Education for Sustainable Development and Cooperation: Empowering Mozambican Rural Women View Digital Media

Focused Discussion
Ana Paula Saldanha Coelho,  Marc Jacquinet  

This research addresses the link between cooperation for development and the improvement of the living conditions of rural women as well as what changes take place through Education for Sustainable Development. It considers international cooperation as an instrument to promote sustainable development and to contribute to a culture of peace, global citizenship, with respect for cultural diversity and human rights. On this basis, the study focus on the Agenda 2030 as a central research component in Sustainable Development Goal 4 - Quality Education, target 4.7 - education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles. The concern with the position of rural women in Mozambican society arises for being a subject who lives for long periods of time the effects of crises and conflicts and who lives in an environment whose social and cultural characteristics create barriers to the full exercise of their rights. This paper examines rural women's perception of the intervention of cooperation partners as well as the real changes that educational experiences have brought to improve their living conditions. In terms of methodology, the main option was the discussion group organized with rural women from whom we obtained authentic empirical data and which allowed triangulation of the elements of the document analysis as well as the results of interviews carried out with privileged informants. The results direct us towards the limitations and to a necessary transformative approach that places us in a new narrative of cooperation for development.