According to official data (Registro Único de Víctimas), currently there are more than 8.5 million victims of armed conflict; 4.6 million of them are women, meaning that they shouldered an important portion of the weight borne out of the war. To be part of the transformation in these women’s lives, Bancamía, the Colombian MFI of the BBVAMF, and She Is -a foundation that develops a socio-productive development model for capacity training and microbusiness expansion- signed a partnership agreement to work towards strengthening the current environment for female victims and other vulnerable groups to build stable livelihoods.
This alliance, whose initial projects would be implemented in Magdalena and Putumayo, is based on creating a platform for empowering women to enhance their microbusinesses, responding to the needs of their neighborhoods and driving them to reconstruct their communities through income generation, and finance management.
“We are invested in four great challenges that are necessary for vulnerable women’s economic empowerment, following the conflict in Colombia: financial education, access to financial services to support their productive activities, stable income generation and consolidation of the current environment for sustainable production, which over time would close the inequality gaps to overcome their vulnerability”, explains Bancamía’s executive president, Miguel Ángel Charria.
“This partnership is the beginning of the eradication of informality and poverty in the region, headed by strong women with a history”
In Bancamía, women represent 54% of its total clients: 36% of these women live in rural areas, 83% are economically vulnerable and 50% possess primary education at best. Their productive activities grow, as reflected by the annual increase in sales, net income and assets of up to 14%, 15% and 25% respectively.
She Is founder Nadia Sánchez assures that, “this partnership is the beginning of the eradication of informality and poverty in the region, headed by strong women with a history”. “This is how the foundation that I lead, and Bancamía are invested on delivering sustainable and humane financial inclusion because we are impacting many lives.”
Women that are part of She Is can now access loans, savings, insurance and investment products that are adapted to their needs, targeted to boost their activities. Furthermore, they will receive financial education to help them make decisions about their available resources.
She Is, a foundation that empowers women through enterprising projects for peace
She Is organization and its founder have received international awards for their efforts: UNDP recognized the foundation as a success story in promoting women’s sustainable development in Latin America; it garnered fourth place in the prestigious IDEAS FOR ACTION, awarded by the World Bank and Wharton School Washington 2017.
Nadia Sánchez was included among Enterprising Women of the Year 2017, awarded by the Organization of American States (OAS), and was recognized as an “iconic woman for nurturing an appropriate environment for innovation and entrepreneurship”, in the Women Economic Forum 2016, 2017 and 2018 in New Delhi, India.