At Agora Partnerships, we will launch a support program for Latin American Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) led by women, co-designed and financed by IDB Lab and WeFi, with contributors such as Hispanics in Philanthropy and the Target Foundation.
We will work with companies from commerce, services and industry sectors and we will address the productive, linkage and alliance challenges faced by companies in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, to achieve optimal growth and impact.
With a focus on four components, businesses led by women will receive tools that will allow them to improve on issues such as digitization of sales processes and channels, value chains, decent work, gender equality, and ecological innovations.
The ‘Juntas Contamos’ [Together We Count] program will cover 4 important components:
- Capacity development, we seek to develop the capacities of businessmen and women entrepreneurs regarding the use of digital technologies, adoption of sustainable practices and improvement of business performance. It contemplates staggered training in 3 levels according to your business development.
- Linking with markets, we will work with 480 businesswomen and market allies (e-commerce, retailers, markets, etc.), to improve access to markets for companies led by women, while satisfying corporate and commercial demand to increase the number of local, sustainable and diverse suppliers.
- Access to financing, the program will mobilize more than US$ 6 million in capital to support companies led by women through partnerships with fintechs, non-bank institutions, investors, banks and microfinance organizations.
- Information Exchange Platform, we will develop a platform that allows businesswomen to exchange data and generate associations in a decentralized, secure and transparent way with commercial and financing partners.
With ‘Juntas Contamos’ [Together We Count], we aim for more companies led by women to increase their annual income and create more jobs in their communities and country.
The program will have market and financial partners with whom the entrepreneurs will be able to create links, such as: Mercado Libre, Walmart Centroamérica, DHL, Center for Inclusive Growth, Drip Capital, CENPROMYPE, Lendera and Pretmex, among others.
“At IDB Lab, we know that women leaders of small and medium-sized companies in Latin America are engines of change, we are excited to support and coordinate the Together We Count project with Agora Partnerships. Project that fits with our mission as an innovative initiative that uses technology to make these women capitalize on their data to access more valuable commercial and financial markets.”
At Agora we are clear that supporting increased productivity and socio-environmental sustainability of companies led by women can place Mexico and Central America on the path to inclusive economic recovery.
For more information on ‘Juntas Contamos’ [Together We Count] and other projects, contact Cecilia Foxworthy cfoxworthy@agora2030.org
If you are an entrepreneur from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras and you are interested in being part of this program, we invite you to pre-register for the program
