ESCALAR Project opens call for rural business incubation aimed at youth of the Central American Dry Corridor living in El Trifinio

• The call will be open until July 21, receiving applications from enterprises that provide solutions for adaptation to climate change in coffee, basic grains (beans and corn), livestock, bio-inputs and water harvesting 

July 3, 2023. The project Scaling up climate change adaptation solutions for resilience and migration reduction in the Central American Dry Corridor, known as ESCALAR, which is implemented by CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), with funding from the Swedish Cooperation, aims to increase resilience to climate change and have an impact on migration reduction, by scaling up agricultural innovations that enable better climate adaptation of agriculture and are supported by the development of youth-led rural enterprises in socially, environmentally and economically vulnerable communities in high-priority areas of the Central American Dry Corridor in the Trifinio region (border zone between Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador). 

From its business incubation component for youth: Escalar - Youth, promotes the inclusion and leadership of the youth of the territory in business incubation processes, promoting the creation and strengthening of rural enterprises that provide solutions to climate change. In this sense, from June 21 to July 21, a call for applications was opened for people between 18 and 29 years old who are interested in developing enterprises that provide solutions to climate change adaptation and who also live in the following municipalities where the ESCALAR project is implemented:

• Guatemala: Esquipulas, Chiquimula, Concepción Las Minas, Olopa (Dept. of Chiquimula), Agua Blanca and Santa Catarina Mita (Dept. of Jutiapa). 

•  Honduras: La Labor, Sinuapa, Sensenti and Lucerna (Dept. of Ocotepeque), Copán Ruinas and Santa Rita (Dept. of Copán).

• El Salvador: Candelaria de la Frontera, Metapán, San Antonio Pajonal, Santiago de la Frontera (Dept. of Santa Ana) and La Palma municipality (Dept. of Chalatenalgo).  

This process seeks enthusiastic and enterprising young people from the three countries to train leaders to develop agribusinesses linked to agricultural innovations for climate change adaptation in the areas of coffee, basic grains (beans and corn), livestock, bio-inputs and water harvesting.

Applicants will have the following benefits:

• Training in entrepreneurship and agricultural innovations for climate change adaptation
• Learn how to formulate business proposals
• Have the possibility of applying to the seed capital process for the creation and strengthening of enterprises.
• Make their business proposals visible and link them to new opportunities.

The main requirements are:

• Residing in the municipalities prioritized by the ESCALAR project.
• Be between 18 and 29 years of age
• Apply for a business proposal related to the scaling up of agricultural innovations for climate change adaptation in the areas of coffee, basic grains (beans and corn), livestock, bio-inputs and water harvesting.

If you know an agent of change in this territory, we invite you to share this information with them.

For more information about the call for applications, frequently asked questions, terms and conditions, please visit the following address: http://escalar.catie.ac.cr. You can also apply by completing this form https://lnkd.in/eD7jKQ4G.