Close Digital Divides to Boost Economies

Digital technologies provide basic services and influence our daily lives, but only some people can take advantage of those opportunities as digital inequality is increasing worldwide. This digital divide can lead to gender inequalities in other areas including accessing labor markets and less financial inclusion for women. Digital literacy has become one of the most demanded skills in the digital age and as women lack digital skills they are becoming excluded from lucrative, gainful, decent employment. 

Pro Mujer will target women and migrant populations to strengthen their digital and financial capacities enabling them to better access labor markets and cultivate their entrepreneurial ventures to increase their full, equal, and safe participation in the workforce. 

If scaled globally, the financial and education services provided by this project will reduce the digital divide as more women effectively participate in digital platforms and utilize more economic technologies. 

The United Nations Refugee Agency reports that Central American countries have seen high levels of violence, insecurity and reduced economic opportunities which have all prompted northern migration. There are several structural factors such as delicate government institutions, limited investment, low productivity and high levels of informal employment that limit the potential growth of the workforce. In Guatemala, women make up only 42% of the workforce and make just 50% as much as men do in wages or salaries.  

The repercussions of COVID-19 have exacerbated women’s exclusion from the workforce due to gendered roles and childrearing. In addition, it has accelerated the automation and digitalization of jobs which present new challenges to women since they are less digitally literate than men and have limited access to computers and internet services. 

In parallel with technological access, it is necessary to develop new skills in the population, skills that make it possible to take full advantage of the benefits of digital development. For women to fully compete equally in the workforce they need an environment that boosts their digital literacy, economic empowerment, and financial education. Closing the digital divide is essential to boost economic and social development in Latin America. 

This Project will support Pro Mujer’s global digital strategy and expand its services into Guatemala. Closing Digital Divides to Boost Economies has been designed to promote stability, education, and employment opportunities while building resilience of vulnerable populations and thus reducing the major drivers of migration.   

To facilitate the development and empowerment, mainly of women and migrant populations in Guatemala, Pro Mujer has developed a digital education strategy to strengthen digital competencies over the next 3 years. This solution addresses economic challenges that cause individuals and families to migrate and seeks to increase digital job creation and strengthen the workforce's capacity to perform digitally. 

The current strategy defined by Pro Mujer will complement the knowledge and existing advances of digital education in Guatemala. This strategy is part of a collaborative approach of alliances with organizations, service providers, academics, educational institutions, public and private sector entities, as well as civil society that facilitate community development, and allow the implementation of and successfully execute the proposed strategy. 

Pro Mujer has identified an initial target of 500 individuals – which is a conservative estimate with potential to grow exponentially once infrastructure and programming is in place. Direct and indirect beneficiaries could in fact triple as expansion will be easily facilitated by Pro Mujer best practices and partners which will in the end create an even greater impact. 

This project will directly target an initial 500 low-income women, migrants, and other vulnerable populations (including religious minorities, LGBTI persons, persons with disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, and Indigenous populations) providing them durable economic and employment solutions through project activities that also foster, promote, and protect their human rights to reduce this target group’s migration from the region. 

In order to effectively contribute to the stemming of migration from the region, programs must be designed to give people hope. People, and in particular women, must be given reason to believe that their immediate needs are being addressed and reason to expect that a secure and better future is possible for themselves and their children. This project will specifically target those segments of the population that are most likely to emigrate, precisely the population that Pro Mujer has focused on since its founding. 

The components of the strategy include: 1) A regional digital platform through which services can be provided; 2) Entrepreneurship, digital literacy and financial literacy trainings implemented through the digital platform; and 3) Financial Services implemented digitally through a variety of digital tools, including digital onboarding, digital wallets, etc. 

This project targets two of the three solutions sought by MIT's Challenge: 1) providing digital literacy skills to enable participation in the digital economy and 2) scaling digital financial tools for people to thrive in the digital economy. Pro Mujer's knowledge and connection to underserved populations, and years of experience in microfinance and entrepreneurship, positions it to rapidly create and implement successful programs.  

