ANDECU, was founded on October 10, 1995, following the need to fight poverty and eliminate gender differences in Nicaragua.

ANDECU's projects promote income-generating activities, and therefore aim to energise the private sector of Nicaraguan micro-enterprises, empowering women living in rural areas of the country and living in extreme poverty.

To this end, Andecu has developed two programs for business development:

 

• Training of Women Entrepreneurs (WEF) which consists of providing training in business management and women's empowerment to women entrepreneurs in the rural area of the South Pacific of Nicaragua. The project trains women who are engaged in a subsistence economic activity, own a small business or would like to start their own business.

 

• Women Micro-entrepreneurs Seeking Alternatives (MBA) consists of training women who already own a business and wish to improve it through innovation or diversification to obtain a stable income, in order to improve the living conditions of them, their family and their community.
   

Swissocial has applied its methodologies to these entrepreneurs, determining their Socio-Economic Welfare Index (SEWI)