Pro Mujer, Fundación Belcorp, and Latimpacto Launch Strategic Partnership to Provide Training to Migrant Entrepreneurs

The number of women migrants has increased significantly in recent years. Today, the United Nations estimates that 49% of the 214 million migrants worldwide are women. In search of better opportunities, women leave their birth countries behind and arrive in new countries, facing multiple barriers to education and employment opportunities. 

Within this context, it is critical to understand the immigration situation as an opportunity and to approach it with a gender perspective in order to empower migrant women by offering support through entrepreneurship to improve their quality of life.

To meet this challenge, Pro Mujer, Belcorp Foundation, and Latimpacto joined together to create an entrepreneurial training program that incorporates the psychosocial skills of migrant women and brings an intersectional perspective to the learning process that responds to the particularities of migrant women’s contexts and realities. 

The program gives participating women the opportunity to learn the tools and skills they need to reach independence, including strengthening their leadership skills and emotional resilience. Program participants will also have access to content on finance, negotiation, sales, financing, and technological tools; receive personalized support from specialists; and have the opportunity to connect with other entrepreneurs in the region to create a support network that is essential for their ongoing development.  

Thanks to the support provided by Fundación Belcorp, the program will initially be available to migrant women entrepreneurs in Colombia. However, we hope to expand the initiative using the Emprende Pro Mujer platform to reach migrant women entrepreneurs throughout Latin America and the United States. 

Emprende Pro Mujer is an entrepreneurial training platform with a gender lens that offers women entrepreneurs access to educational content that spans the entire business development cycle (from creation to acceleration). Since its inception, Emprende Pro Mujer has become a powerful tool for unlocking the potential of women in Latin America. Over the course of 1 year, more than 32,000 women have strengthened their skills, ideas, and businesses thanks to the content and programs offered via the platform.

“Businesses led by women migrants in Latin America are drivers of economic growth and job creators,” shared Carmen Correa, CEO of Pro Mujer. “Thanks to Latimpacto and Fundación Belcorp, we will be able to reach more women in the region and continue to break down the day-to-day barriers they face when trying to access services and tools to boost their businesses. Throughout 2023, we will continue encouraging their development by strengthening our commitment and impact.”

“This partnership will allow us to impact a greater number of women entrepreneurs, providing them with the tools they need to strengthen their businesses and become a source of progress for themselves and their families,” said Verónica Melzi, Manager at Fundación Belcorp. “Migrant women face specific challenges, and this program will allow them to become more resilient and make their businesses stronger and more sustainable.”

High-impact projects like this one in collaboration with Fundación Belcorp and Pro Mujer reaffirm our commitment to the importance of collaborating within the impact ecosystem and the impact that these collaborations can have. We hope this program will enrich and support migrant women across the region to process their experiences and strengthen their potential for success,” stated Carolina Suárez, CEO of Latimpacto. “I’d also like to thank Caminantas for all their help in Mexico.” 

The module is available here.

About Pro Mujer

For more than 32 years, Pro Mujer has provided services and tools to women in Latin America to help them reach their full potential and become agents of change in their communities.

The organization’s comprehensive and holistic model is focused on facilitating women’s financial inclusion in Latin America, expanding access to health services, and providing skilling and training opportunities.

Pro Mujer is a pioneer in gender lens investing in Latin America and works to raise awareness of how it can be used to close existing gender gaps and boost productivity in local businesses.

Pro Mujer’s work is closely aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and contributes tangible results to the following SDGs: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, and 16.
For more information, visit www.promujer.org.