Actualidad

Toolbox for the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women Entrepreneurs

UN Women

The Broadening Economic Opportunities for Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Latin America (BEO) programme was launched in 2013 with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and UN Women. It contributes to the economic empowerment of rural women entrepreneurs in four countries:  El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua

The programme’s key goals are (i) to research effective approaches and processes for developing the skills of excluded rural women so that they can better manage and market their business ventures, and (ii) to explore techniques for increasing the voice and power of rural women so that they have a say in local development priorities and processes, as well as in policies that are relevant to them.

The programme has systematised working processes, generating learning and examples of good practice in achieving rural women’s empowerment. These have been shared, using a toolbox of ten guidelines, with organisations and institutions that seek to make women’s economic, political and physical autonomy more robust and include instruments and formats that have been used during the programme that can be replicated in other work conducted with rural women entrepreneurs.