HomeCentral America Forward...Organizations Within Central America Forward

# 									Organizations Within Central America Forward							

**Acceso**

Acceso is a global social enterprise committed to creating fundamental and lasting economic change in the lives of rural smallholder farming families. From 2023 to 2028, Acceso will invest $3.6 million directly in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as part of a larger $30 million program to scale its proven seed-to-market model to strengthen local food systems, improve incomes and livelihoods, and increase women’s economic empowerment. Over 10,000 producers in the agricultural, aquaculture, and artisanal fishing sectors will benefit directly from this investment, with an additional 30,000 benefiting from parallel collaborative efforts. The project will begin in El Salvador in partnership with USAID and the launch of the “Sustainable Market Access Project.”

**Accion**

Accion is a global nonprofit working to advance economic opportunity through microfinance and impact investing. Between 2021 and 2024,  Accion intends to provide advice, guidance, and consulting services to organizations that serve micro and small business owners in northern Central America, ultimately benefitting more than 400,000 people. Accion plans to help businesses shift from cash to digital, improve management and financial capabilities, and expand local access to finance through branchless banking. Accion’s work will empower business owners and their families to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as build the financial health, resilience, and prosperity sorely needed to address the root causes of migration.

**Agroamerica**

Agroamerica, a family-owned sustainable food and ingredients corporation, will invest more than $100 million in six new projects that will generate 1,000 permanent, living-wage jobs in northern Central America over the next 5 years.  Future projects include a food ingredients refinery, a 600-hectares banana plantation,****a large avocado plantation and processing plant, and the expansion of a Natural Ingredients Processing Plant.  Agroamerica expects to drastically reduce food waste in the region while presenting an innovative business line for small and independent producers of raw ingredients and tropical fruits produced in Central America.

**Alterna**

Alterna is a Guatemala-based social innovation platform that promotes the development of entrepreneurs and socially conscious companies.  By providing support in five countries in Central America, Alterna focuses on strengthening entrepreneurs and companies with business models that have the clear purpose of improving their environment.  Alterna has committed $500,000 to USAID’s Guatemala Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation (GEDI) Initiative.  The initiative, first announced by Vice President Harris in June 2021, will establish and strengthen business incubators and business accelerators that will ultimately help small businesses grow and access capital.

**Argidius Foundation**

The Argidius Foundation’s mission is to help individuals, families, and whole communities move away from poverty through access to decent, fulfilling, and paid work. This Switzerland-based foundation provides philanthropic grants and works with the private sector to increase the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and they have existing private sector partners in Guatemala.  Argidius has committed $3 million to USAID’s Guatemala Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation (GEDI) Initiative that will directly support business accelerators and provide business development support to help small companies grow and access capital.

**Bancolombia**

Grupo Bancolombia is one of Latin America’s major financial institutions with operations in El Salvador and Guatemala. Grupo Bancolombia commits to expanding financial inclusion efforts to reach the unbanked through digital banking accounts, focusing on remittance-receiving families, women-led businesses and other small enterprises to increase investment and improve living conditions, and strengthen ties to their local communities, adding more than 400,000 new account holders by 2025. As part of this effort, Grupo Bancolombia plans to work with its partners to expand access to credit and connect more than 50,000 small shopkeepers with suppliers, distributors, and retail customers.

**Banco Cuscatlan**

Banco Cuscatlan is the second-largest bank in El Salvador, serving over 800,000 clients and lending over $1 billion in home mortgage loans.  Banco Cuscatlan has committed to invest more than $30 million in El Salvador over the next five years, primarily in financial inclusion initiatives. It is expected that this effort will make financial products and services accessible to up to 600,000 individuals, providing additional options for savings and investment to more than 500,000 participants. This includes digital mobile solutions like “NIU,” allowing mobile access for various financial transactions, and other alternatives such as the digital account “Cuenta YA,” QR payments, and acquiring services.  With these investment commitments, Banco Cuscatlan aims to expand financial inclusion and digital access to financially underserved families and individuals. This initiative will enable them to manage their money within the formal economy, providing access to more financial services, promoting investment in assets, increasing their savings, and fostering entrepreneurship. These initiatives are designed to create opportunities and promote sustainable development for future generations.

