The United States Provides $2.7 Million to Support
Women-Owned Enterprises in Guatemala
REF# 2020 – 23
As part of the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative, the U.S. Government is providing $2.7 million in economic assistance to support women-owned small and medium-sized businesses in Guatemala.
These funds will scale up existing efforts by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its public and private sector partners to promote investment, production, and employment in Guatemala by providing technical assistance to more than 400 small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) owned by women under a new W-GDP activity entitled Women in Supply Chains. USAID will work with these SMEs to find new markets for their products, strengthen their financial administration, increase access to financing and, in cooperation with partners such as Walmart Central America, connect them with global supply chains and large customer bases.
The W-GDP Initiative aims to enhance opportunities for women to meaningfully participate in the economy and advance prosperity and national security. The Initiative established the W-GDP Fund, which in its first two years totaled $200 million and partnered with more than 450 private sector, nongovernmental, local organizations, and country governments to work across more than 60 countries around the world.
Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump said, “The W-GDP Fund was created to source and scale the most innovative programs to advance women’s economic empowerment. We are leveraging the resources and expertise of the U.S. Government and the private sector so that activities have enduring, deep effects on the communities they reach.”
U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, Luis Arreaga, said, “This funding will help women entrepreneurs overcome critical financial barriers in order to grow their businesses, increase income, and create employment opportunities for their entire community.”
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About The W-GDP Initiative
In February 2019, the White House established the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative, the first whole-of-government approach to women’s economic empowerment. W-GDP seeks to reach 50 million women in the developing world by 2025 by focusing on three pillars – Women Prospering in the Workforce, Women Succeeding as Entrepreneurs and Women Enabled in the Economy. W-GDP leverages a new innovative fund, scaling private-public partnerships which address the three pillars. In its first year alone, W-GDP programs reached 12 million women across the globe.
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