Longterm Accompaniment: Indigenous Entrepreneurs

During the last three months, the Association of Highland Women (AMA) has been engaged in creating a logical framework for solving issues confronting members in rural communities.  One of the primary issues identified is the growing culture of dependency developing because of accelerating societal and economic changes interrupting traditional survival strategies. We define a culture of dependency as individuals transferring agency to outside actors such as religious leaders or risky behavior like migrating to the United States.  What we are identifying is described as a coping mechanism for stress.  There are three types of responses to stress: 1) addressing the cause, 2) Avoidance, 3) Magical thinking.  Everyone needs to have a source of hope and for many people in our communities, it is the idea of migrating to the United States to earn dollars.   

A related issue is a lack of innovative thinking in business decisions or product development. Conservative cultural norms for survival have become ingrained behavioral patterns that generate jobs but not enterprise. Too frequently, we look to replicate a successful business venture of a neighbor rather than finding an opportunity in an unmet need or discovering a more efficient marketing method.  The effect of this is market saturation accompanied by diminishing returns on investment. 

A significant issue confronting small entrepreneurs is the inability to accept electronic payments, participate in eCommerce or formalize commercial activities. The accelerating rate of consumer choices and government policies are reducing the size of informal markets. Informal surveys have demonstrated that even rural consumers increasingly prefer packaged and branded products. Our solution is empowerment circles that function as rural enterprise incubators with administrative and marketing accompaniment and facilitation of technical training.

Our solution is the creation of turn-key business ventures to eliminate many common and avoidable errors with the accompaniment of qualified business consultants. We will house a marketing team to assist rural producers with branding, packaging, and digital access to resolve the issue that migrant solidarity and nostalgia consumers cannot purchase directly from regional producers because of their inability to accept payments.

Finally, wage labor does not facilitate wealth creation. We plan an investment holding company to sell women's development bonds to seed a capital market. The opportunity for business investment will incentivize formalization and promote productive saving.

The first stage is the formalization of member businesses.  Formalization refers to the process of assisting our members to legally incorporate their commercial activities and register to pay taxes.  This is a critical step because it is not possible to participate in digital or mobile commerce without being a formal business.  Increasingly, consumers in even the most remote villages are starting to prefer branded and packaged products over informal presentations, and the government is increasingly enforcing laws that limit opportunity in the informal market. 

A significant problem for Guatemalan entrepreneurs is the lack of consumer purchasing power.  Many programs focus on a supply-side strategy to improve financing, administrative capacity, or productivity.   What we understand is that if there is no one able to purchase the goods and services that our members produce, it is a pointless endeavor.  We have identified the migrant community, both domestically and internationally as a market with the purchasing power. 

We have identified two consumer behaviors that we believe can assist in the expanding markets for our rural members.  One is what we call the solidarity market.  These are migrants who wish to purchase goods and services for family members in Guatemala.  The founder of HSP, Guadalupe Ramirez, for example, wanted to purchase Keto products for her mother that has developed a health issue requiring her to reduce her intake of carbohydrates.  Another example is people that wish to purchase food and flower arrangements for a family member's funeral.   The next consumer behavior is referred to as the nostalgia market to describe migrants that wish to purchase products from their home regions. 

We thank our supporters for providing us with the resources to continue innovating effective programming that increases the resilience of Indigenous women to respond to the many challenges they face.  As we say In the land of the Maya, Everyone rises up and works together so that no one is left behind.