**Banco LAFISE**

Banco LAFISE is part of Grupo LAFISE, founded in 1895, with branches in Central America, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.   A partner of USAID’s since 2019, Banco LAFISE Honduras has made a new three-year commitment to increase its lending to small and medium-sized agricultural processors by $20 million. Access to this capital could create an estimated 1,000 new jobs in the agro processing and agribusiness sectors.

**CARE International**

CARE is a humanitarian international organization that has worked with State, USAID, and DOL. CARE is announcing a $50 million Center for Gender Equity in Central America focused on women and young people and designed to reach 500,000 individual women and their families, impacting two million people in total. The Center will support public and private programs in the region—scaling up those that work—to support financial inclusion, women’s economic empowerment (including in the protection of labor rights and in supporting entrepreneurship), improved agricultural outcomes, and reductions in gender-based violence. In particular, CARE will support companies joining the Call to Action with technical assistance to ensure that a gender-based lens is applied to new programs and investment

**Cargill**

Cargill has operated in Central America for more than 50 years, with 10,000 employees working in the region. As part of the Call to Action, Cargill will invest an additional $150 million over the next five years with the intention of improving farmer livelihoods and building economic resilience in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The company’s investments will aim to create jobs and support producers as well as micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the protein and animal nutrition supply chains. Cargill will also contribute at least $10 million over three years to partnerships that directly support farmers and farm communities, and improve food security through community nutrition and school meal programs. Cargill’s new commercial and philanthropic efforts will expand support for more than 19,000 farmers, 52,000 MSMEs, and more than 25,000 children and community members in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. This includes support for USAID’s Guatemala Entrepreneurship and Development Innovation (GEDI) Initiative for small businesses owners, which the Vice President announced in June 2021.

**Chegg**

Chegg is an online-learning platform providing support to students who either cannot access the formal education system or have limited opportunity to benefit from such a structure, has committed to certifying 100,000 young adult learners with its online learning platform and technical skilling certification programs in Honduras by 2030, with a particular focus on underserved women.  Additionally, Chegg and the Partnership for Central America will collaborate on bringing academic support and language learning tools to over 10,000 learners annually looking to upskill and access jobs in the modern digital economy.

**Chobani**

Chobani commits to bring its incubator program to Guatemala, where local food entrepreneurs will get expertise and support to help them set up and scale their operations. Chobani will use knowledge from its global incubator program to determine how best to create and execute a program in Guatemala that will support local startups and contribute to regional economic empowerment. In the United States, the Chobani Incubator has helped support the growth of 47 different companies in the food and beverage industry since its inception in 2016. Founders receive a monetary grant and access to resources across the ecosystem, from retailers to investors and everything in between.

**Columbia Sportswear Company**

Columbia Sportswear Company has committed to purchase up to $200 million in products, which will create more than 6,900 jobs in the region over the next five years, in an industry where these jobs are primarily held by women.

**Conecta**

****Conecta is the platform that incorporates the investments of Grupo Energía Bogotá in Guatemala.  Grupo Energía Bogotá is a leading multi-Latin company in the electric energy sector with presence in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Guatemala.  Conecta is committed to invest over $260 million in Guatemala for six electrical power transmission projects. These projects are estimated to create over 3,000 direct and 7,600 indirect jobs and will help connect thousands of people who lack access to electricity. They will have a positive impact on the local economy, generating employment, and contributing to improved well-being.  Additionally, energy availability and reliability will create a stable platform for other industries such as tourism, agriculture, and the artisanal sector to flourish.  It will also improve safety indices, inputs for supply services, and waste management for the community.  The stability, quality, and security of an electrical system to meet demand and reduce production stoppages is essential to inclusive economic growth and development.

