Paraguay

About the project

There are more than 800 cooperatives and 1.8 million members in Paraguay, corresponding to 51% of the economically active population. Cooperatives are found in multiple sectors, with the financial sector and food production sector being the main ones.

Therefore, the objectives of the CoopSur project in Paraguay address the main challenges of the cooperative sector in the financial and agricultural sectors to stabilize cooperative structures and ensure competitiveness and sustainability.

The project’s objectives are based on the following main areas:

Financial sector

• Innovation, digitalization and fintechs
• Sustainable finance (environmental, social, and economic)
• Young cooperative entrepreneurs
• Advice on cooperative management to improve their competitivenes

Agricultural sector

• Micro-processing and marketing of family farming products
• Agricultural finance

At macro level, the focus is on generating an efficient regulatory framework and improving supervisory processes, the target group being the supervisory and regulatory authorities, e.g., the cooperative supervisory authority INCOOP and relevant stakeholders in the opinion-forming process (e.g., deputies).

At meso level, the project focuses on the development of high-quality cooperative training systems, the target group being the staff of cooperative associations.

At micro level the target groups are the members of individual cooperatives as well as other forms of cooperation. The final beneficiaries are microenterprises in rural and marginalized urban areas, with special attention to family producers, women, and youth.

Sustainable Development Goals

With its activities, DGRV contributes to several Sustainable Development Goals, especially:

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Activities

DGRV selects its activities according to the main areas and according to the collaboration with cooperative confederations, central institutions of the cooperative sector, federations, networks of cooperatives and individual cooperatives at national and decentralized levels, supervisory authorities, ministries, and others.

These include the following:

• Digital education and training through workshops and seminars
• Regional and international internships
• Formation of several competence networks (internal auditors, managers, risk managers) and working groups (sustainable finance)
• Consultancy, technical assistance, and technology transfer programs (DGRV tools)

Development of studies, methodologies, guides, and reference manuals

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Employees

Project Director

José Manuel Bautista Serrano

Project Manager

Carla Seidel
Bruno Báez
Zulmira Rodríguez

Senior Project Advisor

Javier Gamarra (Agricultural sector)
Rosi Rivarola (Digital Education)
Rafael León (Strategic Planning)
Myriam Knorr (Microfinance)
Perla Gaona (Auditing)

Head of Administration

Antje Ley

Administration, Accounting and Logistics

Corina Mercado
Martha Duarte
Keyner Fernandez

Partners

FECOPROD

The Federation of Production Cooperatives is a 2nd degree institution, consisting of 34 production cooperatives, and has as its objectives the proactive promotion, education and technical support of primary cooperatives. In addition, various services are offered in the area of consulting, auditing and training.

DGRV cooperates with FECOPROD in an activity linked to the commercialization of agricultural products and the promotion of regional and sustainable consumption.

http://www.fecoprod.com.py/

Microfinance Network Enlace

With the Network Enlace, DGRV encourages the exchange of experiences between 20 large savings and credit cooperatives, focusing mostly on the exchange of good practices in microfinance, but also other strategically important issues. This experience is replicated in smaller cooperatives with various strategies.