Promoting Sustainable & Inclusive MSMEs through Gender Responsive Mentoring

March 10, 2021

One of the key areas of concern is the Economic empowerment of Women. It is expressed in targets and indicators of SDG 5 ( Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and SDG 8 (Promote inclusive and sustainable development , decent work and employment for all ). Progress toward it depends not only on the adoption of a set of public policies by governments, but also on the existence of an enabling environment, capacity building and effective programming to ensure successful enterprise development as well as active engagement of the business and corporate sector. This is also relevant to the achievement of SDG 1 (Poverty Reduction) , SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities ) and SDG 17 (Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development) .

In the Philippines , one of the key drivers seen to promote economic empowerment is Entrepreneurship . Programs are rolled out national to local level to stir the local economy and generate  jobs through setting up businesses. From data and studies conducted by different groups and organizations, majority of businesses setup in the Philippines, particularly the MSMEs are owned , led or operated by Women. Despite this, no specific program offers support solely for women entrepreneurs that would nuance their situation and concerns compared to their male counterpart . Though needing further and more in depth study – some findings show women tend to own smaller businesses and have less access to finance (especially the formal ones) and would yield to partner’s or family’s decision to close or not to close their businesses.

It is encouraging to note that the DTI through it’s KMME Program is rolling out an all women entrepreneurship mentoring session that would specifically offer and provide guidance and support to women entrepreneurs. This will be a good opportunity to secure baseline information on how women entrepreneurs can benefit from such program and how to ensure its effectivity as they go along . Recognizing that entrepreneurship mentors and coaches are used to doing this session for a mixed group of participants, we see it valuable to provide a Briefing session that offers a refresher session for Mentors and Coaches nuancing the difference and the situation/ needs/challenges / strengths of women and men entrepreneurs.

In celebration of International Women’s month, DTI and Go Negosyo together with Women’s Business Council Philippines, Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) and UN Women organized a webinar on impact mentoring with a gender lens entitled ” Promoting Sustainable & Inclusive MSMEs through Gender Responsive Mentoring” .

The speakers were :

Eng. Merly Cruz  – Senior Adviser for MSMEs Development, PCE- Go Negosyo

USEC Bles Lantayona  – Department of Trade and Industry

Monette Iturralde-Hamlin – Chairperson, Women’s Business Council Philippines

Rosalyn Mesina  – Country Program Manager, UN Women WeEmpowerAsia

Prof. Natalie Africa – Verceles – Director, University of the Philippines Center for Women & Gender Studies

Carmen Roceli- Lopez – Asst. Program Manager, GREAT WOMEN Project , Philippine Commission on Women

A total of 81 mentors were trained on Gender responsive Mentoring last March 10, 2021 .