Eight Latin American Organizations Selected to Drive Economic Growth and Social Well-Being in the Region
BETHESDA, Md., November 20, 2025 /3BL/ - Tandem Global (formerly World Environment Center and Wildlife Habitat Council) and its partners: the Núcleo de Biotecnología de Curauma (NBC), Baastel, IncubatecUFRO, and the La Red de Innovación e Impacto (La RED), present the new members of the Empower Innovation Challenge Cohort 2025. This grant is made possible with funding from the U.S. Department of State.
Eight organizations will receive financial resources from Tandem Global, and, with the support of La RED, will strengthen their capacities and expand their opportunities through its Training, Capacity Building Program, and mentorship to benefit micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the region. The Empower Innovation Challenge (EIC) is an initiative that promotes competitions focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, and competitiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The awardee organizations in the 2025 edition come from six countries on the continent: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. All of them will become part of La RED, which brings together entities—both for-profit and non-profit—that support MSMEs in order to promote competitiveness and provide them with tools to improve their financial performance and social reach in their respective countries.
The EIC, supporting them with non-reimbursable funds, will provide technical assistance, training, and access to networks and partnership opportunities with local and international companies. All of this, to strengthen their projects, scale up and expand their reach.
The 2026 Empower Innovation Challenge will launch on November 20, 2025. This call for proposals will be specially designed to empower MSMEs in the region that are implementing innovative growth strategies, promoting solutions for economic growth, and fostering local development and prosperity.
The call for proposals will focus on selecting organizations that propose a paradigm shift toward economic growth and development in the region by strengthening local economies.
We present the awardee organizations of the Cohort 2025, latest edition of the EIC:
- Proyectar sin fronteras (PSF), Colombia. Project: AgroAvanza: Scaling Food Production for Growth and Market Integration
- CODESPA, Colombia. Project: Strengthening of shrimp micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
- Fundación Atuca, Colombia, por su proyecto crecimiento económico mediante el fortalecimiento de las cadenas de producción alimentaria y oportunidades de ingresos alternativos.
- Asociación Cámara de Turismo y Comercio del Golfo Dulce (CATUGOLFO), Costa Rica. Project: Inheritors of Golfo Dulce, Future Captains
- Asociación MOJE, El Salvador. Project: Empowerment of Innovative Artisanal Economic Initiatives in Cabañas.
- Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Guatemala. Project: RISE - Resilience and Income Improvement through Support and Empowerment
- Centro de Desarrollo Empresarial para la Micro Pequeña y Mediana Empresa Región Golfo de Fonseca, Honduras, por su proyecto Iniciativa de crecimiento y empleo en el municipio de Marcovia, región del Golfo de Fonseca, Honduras.
- Asociación Nacional de Productores y Pioneras Arroz Bajo en Carbono (ANPPAC), Panamá. Project: Production, differentiation, marketing, and distribution of rice grown and produced by entrepreneurial producers in Panama.
For more information about the initiative, visit: https://www.eiclared.org/cic and https://laredinnovacionimpacto.com/
• For additional questions, contact: EIC@tandemglobal.org
About the organizers of the EIC
Tandem Global
At Tandem Global (formerly the Wildlife Habitat Council and World Environment Center), we provide the know-how and the network to move business and the environment together, in harmony. We work across sectors and at all levels of organizations to facilitate long-term and lasting impact on all aspects of our natural world. From field operations to boardrooms and beyond, corporate leaders turn to Tandem Global for impact strategies and resilient solutions that can support a better future.
The La Red de Innovación e Impacto (La RED)
La RED is an initiative that brings together both for-profit and non-profit organizations to support micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with the aim of promoting economic growth and prosperity in the Latin American region. Founded in 2014, La RED emerged from a selection process of organizations that have accelerated the development of sustainable businesses and promoted economic growth in the region. Initially funded by the U.S. Department of State, the project was executed by Tandem Global in collaboration with its partners Le Groupe-conseil baastel ltée (Baastel) and RioSlum Studio until June 2021. Since July 2021, La RED has been led by its own organizations and coordinated by the Núcleo de Biotecnología Curauma (NBC) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Chile.
https://laredinnovacionimpacto.com/
Núcleo Biotecnología de Curauma (NBC)
The Núcleo Biotecnología Curauma Center (NBC), part of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV), is an R+D+i center with over 15 years of experience in technological development, innovation and technology transfer. The NBC main goal is to support companies, especially MSMEs, in improving their productivity and competitiveness through technological based solutions.
The center has pioneered projects like CompiteMAS®, which has allowed NBC to position itself as a key player in the region’s productive transformation, strengthening public-private networks and driving innovation in companies.
NBC’s track record includes managing competitive R&D contracts, public tenders, international cooperation projects, and delivering certified training programs since its founding in 2010. NBC created a competitiveness indicator for SMEs, called CompiteMAS® indicator, which allows measuring competitiveness including economic, environmental and social areas.
Throughout 14 years NBC has expanded its lines of work and specialization, addressing projects with innovation, and social impact, consolidating a portfolio of 500 projects executed with excellent results. Through all its activities and services, NBC seeks to make local SMEs more productive, and competitive.
IncubatecUFRO
IncubatecUFRO is the incubator of the Universidad de La Frontera, the leading business incubator and accelerator in southern Chile, working with more than 250 companies and entrepreneurs annually. Its objective is to foster and strengthen entrepreneurial initiatives with differentiating and/or innovative factors through networking, access to networks, and access to specialized resources and services. Over the last five years, the program has focused on boosting national entrepreneurship and innovation field. Articulating collaboration with strategic support networks for entrepreneurs. Thus, IncubatecUFRO is currently supporting early-stage, expansion-, and scaling-up companies through specialized incubation services and the coordination of business boards with a focus on strengthening innovative value propositions. It also addresses gaps in areas such as business management, marketing and sales, raising private capital, and internationalization, thereby achieving a greater impact on the commercial growth and internationalization of its business portfolio.
Le Groupe-conseil baastel ltée (Baastel)
Baastel is recognized for its quality services in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), Results-based Management (RBM), strategic planning, project and program management, and building individual and institutional capacity in these areas. Baastel’s outstanding reputation in the field is built on a record of international and national successes, and expertise that is backed by attention to detail, quality, transparency and neutrality.
