Final Presentations

Cooperatives in Nicaragua (by Titus, & Eric):

Off the bat, I really appreciated Titus and Eric’s presentation because it connected very well to my group’s presentation on nutrition and sustainable agriculture.  I also greatly valued Titus and Eric’s ability to acknowledge their assumptions and ignorance when it came to agriculture in Nicaragua.

My main takeaway from this group’s presentation was that farmers in Nicaragua should improve the cooperative farming model in order to reap the benefits of farmer aggregation, reduce the requirement for minimum acreage and increase the liquidity for farmers.  I will be very interested to see how this plan is put into place after we all visit Nicaragua and Titus and Eric have an opportunity to have face-to-face conversations with Nicaraguans.

The Status of Women in Nicaragua (by Roshni, Morgan and Katie):

My main takeaway from the presentation about the gender-gap in Nicaragua is that the Nicaraguan government is committed to providing and meeting quotas in regards to women in politics, but the actual power that women maintain in government is pretty low.  The group presented a figure that 40% of the Nicaraguan representatives are women, but the 40% doesn’t have a lot of power in the government.

The relatively low power of women in government seemed odd compared to that fact that the group provided that more Nicaraguan women than men obtain an education.  I would expect that since more Nicaraguan women attain an education, women, rather than men, would be more likely to hold political offices.

It was also interesting to think/hear about the sexual abuse allegations against Daniel Ortega and how his wife discredited her own child’s story in order to remain in power.

Credit Opportunities in Nicaragua (by Sawyer and Henry)

What I mainly got from Sawyer and Henry’s presentation was that Nicaraguans, especially rural Nicaraguans have very low access to credit.  Sawyer and Henry note that only 30% of the population has access to credit and almost all of the large creditors are almost entirely located in Managua.  In addition, microfinance is about 10% of the total credit market in Nicaragua.  Microfinance seemed to be the go-to source for rural Nicaraguans because microfinance borrowers covered a larger geographical region.

Specific to Sawyer and Henry’s presentation, I liked the case studies.  It was a great glimpse into what someone in Nicaragua would have to go through in order to gain access to credit.