Pro Mujer and Développement International Desjardins (DID) Join Forces to Empower Bolivian Entrepreneurs

Pro Mujer and Développement International Desjardins (DID) Join Forces to Empower Bolivian Entrepreneurs

The social enterprise with over 34 years of advancing gender equality, Pro Mujer, and Desjardins, an international development organization based in Canada, announce the launch of a new collaborative project aimed at promoting the financial inclusion of Bolivian women and the creation of a gender-focused financial product.

In Bolivia, women face a precarious work reality marked by informality, which accounts for 80% according to the ILO, and the presence of unpaid work, affecting 20% of women (IDB). Faced with this situation, entrepreneurship has emerged as an alternative to improve their living conditions. Indeed, Bolivia offers a favorable environment for entrepreneurship, ranking 11th out of 15 countries in the region (UN Women).

However, although women lead 47% of enterprises in Bolivia (Coordinadora de la Mujer), they encounter a fundamental barrier: lack of access to credit. Only 12% of Bolivian women have a high level of financial inclusion, the lowest figure in the region (Credicorp).

Aiming to address this situation that limits the growth of their businesses and keeps them in vulnerable conditions, the project will benefit more than 1,000 women in La Paz, Cochabamba, and El Alto with access to financing through the communal banking methodology, where a group of entrepreneurial women assumes the guarantee under the principles of solidarity, commitment, and trust.

Since its foundation in 1990, Pro Mujer has accompanied its financial products with educational strategies that incorporate a gender perspective. The organization views education as a tool for autonomy, empowerment, and skill development, committed to personal growth. From a holistic and woman-centered approach, Pro Mujer will provide training content aimed at the beneficiaries of communal bank credit. Face-to-face meetings, which incorporate playful and interactive materials, will allow them to strengthen financial competencies, boost their businesses, develop self-care, and more.

Furthermore, to improve and optimize the growth of their activities, Pro Mujer and DID will launch the creation of a gender-focused financial product, with women-led SMEs being one of the sectors with the greatest potential for impact investment in the country. This milestone in the country and the region will mark a before and after in the lives of Bolivian entrepreneurs.

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