Pro Mujer's presence in neighboring countries, will facilitate the execution of these initiatives, and its reputation as a trusted operator will facilitate partnerships with civil society and the private sector. 

This project is in the growth stage, and builds on prior experience with digital transformation projects in other countries where Pro Mujer operates, and it usesits established services and business model to expand into several Guatemalan communities with the support of local stakeholders. 

Pro Mujer currently works with over 38 local stakeholders in Central American countries – in particular 16 private sector and civil society organizations in Guatemala. Together they will play a key role in the design, planning and implementation of this project. The partners will contribute to the growth of this project through complimenting Pro Mujer’s participant recruitment, technological trainings, microfinancing services, business startups and on the ground support. 

This project will successfully tackle the root causes of migration while reducing the digital divide between men, women, and other vulnerable populations. The current strategy includes a significant digital transformation on both internal and external levels. Since 2019, Pro Mujer has focused on consolidating existing infrastructure across its country offices and create new strategies to better manage information internally as well as provide services through innovative platforms. The multichannel digital platform currently being developed for Guatemala will connect to Pro Mujer’s brick and mortar locations in Latin America, the network of global contacts and existing databases of information.  

This project prioritizes entrepreneurship, digital literacy, workforce development and connectivity to help prepare women in Guatemala for the workplace of the future and find decent, reliable employment now and after project funding ends.For many, digital and financial education is a privilege but by tackling the link between digital and financial education with innovative environments that boost economic opportunities, this project will help women acquire hard and soft skills to not only grow their businesses but also gain meaningful employment.

All of Pro Mujer's services pursue durable and sustainable solutions, without compromising the well-being of people, teams, and organizations. Pro Mujer’s current strategy will create a large-scale, sustainable platform that delivers relevant and transformative services to women in Latin America throughout their life cycle.  

This project will directly target 500 low-income women (16 to 59 years) and migrant populations (including religious minorities, LGBTI persons, persons with disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, and Indigenous populations) providing them durable economic and employment solutions through project activities that also foster, promote, and protect their human rights to reduce this target groups migration from the region. As stated above, this is an initial estimate with potential to grow exponentially once infrastructure and programming is in place. Direct and indirect beneficiaries could in fact triple as expansion will be easily facilitated by Pro Mujer best practices and partners which will in the end create an even greater impact.

With its deep knowledge and connection to the most marginalized segments of the population, and its years of experience creating meaningful programs for this segment, Pro Mujer is uniquely positioned to rapidly create and implement the right programs. Pro Mujer's presence in the region, and more importantly, in neighboring countries, will facilitate the execution of these initiatives and its reputation as a trusted operator will facilitate critical partnerships with local civil society and the private sector.  

Pro Mujer’s work is closely aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), delivering tangible results in eight SDGs: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 16. All of Pro Mujer’s activities are known to reduce poverty through entrepreneurship and financial inclusion to find decent work, promote good health and wellbeing by providing access to the most vulnerable populations as well as ensure quality education to those willing to attain their goals. All of these activities are preformed using gender and sustainability perspectives with the ultimate goal of reducing inequalities, create economic growth while fostering peace, justice and strong institutions. 

Since 1990, Pro Mujer has dispersed US $4.4billion in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) loans performed over 10 million healthcare interventions, served 2 million families with critical financial and health education, and trained over 100,000 entrepreneurs.  

Despite the pandemic, in 2020 Pro Mujer disbursed US$170 million in loans to 210,000 financial services clients, provided 111,000 health interventions, reached 200,000 people through a customized COVID-19 chatbot, and provided online sessions and workshops to 90,000 people. The Ilu Fund, a Pro Mujer joint venture, secured blended capital to support the SME ecosystem with technical assistance and deployed US$28 million in mezzanine capital to 22 portfolio companies, generating 4,500 jobs in 13 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

For a successful project, PM will require the following staff: a Project Team Leader, to be the primary point of contact internally and externally; PM training specialists; digital content consultants; communications team: current PM marketing and comms specialists to support the design and launch of the Center for Entrepreneurship.

