Projects
MYDEL PROGRAMME CENTRAL AMERICA
The MyDEL Programme has been active in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua since 2005. Its main purpose is to create the foundations for a women economic empowerment strategy at Central America’s sub-regional level. It is strategy that provides a path towards the recognition, promotion and enhancement of women’s entrepreneurship, with a territorial and gender approach. It also strengthens their institutionalism and leadership in the governance of the economies and the development processes of the region.
In all its different levels of implementation, the MyDEL Programme is articulated with the strategies promoted by the National Women Structures, as the Council of Central American Ministers for Women Affairs (COMMCA), the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Central American Secretariat for Economic Integration (SIECA), as well as with the public policies implemented in support of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Central American countries.
At the local level, the MyDEL Programme promotes the creation of Local Services (Counters for the Centres for Entrepreneurial Services for Women - CSEM, within the Local Economic Development Agencies - LEDA) addressed to the women entrepreneurs. The purpose is to grant them access to finance services and all the range of entrepreneurial services in the framework of the policy of support to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in the four countries. Currently the Programme covers 6 Regions and 7 Departments as the result of the extension of its territorial coverage to Guatemala, which has been taken in charge of by the Presidential Secretariat for Women’s Affairs (SEPREM). In this country, the Departments of Marcos and Sololá were incorporated. The National Women Structures in Panama and Costa Rica have also requested to participate at the Programme during the second phase.
ILS LEDA provided support to
- The inventory of women entrepreneurships, which identified a total of 955 women entrepreneurships, by using the geographic information system, and with the support of the LEDAs and the 4 Universities.
- The application of the value chains analysis to women’s enterprises
- The strategic initiatives of women’s empowerment, selected in the four countries and in the 5 pilot departments, add up to 29, gathering 1449 women entrepreneurs. In each department, initiatives undertaken by each indigenous group were included. These concern mainly 4 economic branches and, for each rubric, an analysis and mapping of the value chains was developed, mainly regarding: food processing; vegetal fibres processing for handicraft, related to the territorial and indigenous identity; clay processing, pottery and clay ceramic, related to the territorial and indigenous identity (Lenca y Nahualt- Pipil) and the religious tourism; ethno-tourism initiatives
- The creation of CSEM.The MyDEL has created, in each one of the 5 LEDAs in the pilot Departments, a support
service to women entrepreneurship: the Centre for Entrepreneurial Services for Women (CSEM). The CSEM works at local level and it’s linked with the national entities that support the micro, small and medium enterprises. Each CSEM provides information on finance services and entrepreneurial development to the women that request it. It promotes the local economic development through the implementation of sustainable economic initiatives, according to the potentialities of the territory. It gives access to strategic information, reduces the transactions costs and monitors the impact of the entrepreneurial initiatives.
