Guatemala

Projects

Economic Empowerment of Indigenous Youth and Women

The Project will improve the living conditions of indigenous men and women between the ages of 15 and 35 years, so that they can increase their income and improve their capabilities as well as improving the current conditions for autonomous decision-making; gaining access to professional technical education and market insertion opportunities; it...

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Credit Suisse - Swisscontact Initiative to promote entrepreneurship and innovation

The initiative serves to represent entrepreneurship and innovation in developing countries and emerging economies. Through skills transfer and cooperation, select private and public partner institutions work to enhance the economic and social significance of entrepreneurship, fostering entrepreneurial thinking and action.The initiative creates...

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Nuevas Oportunidades: professional reintegration of returned migrants

The project seeks the economic reintegration of returned migrants. It enables returned migrants to certify the skills they have acquired in the United States or Mexico. After certification, they are supported in finding a job or starting their own business.

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Action Research - Social Network Analysis

By analysing social networks, we can identify and improve the dynamics of social groups. If applied to entrepreneurship ecosystems, this translates to actively linking actors and creating collaboration mechanisms that could facilitate the interaction and development of local entrepreneurial communities. The Guatemalan entrepreneurship ecosystem is fragmented and has difficulties in collaborating and coordinating with its members, which often leaves entrepreneurs adrift. As in most Latin American countries, start-ups in Guatemala are built on relationships and connections. The value chain does not begin with the what, but with the who. This disconnect, coupled with social and economic factors, is why the failure rate of local ventures is over 90%. Additionally, most companies created in the country are classified as a type of "sustenance employment" or self-employment, with little or no growth potential.

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Innova

Disadvantaged young adults will be able to successfully enter professional life through solid, high-quality training. In this way they will generate income for themselves and their families, freeing themselves from poverty on their own initiative.Young men and women are learning important technical skills in vocational training. Since the project...

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News

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30.11.2021

Podcast Episode on the Reintegration of Returning Migrants

Saul Diaz Ortiz, Regional Director of Swisscontact in Latin America, is addressing the unique needs of returning migrants through partnerships with individuals, communities, government, and businesses. In the podcast VOICES - Conversations on Business and Human Rights from Around the World of the Institute for Human Rights and Business, he details his experience of identifying and boosting the economy of the returning migrants' countries of origin when they are properly integrated into society.

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25.11.2021

A new television programme to empower the youth of Alta Verapaz

Swisscontact is bringing information and awareness of sexual and reproductive health to young people in Alta Verapaz, one of the poorest departments in Guatemala. For this purpose, a television programme was recently created to contribute to the prevention of teenage pregnancies and violence. This initiative is implemented together with the Municipality of Cobán and the local health department (DASAV) of the Ministry of Health.

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27.10.2021

From mother to entrepreneur - the story of Estela Rivera, founder of Reusa Beeswax Wraps

Thanks to expert consulting services, Estela Rivera found new distribution channels repositioning her small enterprise in Guatemala despite challenges faced during the pandemic. Photo ©James Rodriquez/Panos

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Country Director Guatemala

Carlos Morales

Interventions

Swisscontact has been working in Guatemala since 1972, implementing projects in diverse institution's areas of specialization: air quality control, strengthening micro and small enterprises, increasing competitiveness in agricultural and non-agricultural value chains, promoting entrepreneurship, vocational training, among many others.

More recently, Swisscontact in Guatemala has worked under the systemic approach as a facilitator empowering local actors to achieve development, targeting vulnerable populations with emphasis on youth, small-scale producers linked to agribusiness, women and returned migrants. Swisscontact Guatemala focuses on the following areas of work:

Vocational training and certification of competencies under the principle of Recognition of Prior Learning.
Promotion of entrepreneurship
Inclusion in the labor market
Increasing the competitiveness of value chains

Additional news and content on the spanish version of this page