Pro Mujer consists of Pro Mujer, Inc., a not-for-profit organization incorporated in Washington DC, under the laws of the United States as a tax-exempt public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) with operation in New York, and includes operations of affiliated entities in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. It is managed by a Board of Directors with 20 professionals from diverse industries: law, medicine, business and international development. 

For over 30 years, Pro Mujer has empowered women through a holistic mix of services, enabling them to better provide for their families and play a critical role in the economic development of Latin America. Pro Mujer is a purpose-driven social enterprise and an industry leader in financial inclusion, impact investing, entrepreneurship, workforce reskilling, and healthcare with a women-centered approach in its innovative programs. Pro Mujer is a thought leader in gender lens investing.  It plays an important role as an aggregator of blended capital focused on catalytic investment through innovative investment vehicles and financial products.   

Across its services, Pro Mujer engages the most disadvantaged people, whose access to healthcare, education and financial services is often the most tenuous. We strive to continuously identify our clients’ needs to understand their realities and recognize that a woman’s level of empowerment will vary, according to class or caste, ethnicity, relative wealth, age, education, and family position among others. Therefore, our programs and policies address the multiple interlocking systems of inequities women face at both macro and socio-structural levels. 

Pro Mujer believes that gender equality is a human right and that all genders should have equal access to society, public spheres, decision-making and to equal protections. We believe that woman can be formidable agents of positive change when barriers to opportunity are eliminated. It recognizes that women’s identities are complex and non-exclusive, and that each woman may have different priorities based on their circumstances. Pro Mujer’s gender-sensitive strategy follows feminist values of solidarity and collaboration, creating a tight-knit network of women that support each other.   

Pro Mujer seeks to constantly innovate and adapt its practices, both internal and external, to best support women in their life journey. Furthermore, as a though leader in women’s equality and inclusion in Latin America, it encourages other organizations to adopt a gender-lens framework to offer a wide array of opportunities for the future. Pro Mujer will contribute to closing opportunity gaps in Latin America by elaborating on past success to add value and greater impact.   

Pro Mujer’s institutional knowledge is an asset that can be codified, transformed into intellectual capital and shared with civil society, businesses and governments in order to foster new solutions, services, products and public policies that empower women in Latin America. Pro Mujer is uniquely positioned to fill critical gender data gaps in Latin America and by doing so, help society to equip decision makers with more timely and clearer evidence about programs and interventions that are working to accelerate economic progress, equality, and security. 

Digital inclusion has become one of the most pressing issues as the world economy becomes flodded with new technologies. But digital education is not accessible to everyone. The most underserved populations are being left behind as information communication technologies are vastly changing the global workforce. Pro Mujer wants to use its competitive advantage with over 30 years of track record empowering women in Latin America to become a Solver using its holistic approach to provide financial, health and education services. 

Pro Mujer can learn from and provide its expertise to join the Solve network of impact-minded leaders. By collaborating with these leaders from different sectors and industries, Pro Mujer can contribute to reducing the most pressing issues across the globe. By becoming part of the Solve network, Pro Mujer will be able to receive guidance and support other enterprises to ensure that the sustainable development goals are met.  

The current strategy defined by Pro Mujer will be implemented and complemented from the knowledge and existing advances of digital education in Guatemala. If this project is selected, it will become part of a collaborative approach of alliances with organizations, service providers, academics, educational institutions, public and private sector entities, as well as civil society. Together it will help facilitate community development, and allow the implementation of and successfully execution of the proposed strategy.

There are two areas in which Pro Mujer would benefit from advice, mentorship or partners to support its expansion to Central America: Business Model and Technology. 

This project will depend on a comprehensive understanding of the current situation in the Northern Triangle, and in Guatemala in particular, to design the strategy, adapt the specific programs and develop the business model that accurately addresses the root challenges that motivates women and their families to migrate. This will require deep research and analysis about the current social, political, economic and cultural context in Guatemala and in the region. 

