La Paz - At more than 1600 metres above sea level, in the province of Caranavi (Bolivia), Roxana's dream is born: "Coffee Brothers"- a family business that produces and markets coffee.

Roxana's mother has been a coffee producer for over a decade and, in 2018, Roxana decided to add value to her mother's work and start a business that processes, selects, transforms and commercializes that coffee. The two women became partners.




However, Roxana's aspirations were cut short by the pandemic outbreak in 2020. Due to the rigid quarantine by COVID-19 and the slowdown of productive activities, she was unable to expand her business and open her own place to offer her coffee.

The COVID-19 pandemic had profound consequences for businesses and their workers in Bolivia: the unemployment rate among the population over 14 years of age doubled - from 4.9% in the second quarter of 2019 to 8.6% in the same quarter of 2020 - and there were disruptions in supply chains, loss of revenues and profits, and even closures of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

The pandemic also brought with it a major transformation that, even today, poses a significant challenge for MSMEs around the world: digitalization.

According to the ILO’s Small goes digital report (2021) “Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) tend to be under-digitalized and may therefore struggle to exploit fully the opportunities afforded by digitalization. This is an especially alarming problem given that MSEs play a critical role in economies and societies as creators of jobs and as drivers of growth and poverty alleviation”.

In particular, in Bolivia the digitalization of the economy -accelerated by the pandemic- posed a challenge for women entrepreneurs like Roxana: it is estimated that, as of 2020 (INE), about 42% of women nationwide did not use the Internet, 31% did not have a cell phone for their own use, and 23% had not used a cell phone in the last three months.

Roxana understood that to boost and grow her business she had to acquire digital skills and effectively transition to online commerce.

Like Roxana, also Ximena Gemio, owner of the microenterprise "Choco Vida", identified the urgency of training in digital marketing and other fundamental aspects of e-commerce to effectively promote her handmade chocolates enriched with quinoa, expand her network of clients and obtain more sales.



In this context, the ILO, through its Bolivia Digna y Productiva project and with the collaboration of Escuelas Manq'a, launched the RE-Actívate Programme in 2021 to promote youth employment with decent work in the quinoa and coffee sectors. The Programme was carried out in the municipalities of La Paz, Oruro and Potosí.


The entrepreneurs who participated in RE-Actívate (almost all of them women, including Roxana and Ximena) received training in digital skills, personalized advice on commercial aspects and support in their transition to e-commerce.

According to the ILO (2021), when entrepreneurs strengthen their digital skills, they can orient their skills towards innovation and business resilience, increasing their productivity and boosting the formalization of their businesses



Like Roxana, RE-Actívate participants were also able to access digital platforms and face-to-face fairs to offer their products: Escuelas Manq'a, an ILO partner in this programme, included these young women in the Wayna entrepreneur marketplace and the quinoa and coffee fair, that took place in late 2021.


According to the latest Labour Overview Series 2022 for Latin America and the Caribbean, between 50 and 80 percent of the jobs generated in the economic recovery process have been in informal conditions. This has caused the regional informality rate to return to pre-pandemic levels.

RE-Actívate has boosted the productivity of small businesses through digitalization and access to new marketing spaces.