Phl, Canada forge new partnership for women economic empowerment

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines and Canada have strengthened their ties yet again, aiming to create  more enabling environments for women economic empowerment (WEE).

Last Nov. 26 at the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) executive lounge in Pasig City, Canadia, Ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder and NEDA director general Arsenio Balisacan inked the six-year project which targets more than 10,000 out of estimated 46,000 women micro-entrepreneurs across the country.

The  C$8 million (P320-million) bilateral project is the continuation of the recently completed Gender-Responsive Economic Actions for the Transformation of Women (GREAT Women Project) which was executed  by the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) and funded also by Canada.

An estimated 14,000 women micro-entrepreneurs benefitted from the first phase of GREAT Women Project which was implemented from 2007 to 2013.

In this new partnership, the PCW was tasked to become the main executor  of the project again and expected to converge and synergize efforts of  national government agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of science and Technology (DOST) and the Department of  Labor and Employment (DOLE), local government and private sector towards assisting women micro-entrepreneurs to level-up in the value chain.

The new project targets Filipina micro-entrepreneurs in food, textile, and home-style sector.

“We hope that this project can show us innovative approaches to women’s economic enterprises that can contribute to the Philippines’ goals of inclusive growth,” said Reeder.

PCW Chairperson Remedios I. Rikken, on the other hand, thanked the government of Canada for extending its generosity again in promoting gender-responsiveness across all workplaces.