Guatemala's rural community business strategy, a regional example

By Mayora IP

Government delegations of El Salvador and Honduras travelled to Guatemala to learn about the One Village, One Product (OVOP) concept, a business strategy applied in rural communities to help protect and promote local products.

The OVOP was launched in Oita Prefecture in Japan back in 1979, and later replicated in several countries around the world, among them Guatemala. The initiative aims to mobilize rural community for bettering their lives by empowering themselves to establish and run their joint businesses by exploiting the natural resources that are accessible in their own communities. Today, the OVOP project produces various handicrafts and food products using available local resources. Some of Guatemala’s OVOP products have also been exported to Japan.

One of the most renowned initiatives of the OVOP are the Michi-no-Eki (roadside station), were local communities along main highways rovide retail goods and dining services to automobile users. According to the World Bank, while “a Michi-no-Eki is not a large scale public-private partnership such as a toll road, it is a unique kind of facility with the potential for enabling the development of public-private partnership in economic activities at the local level”.