THE Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has set aside US$8,039,317 (GY$1.6B) to execute a programme which seeks to strengthen women-led businesses in Guyana, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador.

According to a press statement issued by the IDB, the monies will be directed towards the We3A Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (WeFi), which is aimed at capacity building, development, and growth of women-led and women-owned Small and Medium Enterprises (WSMEs) in the aforementioned countries.

“The recently-approved Technical Cooperation for ‘We3A – Improving access to value chains for women entrepreneurs’ is valued US$8,039,317 and includes a contribution of more than US$7 million from WeFi,” the statement read.

It indicated too that the We3A initiative seeks to strengthen WSMEs by combining value chain integration for women with high quality business training, using a range of innovative and digital means.

“Primary beneficiaries will be women in early entrepreneurship faced with multiple inequalities and those who do [not] own businesses but are inspired to start one or study entrepreneurship,” the IDB said.

It explained that the project aligns with key pillars of the IDB Group’s ‘Vision 2025’ for the gender diversity and digitalisation, of SMEs. “We3A’s activities will promote women’s economic empowerment in the region,” the release posited.

For the Guyana leg of the project, the IDB group intends to collaborate with the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry Guyana (WCCIG) to coordinate and implement We3A activities, working closely with the other executing partners especially Thunderbird School of Global Management of the Arizona State University.
“Thunderbird is the main executing agency for the regional We3A project,” the IDB noted.

The institution explained that the WCCIG will play a key role as the local platform to realise We3A’s three main components – Aspire, Activate and Accelerate.
“Aspire will use storytelling to highlight positives of women’s entrepreneurship. Activate will employ digital means to engage WSMEs while increasing capacity of local partners who will have long-term access to the digital resources. Accelerate will provide accelerator experience and buyer match-making opportunities for WSMEs ready to integrate into value chains,” the statement specified.

Further, it said that Thunderbird will, among other activities, develop high-impact, high-engagement online learning courses that include a “business plan wizard” and personalised “action plans” that create unique, personal documents for each learner.

“The global WEConnect network will also be involved given its relationship with local organisations and businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the IDB added.
Overall, “We3A is projecting to train a total of 6,400 women-led SMEs, enrol 160 in the accelerator, and graduate 128 WSMEs in recipient countries over the next three years starting in 2021.”

The programme is also expected to involve men in project activities that seek to encourage support and create an enabling environment for women’s empowerment. Secondary beneficiaries in this regard “will include others in the associated ecosystem such as family members, friends, male influencers, and business-owners.”