SBDC Belize Working with SICA to Empower Women Entrepreneurs

A national entrepreneurship workshop was held at the BTEC office in Belize City. The workshop brought together key stakeholders to the discussion table on integration of synergies and transferring of information and opportunities to strengthen the support for women entrepreneurs.  The concept which will be launched in Belize later will work along with twenty women entrepreneurs. Monique Usher of SBDC Belize says that it falls in line with an economic autonomy for women training two weeks ago. 

Monique Usher

Monique Usher, Business Advisor, SBDC Belize, BELTRAIDE

“We are looking at developing a framework in where we could disseminate information. We’ve collectively come up with a profile in terms of who we are targeting as these women entrepreneurs to be a part of this training programme. And so our focus today is to get the word out there and identifying means and ways of getting the word out there and in terms of which platform is most effective to have people apply for this opportunity that is upcoming.”

Duane Moody

“There’s a regional perspective to this?”

Monique Usher

“Yes…we are working with SICA and for that training that we had, a group came in and shared with us the mechanism or the platform that they’ve used. And so this is something that other countries will be participating in and Belize is a part of that dynamics. And so the focus is to have us integrate it into the realities of Belize, but also look at the global picture—what is the world doing out there and what place do we hold in doing that.”

Duane Moody

“How many stakeholders and female entrepreneurs are guys looking to target?”

Monique Usher

“For today’s session we have stakeholders from different backgrounds. So we have academia, we have women group supporters, commercial banks and development finance cooperation that are a part of the session today. In terms of the women that we are targeting, I can tell you that for the pilot of the programme, we are looking at targeting twenty women and essentially it is an acceleration programme. So it is looking at taking them to the next step, providing them with the necessary tools, equipments and networks to make that a reality.”