[{"bbox": [85, 152, 1145, 293], "category": "Text", "text": "There are good practices in the country with regard to georeferenced traceability, such as the tools developed by GREPALMA for palm oil and by ANACAFE and AGEXPORT, respectively, for coffee. Also, there are good community practices in forest and wood management, as well as the involvement of and participation by women in coffee-producing cooperatives. These can be strengthened with technical assistance and the possibility of replicating them in other value chains should be analysed."}, {"bbox": [85, 311, 1145, 452], "category": "Text", "text": "Small and micro producers will need training in order to comply with the new requirements. This is not only about traceability, but also about compliance with administrative or documentation tasks that may be necessary for performing due diligence. Similarly, training can be provided to producers on sustainable practices and \"zero-deforestation\". It is suggested that work be performed at the organised group level (cooperatives, associations, federations, etc.)."}, {"bbox": [85, 470, 1145, 643], "category": "Text", "text": "The weakest chains have limitations because of plot size, a lack of legally defined boundaries and legal uncertainty related to land ownership on the part of many small and micro producers. Various technical assistance projects have been carried out in Guatemala aimed at the development of a Registry of Cadastral Information (RCI). An analysis of the scope of the RCI's Geoportal could be performed, as well as an analysis of the possibilities of strengthening it as a contribution to resolving the above limitations and facilitating the traceability required by the Regulation on deforestation-free products."}, {"bbox": [85, 660, 1145, 746], "category": "Text", "text": "Not all value chains contribute equally to deforestation, so that the use of aggregate deforestation criteria to calculate the risk for a country like Guatemala may penalize value chains which, generally speaking, use forests in a sustainable way, as well as operators who have made highly significant investments in sustainability."}, {"bbox": [85, 763, 972, 791], "category": "Section-header", "text": "**Component 2: Support the digitalisation of services provided to MSMEs and Cooperatives**"}, {"bbox": [85, 808, 1145, 950], "category": "Text", "text": "For processes of e-government and *digitalisation* of services to MSMEs and Cooperatives, a broad base of consensus must be worked on with an agreed governance, holding public private dialogues sessions among regulatory agencies, investment authorities and business community to increase awareness on the need to align their objectives and coordinate their actions. This includes reviewing and upgrading regulatory frameworks proposing regulatory and legal convergence mechanisms for a unified approach."}, {"bbox": [85, 967, 1145, 1023], "category": "Section-header", "text": "**Component 3: Improve the competitiveness of MSMEs and cooperatives through better access to finance, innovation and digital tools.**"}, {"bbox": [85, 1041, 1145, 1212], "category": "Text", "text": "The *strengthening* of the ecosystem of MSMEs and cooperatives is an effective option to increase their development and *competitiveness*. It includes the provision of decentralised public services (sector institutions and local governments), digital business platforms and networking, thus integrating physical and social capital in the territories. In this sense, combined support to the public and private sectors is an appropriate strategy in support programs for MSMEs and cooperatives, but adequate communication and coordination between the components must be ensured, as well as a demand-based approach."}, {"bbox": [85, 1229, 1145, 1429], "category": "Text", "text": "Another lesson learnt, from the previous EU programme 'Improvement of the competitiveness and commercial capacity of MSMEs and cooperatives' is that interventions are more effective if they are designed from the *value chains* perspective. MINECO and exporting companies have pointed out that the articulation of the support must be done from the value chain perspective rather than geographic perspective. The justification for this approach is based on the fact that the development of capacities in the local areas supported by our interventions must be done with a global vision of the market, including compliance with international standards, this is the case of the agro-industrial sectors supported such as cocoa, coffee, among others."}, {"bbox": [85, 1446, 1145, 1647], "category": "Text", "text": "In the case of the *digital traceability for selected value chains*, main lessons learnt from other projects implemented in the region are that initiatives related to traceability, georeferencing and digitalisation that are already being developed in Guatemala should be mapped and analysed with regards to possible contributions to the work that will be carried out within this project; involving vital stakeholders (producer associations, national institutes) from the onset is key to ensure scalability and validation of the process; the digital literacy gap can hamper the involvement of certain target groups, especially vulnerable populations. It is therefore recommended to take enough time to develop digital skills, specifically amongst producers, as well as to carry out a mapping of connectivity to evaluate"}, {"bbox": [1027, 1681, 1145, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 24 of 39"}]