**Corporación AG**

Corporación AG is the largest steel producer in Central America and is based in Guatemala with a presence in the entire region. AG provides more than 2,000 full-time jobs, many of which require high skills. Corporacion AG plans to invest more than $150 million over the next three years to increase its production and distribution capacity and anticipates generating more than 500 full-time jobs and more than 1000 indirect jobs. AG believes that the value they generate must be shared with the communities where they operate, and as a result their investment plans also include providing skilling and entrepreneurship opportunities in those communities through training and other programs. This includes partnering with other members of Central America Forward to increase the impact of those opportunities. Corporación AG is also firmly committed to reducing their environmental footprint with a comprehensive plan to minimize their use of water and bolster their use of renewable energy and efficiency methods in their current and future operations. As a signatory of the UN Global Compact, AG is fully accountable for their operations and fully committed with transparency and anticorruption practices.

**CrossBoundary**

CrossBoundary is an investment advisory firm that has been raising private capital in underserved markets for the last ten years by acting as an advisor to investors, entrepreneurs, and development organizations.  Through a partnership with USAID, CrossBoundary commits to provide investment advisory services to at least eight small and medium-sized enterprises in El Salvador in raising at least $10 million in capital for their businesses.  In addition, CrossBoundary commits to opening a permanent office in northern Central America that will provide transaction advisory services to accelerate investment in the region.

**Davivienda**

Davivienda is a multi-national bank with a presence in Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama. To date, Davivienda has worked to expand financial inclusion by expanding its digital payment system, DAVIPLATA, and by increasing access to credit, particularly for women. In collaboration with public and private sector partners, Davivienda commits to connecting one million unbanked individuals in northern Central America with financial services, including via its DAVIPLATA platform. Davivienda also commits to contributing $500 million in loans to support low-income housing, small- and medium-sized businesses, renewable energy projects, and women entrepreneurs.

**Deetken Impact**

Deetken Impact is a Canadian impact investing firm with a 10-year track record of supporting businesses that make a meaningful contribution to USAID’s Sustainable Development Goals.  In partnership with USAID, Deetken Impact launched the Investment, Enterprise, and Sustainability (INES) program in El Salvador.  Through the program, Deetken commits to identifying and supporting at least 10 investments and closing investment transactions totaling at least $20 million.  Deetken commits to invest at least $5 million of its own capital for this effort.  The selected investments will be drawn from priority sectors that support long-term economic growth while generating social or environmental benefits, such as renewable energy, trade infrastructure, financial inclusion, and sustainable manufacturing.  Mobilizing capital into these sectors will support job creation and help to address the root causes driving irregular migration from El Salvador.

**Diversio**

Diversio is a leading global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) platform that measures, tracks, and improves diversity and inclusion within organizations and their partnership networks. Diversio is providing tracking and measurement support to companies to help them fulfill their commitments under the Partnership for Central America’s “In Her Hands” initiative, which promotes economic opportunity and gender equity.  Diversio is committed to helping these companies track diversity within their supply chains, create an industry benchmark, and provide tactical recommendations to improve.  Diversio is also providing strategic support and advice to the Partnership for Central America and its partners, drawing from experience working with global consortiums like the International Energy Agency, 30% Club, and Investor Leadership Network. Diversio looks forward to enabling corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises operating in Central America to improve representation, belonging, and safety for all employees.

**DT Institute**

DT Institute is a U.S.-headquartered funder and an implementer of peace and development projects focused on co-creation and co-investment, as well as measurable impact and sustainability.  DT Institute has committed $750,000 in grant funding to support USAID’s Guatemala Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation (GEDI) Initiative.  This grant funding will support incubators, accelerators, or other institutions looking to provide business development services and/or capital investment in small and growing businesses throughout Guatemala.

**Duolingo**

Duolingo is an education app with over 500 million downloads.  Duolingo will commit to ensuring that its content remains free. The company recently created Duolingo ABC, an app designed to teach early literacy skills to children. In order to reduce high levels of illiteracy in the Northern Triangle, Duolingo will commit to developing Duolingo ABC in Spanish. Duolingo will also commit to providing fee waivers for the Duolingo English Test to high-achieving, low-income students to reduce barriers to higher education. Combined, these efforts will expand access to education in the region through the use of technology, helping to improve people’s livelihoods and prospects for a better future.

