<< Objectives >>The main goal of the project is to increase the diversity of the offer of rural women's organizations from three EU countries, allowing for increasing the effectiveness of educational activities for local communities. Thanks to international cooperation, we want to expand and make the activities of women's organizations in small local communities more attractive and thus encourage a larger group of residents to participate in activities organized by these entities.<< Implementation >>We are going to take four types of action. These are: partnership meetings (one in each country) for the exchange of experiences and good practices, development of three substantive results in the form of collections of good practices, activities for the local community, promotion and dissemination (including meetings for local communities - at least 2 in each country) and project management to ensure the smooth implementation of the project and to evaluate the results and activities.<< Results >>We plan to work out three results. Result 1 is a collection of good practices in the field of educational activity for the cultivation of local traditions, presented in the form of unified cases from Poland, Cyprus and Greece. Result 2 is a collection of educational activities to promote local specialties and culinary preparations. Result 3 is a set of educational activities for tourism and sport, including the so-called green good practices aimed at increasing the ecological identity.

<< Background >>As stated in the 2019 Study “The professional status of rural women in the EU”, commissioned by the European Parliament, European rural areas can be characterized by gender-selective migration since the number of women leaving rural areas exceeds the number of men doing so. This process results in severe demographic imbalances between and within regions, and hampers the solid economic and social development of rural areas. Globally, women remain less likely to participate in the labor market than men, are more likely to be unemployed, and over-represented in vulnerable employment. Women also bear disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work. Women are central to the sustainability of rural communities, improving rural livelihoods and overall wellbeing, but their role and significance is often overlooked. Female entrepreneurs represent only one third of self-employed people in the EU. Women’s ideas for innovation are as marketable as men’s, but they are not recognized by predominantly male stakeholders (COPA, 2017).Rural women's organizations remind that the economy of rural municipalities depends to a large extent on the development of the agricultural sector and the employment opportunities available to women.In this context, the COVID-19 crisis today becomes an opportunity to undertake the challenge of digitization and sustainable development, to make visible and promote commitment to activities, such as the “green economy” that entails improving the lives and livelihoods of the population in the rural areas, as well as achieving a balance between the use of natural resources and the maintenance of income.In this area, the development of green entrepreneurship projects in the rural world could be a way for many of these women to find employment. However, according to the entrepreneurship map made by South Summit, only 18% of the entrepreneurial proposals received are released by women. In the EU, there is a growing concern to empower women in the agri-food sector. Proof of this is the call for the “Empowering Women in Agrifood” program organized by the European organization EIT Food.In this sense, GREENT project, funded by E+, defines Green Entrepreneurship as “the activity of con-sciously addressing an environmental/social problem/need through the realization of entrepreneurial ideas with a high level of risk, which has a net positive effect on the natural environment and at the same time is financially sustainable.” At the same time “Green entrepreneur is someone who starts and runs an entrepreneurial venture that is designed to be green in its products and processes from the very moment it is set up.” Therefore, green entrepreneurship could be the answer to many of the different challenges that our society faces today and women in rural areas can play an important role in the creation of green jobs, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)..In this context, GREENWORAL project aims to empower adult women in rural areas, equipping them with new digital and green entrepreneurship skills to promote entrepreneurial and innovative activities that are beneficial for the natural environment and with financial profitability for rural women.<< Objectives >>GREENWORAL project we will empower adult women in rural areas, equipping them with new digital and green entrepreneurship skills to promote entrepreneurial and innovative activities that are beneficial for the natural environment and with financial profitability for rural women, so as to encourage and facilitate the improvement of the lives and livelihoods of the population in the rural areas, contributing to correct the imbalances between men and women on businesses, as well as achieving a balance between the use of natural resources and the maintenance of income in these areas. These needs have been accentuated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.In this way, the specific objectives of GREENWORAL are the following:1. Design and implement an innovative educational package aimed at training adult rural women in green entrepreneurship in the new scenario post-COVID.2. Launch a Mentorship program to accompany and encourage those adult women who are willing to start their own green businesses.3. Develop a Toolkit on green entrepreneurship which provides strategies and resources to any woman who wants to take the first steps with her business initiative and learn more about the success factors particularly in rural areas.4. Contribute to the networking and cooperation between public authorities, educational institutions and other local agents for the promotion of green entrepreneurship leaded by women in rural areas.