CIDER-Building Markets Consultancy Report
This report presents the findings of a consultancy conducted through the Master’s in Gender Studies at Universidad de los Andes, in partnership with Building Markets. It examines the SER initiative (Sabias, Empresarias, Resilientes) in Colombia, exploring how women entrepreneurs’ economic autonomy relates to their overall well-being from a gender and intersectional perspective.
The research combined a theoretical framework on well-being and economic autonomy with interviews and focus groups involving women entrepreneurs and program leaders in Bogotá and Cali. It draws on leading global and regional scholarship to define five key dimensions of analysis.
Findings show that well-being is not defined by income alone. Instead, it is multidimensional and shaped by both structural barriers, such as unequal access to resources, care responsibilities, and informality, and personal factors like agency, purpose, and recognition. Women in the study described well-being as the ability to learn, make decisions, navigate challenges, and be recognized as entrepreneurs.
The report highlights that economic autonomy and well-being are deeply interconnected: each both influences and depends on the other. These insights offer important guidance for designing programs that more effectively support the economic inclusion and long-term empowerment of women entrepreneurs.