**Ficohsa**

Grupo Ficohsa is a leading provider of financial services in the region.  With 6,000 employees, Ficohsa serves over two million clients (30% of whom are women), including almost 25,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs).  Ficohsa is committed to support the expansion of business, trade, investment, and jobs in Central America.  They have committed to increasing their SME loan portfolio by $490 million over the next five years, prioritizing the growth of women-led businesses through preferential loans, insurance, and financial education.  Additionally, Ficohsa will invest $50 million in digital services such as TENGO (Ficohsa’s digital mobile solution).  This will further expand financial inclusion and ensure that a greater share of remittances are banked, and invested in assets, savings, and businesses.  Ficohsa aims to provide over 200,000 additional unbanked, vulnerable people with financial products and services.  The company commits to double the size of their network of authorized banking agents to provide crucial financial services through small community merchants.

**Fundación Rafael Meza Ayau (FRMA)**

FRMA is a Salvadoran philanthropic organization that works with local communities to improve their economic and social development.  FRMA directly committed over $802,000 to co-fund a project with USAID in Soyapango, the third most densely populated municipality in El Salvador with high rates of unemployment and violence.  Including its contribution, FRMA raised a total of $1.9 million in private sector funds through partnerships.  The project will improve Soyapango residents’ quality of life through increased employment, improved education, and early childhood development.

**Fundación Terra**

Fundación Terra, an independent foundation funded by contributions from Terra Inversiones, which works in the energy, petroleum, retail, and real-estate sectors, will invest $24.5 million in new programs over 5 years.  These programs will support secondary education, digital access, entrepreneurship, and environmental conservation, including scholarships to tutor 40,000 students in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in Math and Spanish, which will promote financial inclusion.

**Gap Inc.**

Gap Inc. is committed to sourcing in Central America, and their current production in Central America supports an estimated 8,200 manufacturing jobs in the region held primarily by women. Gap Inc. plans to increase its sourcing in Central America by approximately $50 million per year, for a total growth commitment of $150 million by 2025, as part of its strategy to increase supply chain resilience by nearshoring more production to the Western Hemisphere. These increased purchases from the region will support an estimated 5,000 additional jobs in Central America.

**Grupo Mariposa**

Grupo Mariposa is a Guatemalan food and beverage company with operations throughout Latin America. Grupo Mariposa will provide more than 70,000 neighborhood stores (‘tiendas’)—which serve as important community hubs—with access to credit and digital tools to improve administrative management. It will support 3,500 small and medium-enterprises (SMEs) with access to telemedicine, education, and internet connectivity, impacting more than 200,000 people and expanding healthcare and telemedicine solutions to 2,000 remote communities. In addition, it will invest more than $10 million to grow its coffee footprint, creating more than 500 new jobs and supporting more than 400 small and medium-sized coffee producers to increase productivity and earnings potential. Finally, with the support of SOPHIA Oxford, Inc., a non-profit partner of the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Grupo Mariposa adopted the United Nations Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MDI) as a biannual measure of its employees’ well-being, going beyond wages to include a household’s access to healthcare, nutrition, and education. Grupo Mariposa will expand this program to create the conditions to eradicate multi-dimensional poverty with support for employees and their families to reduce their debts, pursue entrepreneurship, and access education and healthcare.

**Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health**

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together experts from multiple disciplines to improve the lives and health of people around the globe. The Harvard Chan School commits to adding an evidence-based lens by harnessing scientific data to maximize capacity to measure and report systems-wide impact of the partnership. Harnessing qualitative and quantitative metrics, the School will provide partners and managers with the means to pilot and scale activities that support data-sharing in order to foster transformative change across all communities, platforms, and sectors.

**Heifer International**

Heifer International is a U.S.-headquartered, global non-profit organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty.  In support of the Call to Action, Heifer International commits $1 million in grant and investment funds to support small and growing enterprises in Guatemala through USAID’s Guatemala Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation (GEDI) Initiative.

