Six months after its completion, an independent assessment has confirmed that the Empresarias Progresando (EMPRO) initiative, a women-focused business development program run by INCAE Business School in the Dominican Republic, has driven remarkable, measurable growth for female-led small and medium enterprises across the country.
The highly competitive program selected just 49 participants out of more than 500 total applicants. Its structured curriculum combines multi-phase targeted business training with a full week of immersive in-person instruction hosted at INCAE’s campus in Costa Rica, equipping participating entrepreneurs with the skills, networks, and strategies needed to scale their operations. Early impact data collected after six months shows these investments have translated to extraordinary improvements across four core pillars of business success: revenue growth, job creation, digital transformation, and expanded access to capital.
Economic outcomes for participants far outpace baseline expectations for typical small business development programs. Average monthly sales for participating women-owned businesses nearly tripled compared to pre-program levels, while total employment across the cohort jumped by 80 percent. In total, the program has supported the creation of approximately 450 new full and part-time jobs across the Dominican Republic, expanding local livelihoods beyond the 49 participating entrepreneurs themselves. Beyond revenue and headcount gains, 82 percent of program graduates launched new business opportunities, most through the development of original products and services that opened untapped customer markets.
A key focus of the EMPRO initiative is closing gaps in digital and financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs, and results in these areas are equally compelling. At the start of the program, 22 percent of participants did not integrate any digital tools into their daily business operations; by the program’s conclusion, every entrepreneur had adopted digital tools for tasks ranging from sales tracking to customer outreach, positioning their businesses for long-term competitiveness in an increasingly digital economy. On the financing side, 69 percent of participants secured new capital to scale their operations, with nearly half of those loans coming through traditional banking channels, most from program partner Banco BHD. A large majority of participants also overhauled their internal financial management practices, a shift that program organizers say signals stronger operational capacity and sustainable long-term growth potential for the cohort.
The EMPRO program is a collaborative public-private initiative, backed by funding and strategic support from three partner organizations: the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, the PriceSmart Foundation, and Banco BHD. Program leaders say the strong results of the six-month evaluation make a clear case for scaling targeted investments in female entrepreneurship as a core driver of national economic competitiveness and inclusive, sustainable development across emerging markets.