Project profile — Promoting Rural Economic Development for Women and Youth in the Lempa Region - PROLEMPA

• Honduras (100.00%)

• Business support services and institutions:
Business support services and institutions (25010) (40.00%)
Business Development Services (25030) (10.00%)
• Agriculture: Agricultural education/training (31181) (25.00%)
• Tourism: Tourism policy and administrative management (33210) (25.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)

The project aims to improve the economic well-being of small-scale entrepreneurs and producers in the tourism and coffee sectors, in particular women, youth and indigenous people in the Dry Corridor of Honduras. It seeks to increase the capacity of private and public actors to support small-scale businesses, as well as the leadership capacities of small-scale entrepreneurs. It also seeks to increase productivity and revenues of small-scale entrepreneurs through increased productive and marketing capacities, and access to credit. Project activities include: (1) providing training to women, youth and men entrepreneurs and municipal employees in gender equality, leadership, marketing and business development; (2) promoting learning opportunities for small-scale entrepreneurs through exchanges and model businesses; (3) strengthening business support and development centers; (4) promoting innovative and efficient production technologies; (5) establishing key market alliances; (6) implementing a youth entrepreneurs development program including tutoring; and(7) creating business incubation centers. The project

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved business, technical and financial practices of small-scale enterprises, especially those led by or mainly employing women, youth and/or marginalized people; and (2) increased productivity and sales by small-scale enterprises, especially those led by or mainly employing women, youth and/or marginalized people living in poverty.

Results achieved at the end of the project (January 2023) include: (1) improved knowledge of leadership, decision-making, gender equality, gender-based violence, and economic rights of 10,307 people (8,680 women); (2) supported 2,987 persons (2,639 women) to participate in open town meetings and campaigns advocating for gender equality in local economic development; (3) 22 municipalities signed agreements for allocating resources for the economic development of women, youth, and indigenous people; (4) 317 businesses used the services of the 2 new one-stop centers; (5) trained 6,425 persons (2,954 women) in business skills; and (6) 1,147 small businesses formed public-private partnerships with private-sector organizations for production and marketing.

• Proactive disclosure