabled them to develop proactive media strategies and define policies and messages to allow their alternative voices to be heard.
• helped reduce the rate of HIV infection through prevention and advocacy projects aimed at teenagers and young people, especially young women
• strengthened local organisations' capacity for sustainable agricultural development, contributed towards the strengthening of environmentally-friendly practices for small-scale farmers and ensured that there is equal access to the positive results by the most vulnerable sectors of the population. They have also strengthened agro-ecological marketing and economic solidarity strategies among rural peasant communities.

Challenges remain. By 2010, Progressio aims that:

• there is in place an alternative local government system, based on a participatory and inclusive process, and which, with Progressio's involvement, drafts and implements policies based on the needs of the poorest.
• Progressio and a local partner organisation will build on current achievements to develop an HIV prevention project for vulnerable groups of young people vulnerable to infection.
• Progressio will strengthen local organisations' sustainable natural resource management projects to serve as a models to influence local and national environment policies in favour of sustainable development.
• local organisations will include a gender focus in their work, that guarantees equal access by women and men in the creation of a sustainable environment. 
• participating local organisations will influence policy or legislation in favour of the encouragement of organic food production.
• Progressio and participating local organisations will implement biodiversity protection projects with special emphasis on seeds and water.