This blog is published as part of a series as part of the OECD Local Development Forum 2025 Annual Meeting “Global inspirations, local transformations” which took place on 8-11 July in Barranquilla, Colombia . Places around the world are rethinking how to stay competitive amid rapid technological shifts, the green transition, and evolving global value chains. As the 2025 Forum heads to Barranquilla, Colombia, Latin America’s first host city, it offers a unique lens on global trends shaping the future of local development, inclusive growth, and how places can create good jobs and better lives. Learn more and register to join the Forum here.
In the face of complex challenges like high rates of informality in the labour market, youth unemployment, return migration and economic exclusion, multi-actor local partnerships in Central America are shaping hopeful alternatives.
By joining forces between municipal governments, civil society and the private sector, diverse initiatives are crafting local economies that offer second chances, particularly for migrant returnees.
Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador experience thousands of returned migrants each year, mainly from the U.S. and Mexico. Many returnees are young, with little or no formal education but have gained professional experience abroad. They usually return to communities with scarce job opportunities and persistent violence.
In 2024, more than 75,000 Guatemalans returned to their country, about 40,000 to Honduras and 15,000 to El Salvador. As Ana Quintanilla, a Honduran migrant returnee shares in her testimony, one of the main reasons for Central Americans to migrate is the lack of employment opportunities, and the same challenge persists when they return.
Additionally, returned migrants often face difficulties in reintegrating into society, as they have lost contact with the social and economic dynamics of their home country during their absence.
Local solutions with collective power
“No one includes themselves on their own. The inclusion of migrant returnees is built with support, opportunities and alliances.” – Sindy Hernandez Bonilla, project coordinator for Guatemala at Fundacion Avina.
In recent years, collaborative local strategies are gaining ground – blending resources, trust, and community knowledge to bridge people back into dignified work. In this regard, the support of international co-operation and philanthropy in generating initiatives with a comprehensive approach has been key to promoting solutions that drive systematic change.
Fundacion Avina and other national and international organisations, including Swisscontact, CAF, IBD, ILO and IOM, has paired with governments, businesses, and civil society organisations in building multi‑stakeholder coalitions to develop approaches not only to the challenges returnees face, but also to promote economic inclusion and prevent irregular migration.
Initiatives such as Guate Te Incluye, with a collaborative model that includes multistakeholder mechanisms for the integration of returnees, have demonstrated the power of collaboration by directly impacting more than 1.6 million people.
Holistic approaches like Guate Te Incluye, are becoming more common, and include incentives for businesses, local employment plans, training in technical and soft skills, legal and psychological support, and the creation of municipal employment units or reintegration offices. Also, labour-market integration often includes support for entrepreneurship, with access to credit or non-reimbursable seed funds to start a small business.
In Honduras, the municipality of Choloma adopted in 2024 the first of its kind in the country, Municipal Migrant Assistance Policy designed in collaboration with local CSOs.
The policy includes a multistakeholder approach, and besides employment and educational elements, integrates a community development program by considering improvements in public spaces, and the “implementation of cultural and artistic activities… as part of preventing violence in all its manifestations and reducing the effects of violence already experienced by migrants.”
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Choloma joined the local efforts and created a labour-inclusion program for returning migrants.
Following the integration of Honduras into the CAF – the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean – it approved USD 120 million “to support the strengthening of policies, actions and strategies being adopted by the Government of Honduras to promote and protect the human rights of people on the move”, including policies to ensure the inclusion of migrant returnees.
“We want to support the country in building a comprehensive response that not only strengthens its institutions and migration policies, but also ensures that each migrant, returnee or displaced person is cared for with dignity, equity and real opportunities for reintegration”. – CAF
Engaging business as a force for reintegration
As one study by Swisscontact points out, there are several economic and social benefits that companies can obtain by participating in the process of integrating returnees. Examples include tax benefits, tax incentives, subsidies or other government benefits, and support with technical training.
An initiative that is gaining attention is the Guatemalan public policy, Plan Retorno al Hogar (Back Home Plan), a public-private scheme, that includes incentives for small and medium businesses, job matching, trainings and placement.
