14/10/2026
FOSIS has visited Mallorca and Madrid as part of the European SOCIEUX+ project to exchange experiences on inclusive entrepreneurship, employment and gender equality.
A delegation from Chile’s Solidarity and Social Investment Fund (FOSIS) has visited the Balearic Islands and Madrid to find out how the public sector supports entrepreneurship in one of Spain’s most dynamic ecosystems. The study visit forms part of SOCIEUX+, the European Union’s initiative for social protection, work and employment, in which FIAP participates as a partner in the implementing consortium, and is the first such visit to be formally organised on Spanish soil.
The initiative supports FOSIS in reviewing its ‘Emprendamos Semilla’, ‘Básico’ and ‘Avanzado’ programmes, which are aimed at vulnerable people wishing to start or strengthen their own business. To this end, six experts from the delegation arrived with questions for each organisation they visited.
His underlying interest was not in how to set up start-ups, but in how to support entrepreneurs in sustaining their livelihoods. And the Balearic Islands have a great deal to offer in this regard: as well as being Spain’s most sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem, a significant proportion of their public policy supports self-employment, micro-businesses, business succession and the social economy – an approach very much in line with the subsistence entrepreneurship model that FOSIS works with.
The first clue emerged right at the start, at the Regional Development Agency: the majority of participants in its entrepreneurship-promotion initiatives are women, and the gender perspective is not a separate programme but a cross-cutting criterion across all its areas of work. That same theme resurfaced on the second day during the inclusive entrepreneurship workshops run by the NGO Treball Solidari, where FOSIS staff moved from listening to engaging in conversation with women who had arrived in Spain in vulnerable circumstances and who have built a community in which they look after, empower and support one another. What they value most about the support these programmes have provided is precisely these connections, and from them very specific projects emerge: writing, fashion design, opening a restaurant.
The week continued with a visit to Parc Bit, which focuses on technological innovation; the IFOC in Calvià, one of the local councils investing most heavily in entrepreneurship in the area; the Esment Foundation and the Palmanova Café Special Employment Centre, where inclusive employment is put into practice; and the Mallorca Chamber of Commerce, which provided the regional business community’s perspective.
The tour concluded in Madrid with a round-table discussion involving the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, the Institute for Women, the Chilean Embassy in Spain, SOCIEUX+ and FIAP. During the discussion, local experiences were examined in the context of the national framework.
