Acción Emprendedora is a non-profit organization based in Santiago de Chile. AE publishes its mission statement as seeking to eradicate poverty in Latin America by training and assisting poor small business owners.. AE is based in Chile, where 62% of national employment is linked to micro-enterprises, half of whose employees have not completed their basic education. In Chile, 98% of businesses are small businesses and micro-entreprises. AE seeks to help microentrepreneurs grow their businesses through education and mediating loan negotiations.

Development model

AE uses a three-step development model:

1. AE offers basic and advanced business classes in entrepreneurial communities.
2. AE provides access to low-rate microcredit
   Microcredit
   Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit...
   
    that would be otherwise unavailable to impoverished communities.
3. AE provides free consulting services during the initial development or growth of the micro-enterprise, as well as free access to technology.

Progress to date

Since 2003, AE has trained over 3,000 micro-entrepreneurs, and in the Santiago Learning Center alone trained 500 micro-entrepreneurs in 2010. AE also mediates loans for its entrepreneurs through various banks including the Banco de Dessarrollo, Banco Santander, and the Women's World Banking

Women's World Banking

Women’s World Banking spcial organisation is a nonprofit organization that provides strategic support, technical assistance and information to a global network of 40 independent microfinance institutions and banks that offer credit and other financial services to low-income entrepreneurs in the...

 FINAM. For its efforts, AE has received international recognition from the Inter-American Development Bank

Inter-American Development Bank

The Inter-American Development Bank is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean...

 as one of the 40 best social projects in Latin America.

Awards

AE has received many awards as a testament to its success in Chile and throughout Latin America.

• In 2004, AE was named as one of the 40 best social projects in Latin America by the Inter-American Development Bank
  Inter-American Development Bank
  The Inter-American Development Bank is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean...
  
  .
• In 2005, AE was awarded "Social Entrepreneur of the Year" by the Federation of Chilean Industry (SOFOFA) and Universidad del Desarollo.
• In 2008, AE was awarded the Duke University NGO Excellence Award.
• In 2009, AE won the Miguel Kast Prize for Free Market Solutions to Poverty by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation
  Atlas Economic Research Foundation
  The Atlas Economic Research Foundation, also known as the Atlas Network, is a non-profit organization based in the United States which organizes and convenes workshops, offers training, runs prize programs, and provides advisory services in order to continue growing and strengthening an informal...
  
  .
• In 2010, AE was awarded the Atlas Foundation Prize.
• In 2011, AE won the Duke Center for International Development (DCID) Alumni Award for NGO Excellence.

Results

• 85% of entrepreneurs said they had increased their productivity after taking classes at AE.
• 40% of the respondents said that after attending training courses, their income increased between 40% and 80% as a result of acquired knowledge.
• 70% of the graduates increased sales.
• Sales increased an average of 106% for graduates of the program.
• 36% of alumni hired at least 1 worker within 6 months of graduating from AE.
• Over 50% of alumni increase or enhance their Internet marketing platforms after using our technical support.

In addition to the above, to measure its effects, Acción Emprendedora has implemented a database system, innovative methodologies, rigorous monitoring. Thus it is possible to accurately measure how many jobs are generated by the model implemented, the cost per additional job, and what sales growth the micro enterprises supported; increases in their income, the percentage completion, among others.

Learning Centers

AE currently has 6 entrepreneurial centers in Chile located in Santiago

Santiago, Chile

Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...

, Valparaíso

Valparaíso

Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...

, Concepción

Concepción, Chile

Concepción is a city in Chile, capital of Concepción Province and of the Biobío Region or Region VIII. Greater Concepción is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889,725 inhabitants...

, Antofagasta, San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama is a Chilean town and commune in El Loa Province, Antofagasta Region. It is located east of Antofagasta, some 106 km southeast of Calama and the Chuquicamata copper mine, overlooking the Licancabur volcano. It features a significant archeological museum, the R. P...

, and Coronel.
Additionally, AE has continued expansion into neighboring countries including Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

, where AE had to close due to political instability and Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, where it is still strong today.
In the future, there is a plan in place to open a learning center in Durham, NC, after AE finished as a finalist in the Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

 Start-Up Challenge. There are also plans to share the AE model in Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

.

Courses

AE offers courses for small business formation and growth, such as management courses. AE also offers workshops for entrepreneurs, such as accounting, marketing, digital literacy, among others.
AE offers workshops for entrepreneurs ("Beginning your business"), micro business owners ("Growing your business"), and small business owners ("Consolidating your business").

AE opens its courses to those of all levels of education: no education, basic education, secondary school, technical school, university-level, and professional.

Participating Business Sectors

1. Agriculture
2. Crafts and traditional art
3. Commerce
4. Confection
5. Construction
6. Food services
7. Services
8. Transportation

eMarketplace project

AE is in the early stages of developing an online marketplace that will enable entrepreneurs in AE's municipalities to sell their products to US consumers. The organization hopes that expanding the consumer base of Chile's small businesses to the international market will further the organization's goals of eradicating poverty via increased demand, job creation, and other means.

See also

• Accion International
  Accion International
  ACCION International is a nonprofit organization that supports microfinance institutions in their work to provide financial services to low-income clients. ACCION provides management services, technical assistance, debt and equity investment and training to microfinance institutions and...
  
  
• Accion USA
  Accion USA
  ACCION USA is an American microfinance organization headquartered in New York, NY.- About :ACCION USA offers microloans and other financial services to low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs in the United States who are unable to access bank credit for their small businesses...
  
  
• Grameen Bank
  Grameen Bank
  The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...
  
  
• Project Enterprise

External links

• Acción Emprendedora official website
• Acción Emprendedora official facebook page
• Acción Emprendedora official twitter