Technology is the leading factor for Pro Mujer's strategy for rapid expansion that will increase its impact on women's development. Already leading a multi-country digital transformation, this project will further extend to Central America with digital tools and strategies to provide information, knowledge and opportunities to women. While Pro Mujer's digital transformation strategy has been piloted and implemented already in other countries, Pro Mujer will seek partnerships in Guatemala to support it's activities, such as partners that help expand digital connectivity to rural/underserved women, and training implementation partners, for example. 

Support from MIT Solve and its partners would be a welcome addition to the growing network of companies, organizations and other stakeholders that Pro Mujer has to support its work across Latin America. 

Pro Mujer is always looking for partners and allies to expand its programs to better serve women and vulnerable populations. Any Solve Member in Latin America who aligns with our project activities would benefit and increase our probability of positive impact.  

Solve Member, MAIA in particular would be a valuable partner to better understand and serve indigenous communities in Guatemala.  MAIA’s project, Amplify Her Voice works alongside our mission to empower girls and reduce gender gaps through education and technology. By partnering with MAIA, Pro Mujer would be better prepared to expand its services to Mayan women to increase its potential reach to the majority of the Guatemalan population.  

In addition, Pro Mujer could benefit MAIA by providing strategic business model advice and support to their current strategies and assist in their strategy to reach profitability. Likewise, Pro Mujer can advise MAIA in how to better communicate their impact based on accurate and compelling data through improving their monitoring and evaluating processes. 

By partnering together, MAIA and Pro Mujer can reach more women and have an even greater impact. Data shows that if women and girls are better educated, it fuels economic growth. If women and men had equal participation in the Guatemalan workforce, the national GDP would increase significantly ultimately increasing average incomes. Together, these solutions will address the economic challenges that cause individuals and families to migrate and seeks to increase digital job creation and strengthen the workforce's capacity to perform digitally.  

The current strategy defined by Pro Mujer will be implemented and complemented from the knowledge and existing advances of digital education in Guatemala. This strategy is part of a collaborative approach of alliances with organizations, service providers, academics, educational institutions, public and private sector entities, as well as civil society that facilitate community development, and allow the implementation of and successfully execute the proposed strategy.

Improved access to digital literacy and connectivity programming will increase Guatemalan women’s ability to obtain decent work. In addition, with a detailed gender analysis in the region, Pro Mujer will understand the proper interventions to be designed to effectively reduce gender inequalities. By the end of this program, those women with increased digital competency and access will be more assertive to enter the workforce. 

This prize will contribute to the development and empowerment, mainly of women and other vulnerable populations in Guatemala, Pro Mujer has developed a digital education strategy so that in the next 3 years, we can develop digital competences, in the people and communities previously described. This project will reduce barriers to women's full and equal participation in the workforce, increase economic contributions and foster more inclusive economic growth – thus increasing stability and providing education and economic opportunities. 

Pro Mujer anticipates that if all project objectives are met, then more women and vulnerable populations will be participating in workforces and thus less migration north for employment opportunities. Overall, this project expects an increased National GDP and Gender Gap Index reduction in Guatemala. 

Pro Mujer designs all its new programs based on thirty years of targeted monitoring, implementation, and planning of its women-focused initiatives across Latin America and the Caribbean. This Guatemalan country project follows from the organization’s overall research methodology; it has been readjusted based on existing programs and activities adding a digital component with technology focused activities to advance the needs of women and girls.  

The goal of this Pro Mujer program is to not only provide digital tools, training, and support for women but to increase their overall safety and facilitate the empowerment and decision-making capacities of all target populations. Pro Mujer wants to close the gap between Guatemalan men and women, but also diverse women from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Ethnicity, class and gender identities and their intersections mark specific vulnerabilities and prejudices that sustain oppressive structures. Closing the gap between diverse women populations, in digital literacy, education and protection against gender-based violence is our utmost priority. 

Pro Mujer is committed to analyze the challenges and opportunities available to women, ensuring that all project activities are targeted to and customized for Guatemalan women. With the overall goal of the program, to enable diverse women to better access labor markets and cultivate their entrepreneurial ventures to increase their full, equal, and safe participation in the workforce, Pro Mujer designed this program to show how socio-political and cultural contexts create challenges for women and how reducing gender and digital inequalities can benefit entire communities.