**The Honduran Coffee Company (CoHonducafe) and Grupo Cadelga**

CoHonducafe is a Honduran coffee company, and the largest exporter by volume of coffee in Central America, dedicated to the commercialization and export of Honduran coffee.  A partner of USAID since 2016, CoHonducafe is committing an additional $2.9 million to USAID’s Coffee Alliance activity in response to the Call to Action. Grupo Caldega is one of Honduras’ largest agricultural input distributors, with operations in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Colombia.  Grupo Caldega commits to help strengthen agricultural extension and training services to smallholder farmers benefiting from USAID’s Coffee Alliance program through a contribution of $850,000.  With these additional funds, the Alliance will help 10,000 coffee farming families increase farm productivity, diversify farm incomes, and improve access to markets and credit.

**JA Worldwide**

JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide, one of the world’s largest youth-serving NGOs, activates youth for the future of jobs and helps them achieve sustainable livelihoods. For more than 100 years, JA has provided hands-on, immersive opportunities for young people in entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial health. Last year, JA’s network of 400,000 teachers and volunteers delivered 15 million learning experiences in more than 100 countries. JA Americas, one of six JA regional operating centers, operates in 24 countries, collaborates with more than 15,000 schools, and reaches 1.4 million young people annually.  In Central America, JA has committed $3.6 million through an impact consortium co-designed with the IDB Lab, CISCO, IBM, and AWS. Focusing on the knowledge economy, the consortium will provide labor skills training and technical certifications to 7,500 vulnerable women in six Central American countries, of which 1,807 of women will be from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.  The initiative aims to reduce gender inequality by promoting female employment in the technology industry, facilitate access to employment and self-employment, and discourage migration due to lack of opportunities.

**JDE Peet’s**

JDE Peet’s, the world’s largest pure-play coffee and tea company, is a long-standing partner of USAID. JDE Peet’s plans to increase its financial support for smallholder farmers in the region by 40%. This support will be provided through the implementation of a new series of sustainability programs throughout the Central American coffee belt, in partnership with the Coffee Alliance. The new support programs will include technical expertise, intended to allow for increased productivity, adaptation to the effects of climate change, diversification of incomes, and improved access to markets and credit. As a result of this increase, JDE Peet’s will allocate a total of $2.7 million over the next four years, to expand the reach of its Common Grounds Program in the region. The Coffee Alliance is a public-private partnership among USAID, JDE Peet’s, CoHonducafe (Honduras’ largest coffee exporter), the CoHonducafe Foundation, and Grupo Cadelga (Honduras’ largest agricultural input supplier). The increased contribution from JDE Peet’s will enable the Coffee Alliance to reach 10,000 additional smallholder coffee farming households, doubling its active footprint in the region.

**Mastercard**

In May 2021, Mastercard committed to bring 5 million people in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras into the formal financial economy and to digitize 1 million micro and small businesses. In December 2021, Mastercard committed $100 million in investment in the region, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Economy of Guatemala to establish a Digital Country Partnership to facilitate digital acceleration in areas such as commerce, social benefit payments, transportation, tourism, and economic development for small and medium-sized companies. In addition, Mastercard has partnered with Walmart to enable access to credit for underserved citizens, and with Accion to digitize agricultural value chains and drive stronger financial inclusion for small shareholder farmers in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

**Meta**

As part of its mission to build technologies that help people connect, find communities and grow businesses, Meta is pleased to make a 3-year commitment to train 250,000 youth, entrepreneurs and small business owners in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras by July 2025. Additionally, Meta is supporting a 36-month project led by the *OAS Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI)* in collaboration with *Centro Regional de Promoción de la MiPyME (CENPROMYPE)* to help women-led small and medium-sized enterprises establish their online presence, seize the opportunities that immersive technologies like augmented reality bring, access financial services, and expand their operations to international markets. The initiative will benefit around 9,000 women from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