<< Implementation >>Main activities to be developed in the frame of GREENWORAL project are:1) Educational package on green entrepreneurship in the new scenario post-COVID for adult rural women: Partners will design and implement an educational package for boosting female green entrepreneurship in rural areas. All the educational materials will be designed and developed in order to be implemented on a basis of a blended scheme, partially online using an e-Learning platform and partially face-to-face, and applying the “Scrum” methodology.2) Mentorship program for empowering women green entrepreneurs in rural areas: Partners will design and launch a Mentorship program in order to accompany and encourage those adult women coming from rural areas who are willing to start their own green businesses.3) Toolkit on green entrepreneurship for rural women: This innovative tool will provide strategies and resources to any woman who wants to take the first steps with her business initiative and learn more about the success factors particularly in rural areas.4) Organization of 6 face-to-face Transnational Meeting for the project partners.5) Organization of a Short-term joint mentors training event for conducting the Mentorship program that will serve for the mentors who will be finally selected to participate in the GREENWORAL Mentorship program.6) Organization of a Short-term training event for sharing experiences about the Mentorship program for gathering a selected number of mentors and mentees in order to discuss and debate about the performance of the program at the middle point of its implementation, problems encountered and how to improve the whole program.7) Organization of the GREENWORAL final conference to be held in Cartagena (Spain).<< Results >>OUTCOMES DURING THE PROJECT:1. Design and implementation of an innovative educational package aimed at training adult rural women in green entrepreneurship in the new scenario post-COVID. All the educational materials will be designed and developed in order to be implemented on a basis of a blended scheme, partially online using an e-Learning platform and partially face-to-face via weekly workshops for reinforcing concepts and control learning progresses done by the participants. All the materials will be deployed with the purpose of applying the “Scrum” methodology. This innovative educational package will be tested on the ground through a pilot experience developed in the four countries involved in the project in order to improve it and obtain a definitive version that could be easily exportable and transferable to other geographical contexts and European rural areas.2. Design and launch of a Mentorship program in order to accompany and encourage those adult women coming from rural areas who are willing to start their own green businesses. In this way, partners will design a complete common and shared methodology for the program and will select a pool of mentors, fulfilling a set of agreed criteria, who will be accompanying to the adult rural women for taking first steps in their business adventures within the green sector. In this way, after having completed the training stage, the participating women will carry out a second mentoring stage, and accompanied by the mentors, they will be able, based on an idea, to design their green business model, acquire personal and technical skills necessary for its development and analyze its viability. So, mentorship will enable to these rural women to gain as much autonomy as possible, thus contributing to the successful implementation of their business ideas.3. Develop a Toolkit on green entrepreneurship which provides strategies and resources to any woman who wants to take the first steps with her business initiative and learn more about the success factors particularly in rural areas. The toolkit will be developed for supporting end-users (women coming from rural areas interested in starting their business in the green sector) in a practical and clear way to be successful in the process of starting, for managing their business and for guiding strategic decision making through using tailor-made tools and templates or referring to existing external contents and other useful resources.OUTCOMES ON ITS COMPLETION:1. Contribution to the design and implementation of a set of strategies and practical tools which will pretend to reduce the persistent inequities which remain even today between men and women in terms of employment and entrepreneurship, as well as between urban and rural areas, using the green sector as catalyst. This will ultimately contribute to strengthen social, economic and territorial cohesion within the rural communities.2. Fostering the application of digital learning environments for the promotion of green entrepreneurship in rural areas driven by women, tools that can facilitate them access to new opportunities, a better quality of life and personal autonomy and, in short, encourage better standards of the entire rural community. This need has been accentuated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, that has aggravated the existing gaps between urban and rural areas. 3. Contribution to the networking and cooperation between public authorities, educational institutions and other local agents for the promotion of green entrepreneurship leaded by women in rural areas.4. The outcomes developed, together with the number of adult women who will receive training, start-ups launched, and employability percentage achieved will ensure project’s visibility and feasibility and provide further incentives to government officials to push for and secure further financing of GREENWORAL concept.