Socio-economic integration in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas
Adriana Garces, IOM Ecuador, agarces@iom.int
Cristina Burgos, UNDP Ecuador, cristina.burgos@undp.org
Related Sustainable Development Goals and Global Compact for Migration Objectives
Summary
Santo Domingo hosts a significant number of refugees and migrants in need of social protection, mainly human trafficking victims from Colombia and Venezuela, and Ecuadorian returnees who face diverse challenges upon returning home. Its geographical location and characteristics have also turned it into a development priority for the country and a transit area for numerous immigrants aiming to move across Ecuador. As part of the IOM-UNDP Global Programme on Making Migration Work for Sustainable Development, this project ensures that members of the community, including immigrants and returnees, benefit from equitable access to better labour market integration and support to entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Key objective
The main objective of the project is to foster the community’s long-lasting socioeconomic development by supporting the generation of sustainable and formal livelihoods opportunities for the citizens of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and the promotion of social and economic inclusion of community members in human mobility conditions.
Main activities
- Provide necessary technical assistance, technological equipment and infrastructure modifications for the creation of a co-working space within Santo Domingo’s “Centro de Capacitación Integral”
- Foster and strengthen strategic alliances between the municipality and local universities and TVETs, to assure the expansion of these capacity-building programs to more beneficiaries.
- Generate and update previously designed training modules, in order to address entrepreneurship, integration, biosecurity measures and tools aimed at navigating post COVID-19 realities and rising needs.
- Create an online marketplace managed and constantly updated by the municipality, where social and associative entrepreneurships and small businesses can sell their products without intermediaries.
- Create an online job bank where beneficiaries and other members of the community (including migrants, refugees and returnees) can be connected with private and public job positions.
- In collaboration with the municipality: Develop an award methodology to used as a recognition for private businesses which incur in good recruitment practices (hiring people in human mobility and other priority groups).
- In collaboration with the private sector: Support the development and dissemination of orientation materials for workers and employers that include labour market information, migratory categories and requirements, recruitment costs, opportunities and risks & create awareness raising material and programs on human mobility topics
Beneficiaries
Local community members, including all categories of migrants, focusing on vulnerable groups