**Microsoft**

Microsoft commits to build on its long-standing presence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to bring connectivity, skills, and greater opportunity to their citizens. First, with local partners, Microsoft will expand internet access to up to three million people in the region by July 2022, and a total of four million by 2024, as part of the Microsoft Airband Initiative. Microsoft will also expand its work with partner New Sun Road to establish community centers to provide internet, digital skills, devices, educational experiences and mentorship to women and youth in rural and high-migration areas. Second, Microsoft will build on its global skills initiative to provide access to digital skills learning paths to connect people to skills and certifications, training over 100,000 individuals in by 2024. Third, Microsoft is investing in technology to increase the transparency and accountability of government spending and exploring the use of data science to evaluate the efficacy of interventions to address community needs.

**Microwd**

Microwd, which offers microloans to female entrepreneurs, has committed to issue $20 million in debt to continue expansion in El Salvador and Honduras and reach 10,000 additional female entrepreneurs in Northern Central America by 2024, paving the path to impact 1 million people by 2030.

**Millicom**

Millicom, a telecommunications company, has committed to invest an additional $350 million by 2025 to expand and maintain its mobile and broadband networks in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, adding to its initial $700 million commitment for 2023 and 2024.  This investment will advance Millicom’s efforts to accelerate economic growth in the region via increased connectivity as penetration rates for broadband in these markets are well below regional averages.  In addition, Millicom’s investments will be made in line with the Race to Zero, the UN-backed campaign aimed at promoting a healthy, resilient, zero-carbon recovery.

**Nespresso**

Nespresso aims to support the economies of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras with a minimum of $150 million spent across coffee purchases, price premiums, and technical assistance by 2025., Nespresso will also pilot an innovative crop insurance program designed to help protect farmers against the effects of climate change during next year’s harvest. To help empower women and raise the percentage of female farmers, Nespresso has provided its agronomists — 41% of whom are women — with training focused on gender equity. In addition, Nespresso is providing safe and educational places for children by funding 25 daycare centers during this year’s harvest in Guatemala.  Nespresso’s parent company Nestlé, with Nescafé, has committed to 1) help more than 7,500 coffee producers implement regenerative agriculture practices, 2) strengthen and further develop a supply chain of responsibly grown coffee, and 3) train coffee producers to create and establish productive businesses in collaboration with USAID and CoHonducafé.

**Nextil**

Nextil has committed to invest $40 million in two new state-of-the art production facilities in Guatemala to produce garments and elastic fabrics for the shapewear and sportswear markets. The facilities are estimated to create over 1,300 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs. Nextil is at the forefront of textile products in the world of environmental and social sustainability, with a high component of product innovation. It has patents in the world of the medical sector, sports with auxetic garments, and has a revolutionary dyeing process, GREENDYES®, which allows a 77% reduction in water consumption and 80% in energy consumption, in addition to only using natural pigments without any supporting chemicals. Its commitment to the community of San José Pinula, Guatemala, where one of its factories is located, focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty of single-parent families with small children.

**Pantaleon**

Pantaleon, a conglomerate including investments in agroindustry and real-estate, will invest $9.4 million to fund the initial phase of a 1,200-acre industrial park on Guatemala ́s Southern Coast.  Once completed, the park is expected to house a mix of manufacturing, logistics, and distribution businesses, among others.

**Parkdale Mills**

With a new investment of $150 million, Parkdale Mills, one of the largest providers of spun yarns and cotton consumer products in the world, will build a new yarn spinning facility in Honduras and support an existing facility in Virginia, with the hope of providing customers with sources for purchasing 1 million pounds of yarn per week within the region and increasing U.S. supply chain resilience. The investment is intended to support roughly 500 employees at each location and increase indirect job growth in Honduras and in the United States, particularly in the U.S. cotton industry across 18 states. The investment also includes $24 million in new investments in solar energy, water recapture, and energy efficient HVAC systems.

