Project profile — Accelerate Women Entrepreneurs in countries of the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity

This project aims to promote the growth and resilience of women-led or owned small and medium enterprises in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. The project seeks to improve their business performance, ability to participate in value chains, and capacity to scale up their businesses. It aims to provide women entrepreneurs, especially those from vulnerable populations, access to a 6-month virtual accelerator training program known as AcelerarME to build their financial literacy and access to finance opportunities. The project also supports connecting women entrepreneurs to value chains and networking opportunities to grow their businesses effectively. Project activities include: (1) delivering 8 training modules, each consisting of workshops and webinar sessions with live mentoring and networking sessions. These modules cover innovation and growth, strategy and strategic planning, digital business, successful sales plans, and marketing. It also includes growth and financing, family business management, and founder to chief executive officer; (2) conducting roundtable discussions after training and providing linkages with technical specialists, financial institutions, buyers, and business experts; and (3) women participants developing a Growth Plan for their business. The Inter-American Development Bank implements the project in collaboration with Thunderbird School of Global Management. The project aims to directly benefit 450 women entrepreneurs and 3,690 indirect beneficiaries across the 6 countries.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) increased sales of participating WSMEs after completing the accelerator training program; (2) increased employees hired by participating WSMEs after completing the accelerator training program; and (3) increased access to financing of participating WSMEs after completing the accelerator training program.

Results achieved as of April 2025 include: (1) engaged 233 women-led small and medium enterprises from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Peru in a virtual acceleration program (AcelerarME). This program strengthens skills and knowledge for successful business growth; (2) supported the graduation of 45 women entrepreneurs from the AcelerarME training program. As a result, 73% of them reported an increase in their sales and 71% reported an increase in business connections; and (3) supported the organization of 16 mentoring roundtables and 2 Demo Days where women entrepreneurs presented their business expansion plans to potential investors, financial institutions, and value chain stakeholders.