Claudia Prado

Peruvian social entrepreneur who built Latin America's first microfinance network for indigenous women

Claudia Prado (b. 1965) is a Peruvian social innovator who created the first microfinance system specifically designed for indigenous women in the Andes. In 1998, she launched the Tumi Foundation, which developed culturally appropriate financial tools to empower Quechua and Aymara communities. Her programs combined traditional weaving cooperatives with modern financial literacy training, enabling women to scale their artisan businesses while preserving cultural heritage.

Prado's approach was groundbreaking in addressing systemic barriers faced by indigenous entrepreneurs. She collaborated with anthropologists to design financial products that accommodated seasonal work patterns and informal economies. By 2005, her network had provided loans to over 15,000 women across Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, creating a replicable model for inclusive finance systems.

Her work is documented in Financing Cultural Economies, a case study published by the World Bank. The documentary Weaving Futures chronicles her journey, showing how her initiatives increased household incomes by 300% in some communities. Detailed impact reports are available at their official impact portal.

Prado's legacy includes the establishment of the Indigenous Women's Economic Forum, a regional platform that now connects over 200,000 artisans. Her 2002 TED Talk The Power of Cultural Economies remains a seminal resource for inclusive development strategies. In 2010, she was awarded the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship for her transformative work.