**Pearson**

Pearson is committed to helping improve workforce development through lifelong learning solutions focused on upskilling and reskilling the young adult population needed in the productive sectors.  In Central America, strong English language skills are needed for employability, especially in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector.  Pearson commits to providing free access to Mondly by Pearson Workplace English (a language learning application), Step Up (an online self-study English learning course), and the Versant Speaking and Listening tests (proprietary proficiency diagnostic tests) for 3,000 high achieving, low income, young adult English language learners in El Salvador. The aim is to better position El Salvador as an ideal destination for BPO in the region.

**PepsiCo**

PepsiCo is a global food and beverage company with a long-standing presence in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. PepsiCo directly operates its food business with a regional manufacturing hub in Guatemala, employing over 4,000 people directly, and generating at least an additional 6,800 indirect jobs through its supply chain. PepsiCo expects to invest at least $190 million in northern Central America through 2025, including with improvements to its infrastructure and manufacturing plants; expansion of new distribution routes; IT projects; and investments aligned with its “pep+” (PepsiCo Positive) agenda. This includes spreading regenerative farming practices across seven million acres (which is approximately the size of the company’s entire agricultural footprint), becoming Net Water Positive by 2030 by reducing absolute water use and replenishing watersheds, and achieving net-zero emissions by 2040 by increasing the use of renewable energy, among other efforts.

**PriceSmart**

PriceSmart operates 49 U.S.-style membership shopping warehouse clubs in 12 countries and the U.S. Virgin Islands and opened its fifth store in Guatemala in October. PriceSmart has operated in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras for 22 years. With close to 2,000 employees and 700,000 members in northern Central America, it has long been a partner of USAID—including most recently in announcing a new commitment as part of USAID’s $56 million Guatemalan Entrepreneurship and Development Innovation (GEDI) Initiative, which the Vice President announced in June. Building upon that announcement, PriceSmart is committing to additional support of GEDI, and this support, alongside other GEDI partners, will reach at least 500 entrepreneurs with business support services to help them grow and create jobs in areas of high out-migration.

**Pro Mujer**

Pro Mujer commits to reaching three million people in northern Central America by bringing access to finance and entrepreneurship support directly, and with the collaboration of local partners, to vulnerable communities, including low-income families, rural and indigenous populations. In addition, Pro Mujer commits to structuring and launching blended finance vehicles that provide capital, technical assistance, and capacity building support to micro, small and medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in northern Central America. This critical support to MSMEs and the services Pro Mujer intends to bring to individuals and families will together have a transformative effect on these communities and directly address the root causes of migration from the region.

**Protela****-Colombia**

Protela-Colombia has committed to invest $45 million in the construction of a vertically integrated textile manufacturing facility in Guatemala to supply fabric for garment manufacturers in Central America, which is expected to directly employ 400 people. Protela, one of Colombia ́s leading textile mills, with over 72 years in the textile business and about 1,500 employees, manufactures high-quality wrap and knitted fabrics offering vertically integrated solutions, including design, knitting, dyeing, printing, and finishing processes. Protela also provides full value services that includes garment manufacturing.

**Root Capital**

U.S.-based Root Capital invests in the growth of agricultural enterprises by expanding access to finance for enterprises whose credit needs are too big for microfinance and too risky for commercial banks. Root Capital commits to lending an additional $1.4 million in Guatemala in partnership with USAID as part of the Guatemala Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation (GEDI) Initiative, which will help small businesses grow and access capital.  Also in partnership with USAID, Root Capital has also committed to channel a minimum of $80 million in loans to agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises with high-growth potential in Honduras.

**SanMar**

SanMar, a U.S.-based apparel wholesaler, will increase its purchases of products manufactured in northern Central America by $500 million by 2025.  These purchases will support the supply of products to SanMar’s over 60,000 customers, the overwhelming majority of which are American small businesses engaged in domestic light manufacturing.  The increased capacity required for this growth will lead to the creation of 4,000 additional full-time jobs at Elcatex, a Honduras-based apparel manufacturer owned in part by SanMar.

