INCAE, sponsored by the PriceSmart Foundation and Cargill, promote EMPRO, a program to generate greater equality and prosperity for Honduran women
INCAE Business School promotes in Honduras, under the Women's Business Growth initiative, the development program Empresarias Progresando (EMPRO), which seeks to benefit 40 small and medium-sized companies led by Honduran women.
The EMPRO program, which has the financial support and accompaniment of the PriceSmart Foundation and Cargill, is designed so that through a series of training sessions, the participants achieve the transformation and scaling of their businesses, also promoting access to new financing.
"Latin America has had a significant increase in female participation in the labor market and in the number of women-owned businesses in the last couple of decades. However, women entrepreneurs and businesswomen in the region continue to face enormous challenges and biases" , pointed out Octavio Martínez, CLACDS/INCAE director.
Martínez highlighted that INCAE, through its Impact Centers, has the mission of helping to overcome these obstacles to generate greater equality and prosperity for Latin American women.
For her part, Angie Venza, director of International Strategic Initiatives at the PriceSmart Foundation, highlighted that the EMPRO program responds to a very important need within the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Honduras: the gender gap in terms of access to markets and capital.
“At Fundación PriceSmart we are very proud to collaborate with INCAE and Cargill to promote the growth and prosperity of Honduran businesswomen,” said Venza.
For his part, Xavier Vargas, president of Cargill Protein Latin America, stated: “At Cargill, we are convinced that when women have the opportunity to earn income, their families and their environments prosper, because they are at the heart of their communities and are a bond between families and the economic and social development of the country”.
EMPRO is a project divided into three phases: a) Recruitment and Registration, b) Training (tutoring and mentoring) and c) Business Roundtable. The Recruitment and registration phase will take place from July 19 to August 31 of this year. The Training phase has access to a platform with information and tools designed to strengthen and empower women leaders of small and medium-sized businesses and two additional training modules: Al Mercado and Al Banco. The first module is aimed at strengthening the skills and abilities that help entrepreneurs scale their businesses, create networks and gain access to new markets. The second module is designed so that the participants understand the way in which financial entities operate, become familiar with them and manage to meet the requirements they request, to access financing for their businesses.
In the third phase of training -the Business Roundtable- the participants put into practice the acquired knowledge, presenting their businesses and products to possible distributors, retailers, and financial entities.
An evaluation committee will be responsible for selecting the finalist businesswomen who meet certain requirements, including: being Honduran and residing in the country, being the main partner of their company and showing annual sales equal to or greater than US$20.
The selected participants will receive guided training and personalized support from members of the INCAE Faculty, as well as representatives of the international and national companies that are members of the Project and executives of local financial entities. Each educational scholarship is valued at approximately US$10.
In addition, the selected businesswomen will have access to pre-selected courses from the LEADS Mujer online acceleration program and to the respective Innovation and Finance Bootcamps. The LEADS Women Accelerator platform was designed with the sponsorship of Mastercard, a company with which INCAE has joined forces to promote talent and accelerate the growth of women entrepreneurs.
For more information about the program visit:
https://www.incae.edu/es/wbgi-honduras.html
Mauren esquivel
Grace Barahona
grace.barahona@clacds.incae.edu
About CLACDS / INCAE
The Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development is the thought and applied research center of INCAE Business School. Its mission is to promote sustainable development in the region through research, capacity building and dialogue.
About Cargill
Cargill is present in 70 countries and has more than 155,000 employees worldwide, who work tirelessly to achieve its purpose of feeding the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. Every day it connects farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive. Their collaborative work focuses on building a stronger, more sustainable future for agriculture. In Central America, Cargill markets its products through the Cargill Protein Latin America business unit and prepares balanced feed for large and small species through Cargill Animal Nutrition and Health. In Costa Rica, it has a shared services office, Cargill Business Services (CBS), which provides global support in the areas of human resources, finance, logistics and transportation, among others. For more information, visit Cargill.com and its News Center.
About PriceSmart Foundation
PriceSmart Foundation invests to create an environment of opportunity and access for the communities in the countries where PriceSmart operates its business. The Foundation focuses on improving economic opportunities for underserved populations, promoting youth development, and increasing community resilience through donating philanthropic funds to local organizations that align with our goals. We also work collaboratively with PriceSmart, Inc. to take advantage of the local presence and knowledge of the company and its collaborators in the countries where we carry out our activities.