Resumen El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar las políticas de participación social de los jóvenes en Ecuador. La investigación tuvo un enfoque cualitativo, el alcance descriptivo y de acuerdo a su diseño, documental. Los hallazgos revelan que, a nivel internacional y nacional, existen instrumentos de política que favorecen el empoderamiento de los jóvenes y que en Ecuador el gobierno ha hecho un importante esfuerzo en formular políticas públicas y creado instancias gubernamentales responsables de la formulación e implementación de esas políticas para favorecer el empoderamiento de los jóvenes. Se concluye que a pesar de todas esas acciones aún este grupo etario en Ecuador sigue siendo vulnerable desde lo laboral, educativo y económico.

The outbreak of the pandemic led to the slowdown of almost all productive activities in the world, due to isolation and confinement measures ordered by the authorities of the countries, so that contact between bidders and applicants was limited. This research aims to analyze the immediate effects of COVID-19 in the autonomous trade and tourism sector in the city of Portoviejo-Ecuador. The research had an exploratory, documentary and field scope, a non-experimental-transversal design and a quantitative approach. Surveys were applied to a sample of 157 merchants, 747 consumers of goods and services and 113 tourism operators. The results show that, due to the pandemic, self-employed merchants and tour operators stopped receiving income due to changes in the consumption habits of their clients and due to sanitary confinement measures, the lack of credit and inadequate marketing systems worsening the situation. of products and services. It is concluded that the businesses and tour operators that used information technologies for the commercialization of goods or services managed to maintain a certain stability during confinement, which in the short and medium term can contribute to changing consumer habits.