UNDP Guinea-Bissau has just started the implementation of an intervention in the field of social inclusion in Cumura, in the Biombo region. The project, developed in partnership with AIFO, aims to activate a sustainable path for vulnerable people to create income-generating activities which contribute to their economic independence and financial inclusion through the diversification of the available sustainable livelihoods. The main beneficiaries are people with disabilities, focusing on women. They will be financed to start a micro-enterprise liked to the blue economy.

The intervention, funded by the project “Blue Economy as a Catalyst for Green Recovery” and by the financial inclusion programme supported by the Strategic and Economic Unit, has two main expected results: the creation of a start-up incubator and the sensibilization about social inclusion in the local communities. A feasibility study is currently being carried out in the field to visit some companies or income-generating activities similar to the ones the project is promoting to estimate sales, costs, and the life of the company to better orientate the pre-selection of the small business ideas that will participate in the project. A blue economy specialist, a business development expert and two mentors will support participants throughout the process, from initial awareness-raising on blue economy opportunities to training in financial management, logistics, legal framework, and administration, and including also monitoring and evaluation of entrepreneurship.

The assignment has an estimated duration of 12 months and the results of the vulnerability mapping that UNDP Guinea-Bissau has been conducting for the past few months to identify vulnerable households and groups in the country have been taken into account to design the intervention and they will guide the processes and actions developed. The recommendations of the “Building forward better for businesses in Guinea Bissau”, focused precisely on the field of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME), will also be a major source of knowledge for the success of the intervention.