Colombia

Projects

Tailored support for small businesses with growth potential

The Senior Expert Contact (SEC) Project in Colombia connects Colombian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with experts from Latin America and Europe to increase revenue and create new jobs.

Women Coffee Growers Building Prosperity

The objective of this project is to empower and enhance of a group of female coffee growers through individual accompaniment, promoting greater leadership in the technical and economic management of their coffee plantation. At least 25 women associated with the C.A.F.E. PRACTICES - ECOM Colombia supply chains in Santander will benefit directly from this initiative. The aim is to empower these coffee farmers and improve their emotional well-being, as well as being trained in administrative and financial tools that will enable them to have greater possibilities of increasing their income.

CONSTRUYA – Anchoring systemic changes in Peru and Colombia

The Construya project addresses the challenges of unsafe, informal housing in rapidly urbanizing cities of Latin America by promoting safe, sustainable construction practices and affordable training for construction workers. In its current phase, the focus is on empowering local market system actors—such as training institutions and private companies—to fully take ownership of key services and tools developed by the project, including the training-of-trainers model and structured collaboration between companies and training providers. By anchoring these elements within national systems and strengthening the capacity of local actors, the initiative aims to ensure long-term sustainability and systemic impact in improving construction quality for low-income communities.

Colombia + Competitiva - Strengthening the Competitiveness of the Private Sector

The Programme aims to support Colombia in its systematic efforts to improve the competitiveness of its private sector in the framework of the National System of Competitiveness, Science, Technology and Innovation and its Productive Development Policy.
"Colombia + Competitiva" follows a programmatic and systemic approach with clear ownership of the...

Cacao Bioandino

During the years of 2018 and 2019, the French Development Agency-AFD, carried out several studies, that identified the challenges and opportunities to strengthen the supply of fine and aromatic cacao which was certified in international organic and fair trade standards in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.The potential to increase the supply of...

News

View all news from Colombia

17.10.2025

Diversification: A production model that empowers women coffee farmers in Santander

The power of diversification as a path to economic empowerment for rural women in Colombia

15.10.2025

Women leading change: empowerment and sustainable productivity in Santander

This initiative reflects Swisscontact’s commitment to working closely with the private sector to develop sustainable solutions that foster economic development and social inclusion in rural areas.

30.09.2025

From classrooms to careers: How Swisscontact’s dual education is transforming lives in Colombia

In Colombia, one of the biggest challenges in the labor market is the disconnect between what students learn in classrooms and what companies actually need. Young people often graduate with limited opportunities, while businesses struggle to find qualified personnel. The Swiss Cooperation program, through its Colombia + Competitiva programme – funded by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and implemented by Swisscontact – is driving an innovative response to this challenge: dual education.

Swisscontact in Colombia

Swisscontact has been working in Colombia since 2010. We have implemented programs and projects aimed at inclusive economic, social and environmental development, through the following lines of work:

Competitiveness
Internationalisation
Improvement of housing conditions in informal settlements
Strengthening of value chains (specialty cacao, sustainable tourism, natural ingredients for cosmetics, sustainable construction)
Opportunities for the vulnerable population (demobilised population)
Energy efficiency

In recent years, Swisscontact has established a solid network of public and private partners and a strong coordination with different international cooperation organizations. Based on this, we have implemented interventions at different levels: from public policies for innovation, competitiveness and quality of the capacity development system; to supporting value chains at the subnational level and improving the quality of life of the population at risk.

Noticias y contenidos adicionales en la versión en español de esta página.