Entrepreneurship, Capabilities and Natural Capital : A strong sustainability approach for well-being improvement of indigenous women in Guatemala

Sammanfattning: The World Tourism Organization identifies improving linkages and opportunities in the tourism sector as a key area in the field of sustainable economic development. Swisscontact’s project Empodera aims at the improvement of well-being of indigenous women and youth via economic development. The main challenge of this project is seen in the weak entrepreneurial networks and lack of collaboration. This thesis is written as part Empodera and focuses on the linkages between the entrepreneurial indigenous women and the tourism sector in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala and the entrepreneurial opportunities for well-being improvement. The strong sustainability approach and the capability approach form the theoretical framework of this thesis. A social network analysis on all three levels of sustainable development is used to understand how the indigenous women are connected to the tourism activities in the area, to information and support and to natural capital. Two focus groups are conducted to identify entrepreneurial opportunities and well-being needs. The results show a weak formal social-economic network, the indigenous women are not involved in the tourism activities in Alta Verapaz. The women have a very strong social-ecological network and use natural resources for their entrepreneurial activities. The focus groups show that the women mostly need a richer social network, creativity, selfconfidence and organisation for both well-being improvement and entrepreneurial development. To enable the women to be entrepreneurial active, the focus should thus lie on developing these aspects rather than on official skill development.