Teresita, an entrepreneur from Yucatán dedicated to breeding and caring of melipona bees, found an opportunity for growth and a support network in Pro Mujer. As a meliponiculturist, Teresita is dedicated to harvesting honey and transforming it into products such as soaps, shampoo, and creams. Thanks to access to microcredits and the business training programs offered by Pro Mujer, Teresita and the rest of the women in her cooperative were able to strengthen their businesses and achieve economic autonomy.
Despite the success of stories like Teresita’s, the reality of Mexican female entrepreneurs is different. According to data from the Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad (Mexican Institute for Competitiveness) (IMCO), 5 million female entrepreneurs work informally and 36% report the lack of financing as the main barrier to growing their businesses.
Faced with this reality, the National Institute for Women (Inmujeres) and Pro Mujer formalized a collaboration agreement to boost the autonomy and economic empowerment of women. This powerful alliance focuses mainly on the central and southern regions of the country, where women face greater difficulties in accessing financial products, with gender gaps of 53.1% in the central-south, and 57.7% in the southeast (ENIF).
The main objective of the collaboration agreement between Inmujeres and Pro Mujer is to strengthen women’s economic autonomy strategies by providing them with financial and entrepreneurship tools that meet their needs. Likewise, its goal is to facilitate the exchange of information in order to analyze results, identify successful practices, and formulate recommendations for future actions.
This commitment is realized through the hybrid model of Emprende Pro Mujer, our entrepreneurial training platform, which supports Indigenous, rural, and vulnerable women who lead productive activities. Since its launch in 2022, we have impacted over 4,650 women in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
The impact of the program in the region reflects the transformative power of investing in the necessary tools for female entrepreneurs, such as Teresita and the rest of the women in her cooperative, to achieve economic autonomy and contribute to the sustainable development of their communities. Thanks to strategic partnerships such as with Inmujeres, we continue working so that Mexican female entrepreneurs reach their full potential.
