Enhancing entrepreneurship and export development support services for Panamanian SMEs
The National Institute of Vocational Training and Training for Human Development (INADEH), in coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MICI), engaged Globally Cool under the Expert Deployment Mechanism for Trade and Development (EDM) program. EDM is managed and implemented by Cowater in collaboration with the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC).
Globally Cool designed and delivered a comprehensive technical assistance programme to enhance entrepreneurship and export development support services, with a particular focus on Indigenous women in the agricultural sector. The project combined institutional capacity building, a gender-sensitive Train-the-Trainer (ToT) programme, pilot implementation with Indigenous women producers, and the development of a scalable national model for inclusive export development.
Year
Country
PanamaType of activity
- Onsite training
- Strategy Development
Activities
- Developed a comprehensive workplan, performance measurement framework, and implementation schedule. This ensured alignment with EDM reporting requirements, institutional priorities of INADEH and MICI, and measurable capacity-building outcomes.
- Conducted a mixed-methods needs assessment. Through surveys, interviews, and a focus group with Indigenous women producers, Globally Cool identified institutional gaps in export readiness, gender-sensitive facilitation, financial management depth, and culturally adapted delivery approaches.
- Designed and delivered a five-day gender-sensitive Train-the-Trainer (ToT) programme. Globally Cool equipped 90 INADEH officials (53 men and 37 women) with practical tools on entrepreneurship, export readiness, sustainable agriculture, ESG standards, and inclusive facilitation methodologies.
- Developed practical export and sustainability tools. These included Business Model and Export Canvases, pricing and budgeting templates, sustainability checkers, facilitation guides, and structured curricula hosted on the Globally Cool Academy online platform to ensure institutional retention and scalability.
- Delivered a three-day pilot training for Indigenous women agricultural producers. Ten Indigenous women from the Arimae community participated in a culturally adapted, participatory training focused on business planning, associativity, sustainability, and export readiness, co-facilitated by ToT-trained INADEH instructors.
- Facilitated exposure to export-ready production systems and role models. Field visits and guest speakers from the private sector and Indigenous associations demonstrated certification pathways (e.g., GlobalG.A.P.), sustainability standards, and collective production models.
- Developed the Panamanian Model for Indigenous Women’s Export Development (MPEMI). A Recommendations Report provided a phased, scalable roadmap for strengthening Indigenous women’s participation in export value chains, aligned with national trade policy and institutional mandates.
Results
- Increased institutional capacity of INADEH to design and deliver gender-responsive, export-oriented training.
- Strengthened awareness of barriers facing Indigenous women in export processes.
- Improved knowledge and skills of officials to support Indigenous women and marginalised groups in export-oriented economic opportunities.
- Achieved exceptionally high training satisfaction, with usefulness rated 5/5 across participants.
- Demonstrated institutional replication capacity through co-facilitation of the pilot training by three ToT-trained INADEH instructors.
- Catalysed collective business action among Indigenous women participants, who agreed to pursue a joint initiative combining cooperative banana plantain production with value-added natural fibre basketry.
- Established a structured and scalable national framework (MPEMI) to guide inclusive export development policies and programmes in Panama.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How can governments support Indigenous communities, including indigenous women to participate in export markets?
Supporting Indigenous women in export markets requires more than short-term entrepreneurship workshops. Governments need to:
- Understand the structural barriers Indigenous women face
- Design culturally adapted training programs
- Integrate gender-responsive methodologies
- Link entrepreneurship with export readiness and sustainability
- Build institutional capacity for long-term replication
In this project, INADEH instructors were trained through a 5-day gender-sensitive Train-the-Trainer program, enabling them to deliver export-oriented entrepreneurship training tailored to Indigenous communities.
The initiative combined institutional strengthening, pilot implementation, and a scalable roadmap, ensuring that support for Indigenous women moves beyond isolated projects toward systemic change.
2. What does gender-responsive export training actually look like in practice?
Gender-responsive training goes beyond mentioning women in policy documents. It includes:
- A needs assessment grounded in women’s lived realities
- Adapted methodologies (storytelling, visual tools, simplified planning)
- Safe learning environments
- Practical business and export tools
- Role models and peer learning
In this initiative, surveys, interviews, and a focus group with Indigenous women informed curriculum design.
The pilot training integrated participatory exercises, sustainability concepts, associativity models, and export readiness tools, ensuring relevance to Indigenous women agricultural producers.
Gender responsiveness was embedded in both content and delivery, not added as an afterthought.
3. How can inclusive export initiatives be scaled?
Scaling requires:
- Institutional ownership
- Evidence-based recommendations
- Alignment with national policy
- Clear implementation roadmaps
The project produced a Recommendations Report outlining the Panamanian Model for Indigenous Women’s Export Development (MPEMI), providing a phased, scalable framework aligned with trade policy and institutional capacity.
This transforms a pilot initiative into a national strategy for inclusive export development.
4. How do we ensure that entrepreneurship training actually leads to export readiness?
Entrepreneurship support often focuses on microenterprise development without linking businesses to real value chains. However, moving from subsistence production to export markets requires additional elements: market orientation, compliance awareness, sustainability standards, collective organisation, and understanding buyer expectations.
Export readiness must be integrated early in the entrepreneurship journey, not treated as an advanced stage only for established firms.
In this initiative, entrepreneurship tools such as the Business Model Canvas were combined with export-readiness frameworks, sustainability modules, certification awareness, and exposure to export-oriented producers
The pilot training culminated in participants agreeing to pursue a collective business initiative combining banana plantain production with value-added natural fibre basketry, demonstrating movement from learning to economic organisation.
5. How can sustainability be integrated into Indigenous women’s export development in a practical way?
For many Indigenous communities, environmental stewardship is embedded in traditional agricultural practices. However, participation in international markets often requires formal documentation, certifications, and alignment with global sustainability standards.
The challenge is to bridge ancestral knowledge with formal export requirements, while ensuring sustainability investments are realistic and aligned with market opportunities.
In this project, sustainability modules introduced climate-smart agricultural practices, ESG tools, and relevant certification schemes such as Organic, Fairtrade, and Rainforest Alliance, adapted to Indigenous contexts.
Sustainability was positioned as both a cultural asset and a potential competitive advantage in export value chains.