المحتوى متاح باللغة الإنجليزية

We often talk about what they do in the project, but rarely about who they are, these women and men who are behind the implementation of InnovAgroWoMed. 
Today, we are going to discover CESIE, member of the InnovAgroWoMed consortium, with our guest Letizia Portera, coordinator of the International Cooperation Department of CESIE and CESIE project manager for InnovAgroWoMed 
 

1- Can you give us a brief description of your institution:  CESIE?

"CESIE is a European Centre of Studies and Initiatives established in 2001 and based in Palermo (Italy). It is committed to promote cultural, social, educational and economic development at local and international levels. Addressing social needs and challenges, our work actively connects research with action through the use of innovative learning approaches, based on formal and non-formal education always promoting the active participation of people, civil society and institutions, and valuing diversity.

This work is carried out through the cooperative and cross-cutting work of six Units specialised on the following fields: Higher Education and Research, Rights and Justice, Adult education, Migration, School education, Youth.

The Euro-Mediterranean and cross-border cooperation is a core pillar of our action envisioning the Mediterranean area as a hub for social and economic development." 

2 - What is the role of the CESIE in the InnovAgroWoMed project’s consortium?

"As for Italy, all the activities of the InnovAgroWoMed project will be carried out in Sicily. Therefore, in cooperation with the organization leading the specific phase, CESIE deals with the planning and implementation of research - training - job matching activities at regional level.

Concretely, this means that we are currently making a deep and solid research about the potential of the agri-food sector and its various supply chains for women’s employment. Interviews, focus groups and potential cooperation agreement with relevant stakeholders are ongoing. The results will lead us to design an innovative training model scheme aiming at providing 140 women (35 women in Sicily) with knowledge, skills and competences to work in the agri-food sector.

In 2021 the training phase will be opened, allowing to 35 women in Sicily receiving a full training to become entrepreneurs or employee in the agri-food (details about the specific professional profile addressed are about to be finalised).

in 2022 we will manage the job matching phase with the organisation of business forum and traineeship programmes to further support the project’s goal of 80% of training participants with a sustainable job by the end of the project."

3 - Who are the members of your organization involved in the InnovAgroWoMed project? What kind of profiles and functions do they have?

"I am in charge of overall planning and management of the project’s activities managed by CESIE and the work of involved team members. We have also Mrs. Adriana Micales, as financial officer, who is carefully following the administrative and financial management, Mr. Alberto Provenzano, coordinator of CESIE’s communication office, is our communication manager. The research group is composed by two high-skilled professionals as Mrs.

Caterina Impastato and Mr. Manfredi Trapolino. Local economic development and sustainable development are among their main areas of expertise and they are the main players involved in this phase of the project, working for picturing out the potentiality and also weakness of the agri-food system in the Sicilian context. 

In the next months, the launch of the training phase will enrich CESIE’s InnovAgroWoMed team with new members."

4- What are your expectations of the project outputs? 

"We fully believe that the project can be an engine for increasing women’s employability at local level. Expectations are high and their fulfilment will depend from our capacity to fully understand the unaddressed needs, qualifications and professional profiles requested in the job market, first.

That’s why we are investing important time not only for the design of the training model but also for the establishment of contacts and cooperation agreement with potential employers, on one side, and stakeholders supporting the set-up new agri-food business, on the other one."