Government supporting self-employment and microfinance

The Programme increases entrepreneurship of persons with disabilities by providing them and their families with personnel and financial support to develop their own business ideas. From 2013 to 2016, more than 4,385 entrepreneurs with disabilities were trained about entrepreneurial and productive topics.

By providing high-level support and access to financial services and by creating a bridge between persons with disabilities and institutions, Ecuador’s Productive Inclusion programme empowers persons with disabilities to develop their own business ideas, to become entrepreneurs, and to ultimately earn their livelihoods. From 2013 to 2016, more than 4,385 entrepreneurs with disabilities were trained.

Problems Targeted

As part of a broader plan, Ecuador’s Productive Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities Programme of 2013 increases entrepreneurship of persons with disabilities by providing assistance to them and their families to develop their own business. Productive Inclusion became a model to generate economic independence of people with disabilities, enabling the creation of opportunities for self- employment. From 2013 to 2016, Productive Inclusion assisted 1,330 entrepreneurs with disabilities or their relatives to develop, or improve, their business.

Solution, Innovation and Impact

Sustainable self-employment
It enables the formalization of entrepreneurships through innovative strategies that include financial products and preferential support services focused on persons with disabilities.
Monitoring and consultancy
It stretches from business plan design to market research, financial viability confirmation, enterprise brand design, and the creation of relevant competencies.
Privileged access to finance
With the development of a specific credit line, entrepreneurs with disabilities get a preferential interest rate in the public bank.

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

It is highly replicable and a cost-effective model. A number of Latin American countries conducted technical visits and signed international cooperation agreements. The programme’s key elements are management capability to engage actors in productive inclusion networks and human resources for implementation.

Pictures

An entrepreneur supported by Productive Inclusion in the province of Napo: Framher. An entrepreneur supported by Productive Inclusion in the province of Napo: Muebleri´a Gonzales. © Ministry of Industries and Productivity - MIPRO

An entrepreneur supported by Productive Inclusion in the province of Napo: Framher. An entrepreneur supported by Productive Inclusion in the province of Napo: Muebleri´a Gonzales. © Ministry of Industries and Productivity - MIPRO

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THE STORY OF MIGUEL TRUJILLO, OWNER OF ORTOPEDIA TÉCNICA

“We produce 50 orthopaedic chairs per month.”

I am 39 years old and I have had a physical disability since I was 12. For a long time I had to live with limitations due to my lack of resources to buy a wheelchair, but my tireless spirit never collapsed and was the engine that drove me to realize my own dream: to build orthopaedic wheelchairs for people with reduced physical mobility. At 18, I decided to start a learning process. I got a scholarship to study English in Atlanta, Georgia (USA); and at the same time I enrolled in the Eagle Sport Chairs factory workshop, where I learned assembly techniques for orthopaedic wheelchairs. Six years ago I opened a workshop here in Ecuador to maintain and build these chairs, and today I am an entrepreneur – so much so that my work is considered one of the emblematic projects by the government. I am proud to be the owner of Ortopedia Técnica Ecuador, where specialized wheelchairs are built according to the mobility capacity of each person. I work with my wife and employ three other people. I am grateful for Ecuador’s Productive Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities initiative, because its advice to strengthen my business has helped my small company to produce 50 orthopaedic chairs per month. Through this company I have managed to get ahead and have a decent life – as all Ecuadorians deserve.