Alternatives & Processes for Social Participation - Mexico

The Water Forever Programme encourages people to participate in forwarding their own development. People collaborate in the improvement of their own quality of life, by increasing the water available to them for diverse uses and improving the quality of their cultivated lands.In 1996, Alternatives launched the School of Cooperative Financing (Eficoop), offering education and training in the development of cooperative businesses. Since the beginning of this programme, Alternatives has aligned itself closely with popularly promoted civilian organisations in 6 different states in order to promote a system of education for rural development which supports selected methods of production with adequate financial services.

Community participation, population, and the environment.

In 1984, Alternatives established the Center for Technology whose goal is to generate and validate appropriate technology for rural communities. The technology covers different needs, from production to domestic life in order to make the labor of rural women easier. This center has facilitated the technical development of the three parts of the amaranth programme: agriculture, industry and commerce, and the water programme.

Similarly, Alternatives has assisted many organisations which create financing mechanisms for the production activities of rural families, groups, and villages. It has helped to generate savings funds, revolving funds, security funds, co-investment funds and other novel means of rural financing which avoid problems of excessive or inadequate debt.