Chiapas & Oaxaca, Mexico
FUERTEIn the rural areas of Chiapas and Oaxaca, opportunity is scarce—especially for women. Fewer than 3 in 10 women have access to formal financial services, locking them out of critical tools needed to invest and grow. These regions face the highest rates of extreme poverty in Mexico, where families rely on the informal economy, subsistence agriculture, and local commerce to get by. Persistent gender inequality heavily impacts women, who perform a high burden of unpaid work and face steep barriers to accessing credit, training, and autonomy, each proving to be a significant hurdle on the road to women’s empowerment.
Trickle Up’s FUERTE project, funded by MetLife Foundation and Whole Planet Foundation, set out to change that by partnering with over 6,000 women living in extreme poverty to develop livelihood enterprises. Before the project, most participants earned less than $50 a month and had no savings. Through FUERTE, about two-thirds of the women received seed capital and started a business from scratch—and many of their businesses proved to be resounding successes.
Our Partners:
IMPACT STATEMENT & GOALS
At the outset of the FUERTE project, 99.6% of participants lived in extreme poverty, with 36% of them reporting less than 1,000 pesos per month. FUERTE worked with 6,051 women and helped form 240 savings groups in the rural areas of Chiapas and Oaxaca.
FUERTE aimed to:
Enable women to exercise agency and leadership in their homes and communities
Improve financial inclusion and financial health for Indigenous women
Promote a favorable institutional environment for the economic empowerment & financial inclusion of Indigenous women living in extreme poverty
APPROACH
The FUERTE project was carried out through the formation of savings groups, financial literacy training, access to credit, seed capital, and close technical support and training. The project promoted financial inclusion from the community level, with savings groups establishing themselves as safe spaces for meeting, learning, and collective financial decision-making.
Regular savings and credit sessions, held monthly or biweekly, became key spaces for strengthening co-responsibility, transparency, and trust among participants.
Additionally:
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RESULTS
Livelihoods and Basic Needs
Each woman selected a livelihood enterprise based on her own unique skills, interests, and knowledge of her community’s needs. This autonomy in choice not only fostered a stronger sense of ownership, but also deepened each woman’s commitment to her personal and family goals.
With growing confidence, many began selling in neighboring towns and reached new markets online through WhatsApp, increasing their customer base and income.
Clothing
Textiles
Grocery Stores
Handicraft
Clothing
TextilesGrocery Stores
Savings & Income
As the project progressed, the concept of savings became incorporated as a sustained and conscious practice among participants. While only 27% of women reported having any type of savings at FUERTE’s outset, 100% had generated some type of savings by the project’s end.
Prior to the project, the participants faced structural barriers such as limited access to education, healthcare, financial services, and employment opportunities. But through the development of their livelihood activities, women began to transform their relationship with money:
- Altogether, the women accumulated a total savings of more than $14,000,000 MXP
- A social fund of $521,329 MXP was established to respond to emergencies or shared needs
- 82% of the businesses started via seed capital are still operating
- 88% of participants remained active in their savings groups after the project’s end
Empowerment & Autonomy
FUERTE demonstrated that when women organize, listen to each other, and trust their abilities, it is possible to generate real, visible, and lasting transformations in the distribution of power within their families and communities.
Many participants expressed that for the first time, they felt their opinions were heard and their presence acknowledged. Generating income strengthened women’s recognition as providers within the household and as economic agents in their communities. These changes not only translate into greater financial independence, but also into broader social legitimization of women’s role as managers of family resources.
The FUERTE project demonstrated that amplifying women’s voices, choices, and power can transform households and communities:
76%➝87%
was observed in the proportion of women who make their own decisions about their medical care
77%➝84%
was observed in the proportion of women who decide for themselves how to use their income
63%➝72%
was observed in the proportion of women who felt their opinion was considered in household decisions
Leadership and Community Participation
The work carried out in savings groups, training spaces, and support allowed many women to recognize themselves as leaders, speak out for the first time, and begin to influence their immediate communities. It was observed that some women began to gain greater public visibility, organized to sell collectively, participated in community assemblies, or led small local initiatives. While these leaderships were mostly informal, they represent important advances in terms of voice, agency, and social positioning.
Savings groups not only helped accumulate money, but also wove networks of trust and solidarity, which were key to the significant results of the FUERTE project. Through savings groups, women gained the trust and confidence to become more vocal and visible in their communities. In the case of the FUERTE project:
22%
of participants grew to hold some type of position or assumed responsibilities in their community
47%
increase over the course of the project in visibility and community participation of people with disabilities
23%
decrease in the proportion of people with disabilities who were visible only when their family received visits
LESSONS LEARNED
The FUERTE project is a testament to what’s possible when women are equipped with resources, knowledge, and given the space to lead. What began as a financial inclusion initiative grew into something much deeper: a movement of women reshaping the economic and social fabric of their communities.
The impact of FUERTE was intersectional, making significant progress in the economic and social inclusion of historically excluded women and communities.
Here’s what we learned:
1. Savings groups are drivers of economic autonomy and social cohesion.
FUERTE demonstrated that VSLAs are more than financial tools, they became transformative spaces where women developed management skills, bult trust, and strengthened support networks. The greatest takeaway is that community savings, built on trust and local leadership, generate not only income, but also self-esteem, solidarity, and new forms of participation.
2. Financial inclusion requires cultural relevance and methodological flexibility.
FUERTE showed that financial tools must be contextualized and adapted to local languages and realities to be effective. Using visual materials, accessible pedagogical processes, and sensitive implementation methods were key to bridging the gap between project strategy and participants’ lives.
3. Empowerment requires holistic interventions.
The FUERTE project revealed that successful inclusion requires local ownership and networks, with direct implementation by local teams proving more effective than a partner-based model. Networking with local governments and community leaders enhanced the impact and sustainability of the work.
4. Digital inclusion.
FUERTE highlighted that there is an opportunity for digitalization, but it must be gradual, culturally relevant, and based on practical tools that empower women.
5. Systematization, knowledge production, and long-term vision.
FUERTE demonstrated the importance of documenting and systematizing lessons learned and best practices to establish a regional benchmark for gender-sensitive financial inclusion. The next steps involve deepening and scaling the model, ensuring it remains rooted in the community and continues its transformative impact.
CONTINUING THE WORK AFTER THE PROJECT
The conclusion of FUERTE marks the beginning of a new phase focused on consolidating the achievements and expanding the model. This next phase will focus on strengthening women’s financial resilience, entrepreneurship, leadership, and digitalization, while promoting their inclusion in local and digital value chains.
