Swisscontact -Indigenous women and youth's economic empowerment, 2018-2022

component 1: improvement of professional technical training and labor insertion - 5,635 young people, of whom 4,252 have been women (especially rural indigenous, the most disadvantaged population and with few development opportunities), gained access to vocational technical training. The target groups strengthened their knowledge, acquired skills and competencies to compete and enter to the labor market, as a result 2,267 got a job, 58% were women. People's income increased around $452 USD per month. These results were achieved in alliances with private sector in Alta Verapaz, as well as with state institutions, such as the Ministry of Labor, municipalities, among others. Component 2: promotion of sustainable entrepreneurship and financial inclusion -1,879 businesses that generated some employment or self-employment were launched, 94% (1,669) of these are owned by women. Groups of young people women and men were organized for this purpose. The target groups received technical training to acquire skills and competencies to develop a good or service to be marketed. They also received business advice to build a business model that would allow them to generate income in the short term. -Based on the Swisscontact following and monitoring system it could be demonstrated that 1,540 people increased their income through a venture, at the same time self-employment was generated of them, 1,227 were women (80%), who increased their monthly sales by $373 USD. The target groups especially indigenous from rural areas in 12 municipalities, received technical training to develop businesses, business advice, and established alliances with market actors. The target groups also received seed capital to start their business. With financial access and financial education, they had greater opportunities to access financial services. For this purpose, it is important to mention that the project established an alliance with COOPSAMA cooperative, which manages a guarantee from Sida to provide credits for MSMEs Component 3: empowering women through sexual and reproductive health and rights education, prevention of gender-based violence and education in care economy More than 200,000 people were sensitized on issues of sexual and reproductive education, prevention of violence against women and the care economy, through different media, campaigns, forums, workshops, among others. To measure this, Swisscontact conducted a rating study every 6 months, with nearly 1,500 surveys from a representative sample in the 12 municipalities. In accordance with Swisscontact, in terms of behavior change, even when no specific impact tests were carried out, a decrease in the rates of youth pregnancies, a greater number of complaints of sexual abuse could be noted, and the cases that were taken to court for resolution almost double.

The overall objective of the intervention is to contribute to increased employment for indigenous women and youth (15-35 years) in 12 municipalities in the Alta Verapaz region through vocational education, improved access to the labour market and increased self-employment. The intervention also includes measures to reduce violence against women and strengthen sexual and reproductive rights (SRHR) in order to facilitate the integration of women and youth into the labour market. Through the project, 10,000 indigenous women and youth are expected to get new job opportunities and thus increase income, while another 60,000 will increase their knowledge of gender-based violence and SRHR. The intervention will be carried out by the Swiss Civil Society Organisation Swisscontact, who has many years of experience in implementing similar projects both in Latin America and in other parts of the world. The project will be implemented with a so-called "systemic market initiative", based on the project's strengthening of existing market functions at companies and authorities instead of replacing them or creating new ones.