More than 1,500 Bolivian Entrepreneurs Receive Scholarships to Boost their Skills

Gender inequality continues to be a significant issue across Latin America. Despite progress, women still face significant gaps in access to opportunities and equal rights.

• Latin America and the Caribbean has bridged 72.6% of its gender gap, but it is still expected to take 67 years to close it entirely.
• In 2022, Latin America and the Caribbean had the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity. However, the region also has the second-highest rate of women shutting down their businesses.

Limited access to education and capital and cultural and structural barriers limit women’s ability to convert their businesses into stable sources of income. According to the IDB, women invest 50% less capital than their male counterparts but achieve 20% higher returns. This reality not only impacts women but also negatively affects the economy and society.

At Pro Mujer, we understand the importance of providing women with opportunities to address this reality. This is why we provided 1,500 scholarships for women entrepreneurs in Bolivia to participate in the Todas Digitales program and develop their digital, technological, and financial skills to integrate into the digital world, gain more customers, and take their businesses to the next level.

The Todas Digitales program encourages digital literacy, covering social networks, smartphones, Canva, digital payments, and financial tools. It includes biweekly synchronous sessions alongside asynchronous material, including WhatsApp chatbots and gamified content.

Additionally, we recently completed the first cycle of the workshop series “Critical Tools for Women Entrepreneurs.” Implemented over a month, the series includes weekly in-person, three-hour sessions focused on improving women’s businesses. Each session was facilitated by expert facilitators from the German Sparkassenstiftung, Munay, and UN Women.More than 50 women entrepreneurs participated in the first cycle. In 2023, we hope to reach over 1,000 women entrepreneurs to help them boost their businesses.