**Starbucks**

Starbucks works to help strengthen communities around the world, through its commitment to sourcing coffee responsibly for the betterment of people and planet.  Starbucks is one of the largest buyers of high quality arabica coffee in Guatemala, verified as ethically sourced by Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices standards.  Starbucks committed $15 million to USAID’s Guatemala Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation (GEDI) Initiative, and will collaborate with the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) on efforts to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem for small and growing businesses in Guatemala, including those that involve smallholder coffee farmers.  This work will continue Starbucks’ efforts to support coffee farming communities, through access to information and resources, education, economic empowerment for women, and climate and community resiliency.

**Target**

Target is a leading general merchandise retailer with stores in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Its headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota, its hometown since the first Target store opened in 1962. Target employs over 400,000 team members and serves guests at nearly 2,000 stores and online. Target commits to expand its current manufacturing business in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras by more than $300 million during the next 10 years, building on the $2 billion in existing commitments. The company will deepen and expand vendor relationships in the region.

**TechnoServe**

TechnoServe is a non-profit that provides solutions for poverty by helping people build regenerative farms, businesses, and markets that increase incomes. In northern Central America, TechnoServe has committed to co-developing innovative solutions that address the main economic and social challenges in the region. Using proven models and approaches, these solutions will foster inclusive market systems, support women’s economic empowerment, and equip small-scale farmers and businesspeople with the skills and knowledge they need to earn more. TechnoServe commits to help small-scale farmers and micro and small businesses organize into producer business groups, improving their knowledge, credit access, and negotiating power; connect emerging businesses and farms to better markets, suppliers, and financing; and sustain progress by improving the business environment for small-scale producers and entrepreneurs.

**Tent Partnership for Refugees**

The Tent Partnership pledges to share best practices and lessons learned with the Partnership for Central America. In addition, Tent will leverage its business network to raise awareness of the root causes of migration and how companies can help improve conditions in Central America.

**Unifi**

Unifi, a company that produces recycled and synthetic yarns, established its manufacturing and sales operation in El Salvador (Unifi Central America) in 2010 and has been invested in El Salvador and the region since then.  Unifi is making significant investments in the footprint capacity and innovation of its El Salvadoran operation and has committed to investing $15 million over the next five years to expand capacity, improve efficiency, and reduce energy use.  The investment includes new innovative texturing technology that will increase the company’s polyester yarn production in El Salvador by 40% and support continuous training and job growth in the region.

**V****iamericas**

Viamericas is a U.S. company offering international money transfers from the United States to over 100 countries.   Viamericas has committed to increase by 20 percentage points over 5 years the number of remittances that are deposited into accounts instead of paid out directly in cash in Northern Central America, resulting in increased digital financial inclusion on the receiving end.

**Visa**

Visa will invest more than $270 million over the next five years to expand financial inclusion and digital infrastructure, with the goal of adding 6.5 million people and 1 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into the formal financial system in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Visa will focus on helping the local financial sector deploy innovative payment technology, improving citizens’ financial capabilities while driving efficiencies in key areas of the economy including: agriculture, digital disbursement of government subsidies, and remittances, while also expanding financial education for citizens and SMEs, thus increasing acceptance of digital payments and bringing more people into the formal economy.

**World Economic Forum**

The World Economic Forum will convene a network of committed actors over time, with a special focus on the role that long-term, sustainable investment can play in transforming the lives and well-being of citizens throughout the area. To do so, the Forum would facilitate collaboration between governments, civil society, business, development institutions, and others to address the root causes of migration and for northern Central American countries to realize their potential towards sustainable and inclusive growth and for quality job creation.

**Yazaki**

Yazaki North America, an automotive components producer, will invest an additional $110 million to hire over 14,000 new employees in Guatemala and El Salvador by the end of 2026.  This builds upon a recent announcement to invest $10 million in a new factory in Guatemala, which is scheduled to start production with its first 1,000 employees in January 2023.  Yazaki NA provides electrical wire harnesses for General Motors, Ford, Stellantis, and other global automakers.

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Bureau of Western Hemisphere AffairsTrade and Investment

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