Our activities in Paraguay are part of the CoopSur project.
We work with cooperatives and other forms of member-based cooperation in the agricultural and financial sector. The objectives of the project follow a multi-level approach and address the issues of sustainability, protection, competitiveness, stability and continuous training. We support the federations or centrals and their partner cooperatives in Paraguay and Peru in achieving their objectives.
This project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is currently running until the end of 2027.
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.
At the macro level, the focus is on generating an efficient regulatory framework and improving supervisory processes together with the National Cooperative Institute INCOOP. Together with the Ministry of Agriculture, we seek to improve access to finance for cooperatives and their producer members by supporting the creation of a credit guarantee fund.
At the meso level, the project is working with the Cooperative Sustainable Finance Initiative to advance this issue in Paraguay, with the Si-Coop Initiative on digital innovation, and with Federations on the issue of integrated risk management. On the other hand, we collaborate with CERECOOP in the agricultural sector. The aim here is to achieve a financially stable institution with a well-developed catalogue of services that responds to the needs of its member cooperatives, mainly in the area of business management consultancy for cooperatives. In both sectors, an important focus is the promotion of youth in the cooperatives and organisations of the project.
At the micro level the target groups are the members of individual cooperatives as well as other forms of cooperation. The final beneficiaries are micro-enterprises in rural and marginalised urban areas, with a special focus on family producers, women and youth.
Together with our partners, we carry out the following activities:
– On-site and virtual training through workshops and seminars.
– Regional and international internships
– Formation of competence networks and working groups.
– Consultancy, technical assistance and technology transfer programmes (DGRV tools).
– Elaboration of studies, methodologies, guides and reference manuals.
José Manuel Bautista Serrano
Carla Seidel
Bruno Báez
Javier Gamarra (Agricultural sector)
Rosi Rivarola (Digital Education)
Rafael León (Strategic Planning)
Liliana Miranda (Sustainable Finance)
Antje Ley
Corina Mercado
Martha Duarte
Dr. Cirilo Cáceres Zorrilla N° 1050
entre San Juan XXIII y Narciso Colmán
Asunción, Paraguay
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