SELA and CELIEM launched diploma course for public management of MSMEs with a gender approach

The Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) and the Latin American Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CELIEM) launched on 6 September the Training programme for public management of MSMEs with a gender approach, aimed at public officials from Latin American and Caribbean countries involved in the design, implementation, monitoring or impact assessment of public policies to strengthen a favourable environment and boost women's MSME entrepreneurship in the region.

Thirty public officials from Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, all Member States of SELA, are participating in the diploma course. Officials from the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Regional Centre for the Promotion of MSMEs (CENPROMYPE) are also attending the course.

“Given the current circumstances, it is necessary to train public officials to understand the dynamism in the female entrepreneurship ecosystems and the need for education, training and transfer of specialized knowledge within companies to contribute to the generation of entrepreneurial skills and increase production processes through innovation,” the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Clarems Endara, said during the opening ceremony of the diploma course.

The training consists of three modules, each comprising three thematic blocks, one per week, for a total of 48 effective hours of training, divided into 24 hours of synchronous classes and 24 hours of asynchronous classes, in virtual mode, over a period of three months.

In May this year, SELA and CELIEM formalized a strategic partnership to promote joint actions that add value to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean, specifically in promoting the business ecosystem of SMEs in the region. Both organisations have forged closer ties to strengthen entrepreneurship and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

For SELA, the gender approach is a cross-cutting element in its multi-year Work Programme. In May this year, the organisation held the “Seminar on strategies to support women’s entrepreneurship in the post pandemic era,” in which the main strengths and weaknesses of public policies to promote women’s entrepreneurship were presented, as well as the needs for training and capacity-building initiatives with a gender approach for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The objective of the diploma course on public management of MSMEs with a gender approach is to provide public officials and decision makers in Latin America and the Caribbean with tools for the formulation of public policies as well as the transfer of innovation towards women's entrepreneurship in the region.