As part of the Plan, in 2024, Guatemalan government in collaboration with IOM and the support of the Corean government, launched the Enterprise Development Fund (Fondo de Desarrollo Empresarial) that provides non-reimbursable grants of up to USD 20,000 for 15 companies.
In 2025, the programme lunched Oportuguate, a digital platform and mobile app, that aims to support Guatemalans who have returned to reintegrate successfully through employment, training, and entrepreneurship, in collaboration and active participation of the private sector. Finally, as mentioned in another study by Swisscontact, “effective reintegration not only benefits migrants, but also boosts economic growth”.
Rooted in community: the role of civil society in reintegration or civil society as a connector and catalyst
Finally, civil society organisations, especially those rooted in communities, play a pivotal role in these partnerships by offering case management and follow-up, bridging trust between local governments and returnees, monitoring labor conditions and supporting decent work standards or advocating for rights-based frameworks and anti-discrimination policies.
In Guatemala, Pop No’j works in Quetzaltenango to support returnee reintegration by partnering with local authorities and Indigenous co-operatives, providing bicultural reintegration services for Indigenous returnees and co-ordinating job placement with local employers in tourism and textiles.
“I really didn’t believe it until I landed at the airport and there were the people from Te Conecta and they asked me: do you speak English? And I said sure, and they said:” If you need a job opportunity to start again in your country, we will support you. I couldn’t believe it because it is tough, but the truth is that a supportive and friendly hand has helped me a lot; they have been more than friends, like a family.” – Testimony of Luis Pérez, a Guatemalan who returned after 21 years living in the US.
What makes these partnerships work?
The barriers faced by returned migrants are not solely economic and cannot be addressed by a single institution or through fragmented solutions. From these experiences, we can identify key ingredients of effective collaboration:
- A shared vision of inclusion
- Flexible, context-driven approaches rather than one-size-fits-all models
- Local leadership and municipal action
- Returnee and civil society organisations participation
- Incentives for private sector engagement, not just moral appeals
- Support from international community and cooperation
These local alliances show that reintegration and inclusive employment are not abstract policy goals – they are built block by block, with real people, in real places.
By co-ordinating across sectors, formally recognising acquired skills, providing training, and matching employers with prepared candidates, they support migrants in rebuilding their lives and contributing to their communities, not just surviving, but thriving.
If replicated and supported, these models could help turn the experience of return into one of community restoration, resilience and dignity.
OECD support for migrant return and inclusion in Central America
To support evidence-backed models of reintegration, the OECD has produced key publications including: Contribution to returned migrant women and children’s reintegration, as prioritized population in El Salvador’s Social Plan, Return, Reintegration and Re-migration, and Sustainable Reintegration of Returning Migrants. These offer guidance on return dynamics, community involvement, and labour-market integration of returnees .
Agnieszka is the Program Manager for the Labor Innovation Program at Fundacion Avina. Her progressive experience has centered on driving strategies to support human rights initiatives and more inclusive and participatory philanthropy. Agnieszka has worked on projects centered on community development, social impact, and facilitating cross-sector partnerships that drive innovative approaches. Her work experience has enabled her to collaborate with grassroots organizations, civil society groups, and the public and private sectors in promoting best practices and amplifying the voices of the most vulnerable individuals and those affected by human rights abuses.
She received a Master's degree in Democracy and Human Rights in 2019 from FLACSO and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations in 2014 from UNAM.
Jimena Reyeros is the Communications Coordinator for the Labor Innovation Program at Fundación Avina. Her professional background centers on developing comprehensive communication strategies for projects and initiatives with a social and environmental impact. Highlights of her work include the design of socio-environmental innovation initiatives, narrative building and installation for social justice, community building for impact, and training on environmental and social action. Her work has allowed her to engage with a wide range of agendas—from labor rights to climate action—using communication as a tool for advocacy and systemic change.
Jimena holds a Master’s degree in Environment and Development from the University of Edinburgh and a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Tecnológico de Monterrey.