All seven Andalusian FLAGs participated in a cooperation project to foster women entrepreneurship across the region by studying the experiences of local women and promoting successful female entrepreneurs as role models to others to turn their business ideas into reality.

High unemployment levels in Andalusia and a common objective in the Andalusian FLAG strategies – that of diversifying their fisheries areas – led the 7 FLAGs to cooperate around a project to encourage  more women to set up their own businesses and to understand what sort of support they would need to do this. The project involved 4 key phases: an analysis of women entrepreneurship in the region’s fisheries areas, including an inventory of all female-run businesses linked to the fisheries sector and the barriers and success factors to starting a company; the identification and selection of a number of successful businesswomen to be used as

role models for other women linked to the sector; the promotion of these cases through the production of 14 short films; and finally a series of activities run by the FLAGs to provide technical and financial support to new women entrepreneurs. This included, for example, workshops with women entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs to exchange on business ideas and the process of setting up a company. The project also involved the development of the website, www.emprendedoraspesca.org, that shares tips and advice on how to successfully diversify into activities that can provide new income for women in Andalusia’s fishing communities. Lourdes’ “chin-chin” bar, Shonia’s fisheries eco-tours and Manuela’s natural salt company, are just some of the businesses featured.