WEAmericas supports SMEs throughout the region to access training, markets and financing

Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Americas (WEAmericas) leverages public, private and non-governmental efforts to increase women’s economic participation and address the main barriers that they confront when starting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In other words, access to training and to business networks, access to markets and to finance.   

Investing in women-owned SMEs is one of the best ways to simultaneously achieve an economic, financial and social impact since research shows that these companies are significant accelerators of economic growth.

WEAmericas operates through three mechanisms: 

• Provides training and mentoring to women business owners across Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on business growth.
• Supports market access initiatives in countries throughout the region.
• Launches and expands initiatives to access credit and other financial services.

Its mission is to connect women to different economic growth and business opportunities, bringing together the efforts of the public, private and non-governmental sectors to achieve objectives such as inclusive economic growth, increased financial returns and social impact, in addition to enhanced competitiveness for companies and economies.

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The initiative builds on commitments made during the 2011Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit and in the San Francisco Declaration. In addition to the United States government, founding partners include the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the ExxonMobil Foundation, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Kauffman FastTrac, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Vital Voices, the Walmart Foundation, and WEConnect International.