evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Opportunities Without Borders - Pro Mujer's Economic Inclusion Programme for Venezuelan Migrant Women in Colombia

Colombia · Bogota · See the Colombia profile · See the Bogota profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 66% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Facing 29.2% unemployment among Venezuelan migrant women in Colombia (vs 14.9% for men), Pro Mujer's USAID/OSF-backed programme capitalised 566 women's businesses and helped 1,142 reach formal employment across 9 cities in its first year (2022-2023).

566 women
Venezuelan migrant women reached with direct business capitalisation (2022-2023)
2,870 women
Women reached with access to financial services (savings, credit, transfers) (2022-2023)
1,142 women
Women who reached formal employment (2022-2023)
659 women
Women reaching formal employment who were heads of household (2022-2023)
453 women
Women reaching formal employment with caregiving responsibilities (2022-2023)
29.2 %
Female migrant unemployment rate (August 2023)
14.9 %
Male migrant unemployment rate (August 2023)
Opportunities Without Borders - Pro Mujer's Economic Inclusion Programme for Venezuelan Migrant Women in Colombia

Details

Promoter
Pro Mujer, with USAID / Open Society Foundations funding and Fundacion Belcorp / Latimpacto as strategic partners
Period
2022-2023
Keywords
microfinance, entrepreneurship training, migrant economic inclusion, financial services

Context

By August 2023, Colombia hosted roughly 2.88 million Venezuelan migrants, 52% of them women. Female migrants faced a 29.2% unemployment rate versus 14.9% for male migrants, alongside widespread informality: around 90% of Venezuelan migrants work informally, against 60% of Colombians.

Activities

Opportunities Without Borders (Oportunidades Sin Fronteras), a USAID-funded initiative implemented in part by Pro Mujer with Open Society Foundations support, targeted this gap with a package of training (costing and pricing, financial education, digital marketing, gender and social inclusion) plus access to capital and financial services. It operates in nine Colombian cities: Barranquilla, Bogota, Cali, Cucuta, Medellin, Riohacha, Bucaramanga, Cartagena and Santa Marta.

Results

In its first year of operation (2022-2023), the programme reported reaching 566 Venezuelan migrant women with direct business capitalisation, 2,870 women with access to financial services (savings, credit, transfers), and 1,142 women who reached formal employment, of whom 659 were heads of household and 453 had caregiving responsibilities. Capitalised businesses concentrated in Cartagena (22.4%), Bucaramanga (17.3%), Cali (15%) and Barranquilla (11%), mostly in food and beverages (38%), health and beauty (16.6%) and commerce (13.6%).

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful