Perhaps it is my good fortune to be constantly surrounded by exceptional women. From my mom, Marivic Araneta Concepcion, and my grandmother, Victoria Lopez-Araneta, who devoted their lives to family and to philanthropy, to my wife Marissa and my talented, hardworking daughters, there have always been amazing women around me.
Late last year, I had the pleasure of meeting UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who came to Manila to mobilize support and financing to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. A few months before that, our suki speaker and volunteer mentor at Go Negosyo, entrepreneur Cristina Roque, became the only other woman after more than three decades to hold the position of Department of Trade and Industry secretary. Along the way, I have met some remarkable women entrepreneurs big and small, all displaying that remarkable grit and determination that I find so prevalent in women who run businesses. They run the gamut: fashion boutique owners, online live-sellers, ice-cream and ice-candy vendors, cosmetics manufacturers and I think I also met one who ran an auto shop.
And now, with the Philippines’ ASEAN hosting only a year away, I was once again graced with the presence of women achievers at my offices in RFM to discuss how we can put women empowerment at the top of the regional agenda in ASEAN.
At that meeting were Richwell founder Myrna Yao (who now also finds time to serve as commissioner of the Philippine Commission on Women) and the prime movers behind WomenBizPH: chair Rosemarie Rafael, president Rhoda Castro Caliwara and her fellow Go Negosyo icon mentor Sarah Deloraya Mateo, Mylene Abiva, Imelda Ceniza Tiongson and Atty. Lorna Kapunan. ASEAN BAC (Business Advisory Council)’s Gil Gonzales and I were the only proverbial thorns among the roses, but we’re not complaining.
Now, you may be asking, why is Go Negosyo in the thick of things when it comes to putting women on the regional agenda? Aside from my being the chair of the ASEAN BAC-Philippines, ASEAN BAC being the group of private sector advisors to the member-states of the ASEAN, Go Negosyo has pushed the MSME agenda for nearly 20 years, putting the spotlight on the fact that half of our MSMEs in the Philippines are run by women. As we went about mentoring entrepreneurs across the country, it has become only too obvious that the impact of uplifting women can have such a multiplier effect on society, by virtue of women’s traditional roles in the family and the community.
A lot is being done by the government, the private sector and non-government groups to benefit the women’s agenda. There is interest even among future and aspiring leaders. Some frontrunners in this year’s midterm elections – among them Bam Aquino, George Royeca (of Angkas) and Ben Tulfo – came to consult with me on how best to help MSMEs. It gives me hope that even those about to serve in government take the time to familiarize themselves with the issues affecting this most vital segment of our nation’s economy.
We have indeed come a long way. Go Negosyo being at the intersection of these groups gives it perspective on how to align efforts toward advancing the women agenda regionally. Moreover, our success with scaling up to a regional level Go Negosyo programs – such as when we scaled up our entrepreneurship mentoring program KMME to become the region-wide ASEAN Mentorship for Entrepreneurs Network and, more recently, the Kapatid Angat Lahat sa Agri Program to the ASEAN Food Security Alliance – proves that it can be done.
The key takeaway from those experiences is this: If we work as one, the impact will be much stronger. Our mentoring becomes richer with the quality of private sector mentors, government is important in creating a favorable environment, policies are much more informed when private sector and government work together – I can go on and on about how the whole can be so much more than the sum of its parts.
It’s been pointed out that one of the biggest contributions of Go Negosyo and the ASEAN BAC Philippines is to strengthen the case for women’s role in building the economy. We are certainly not the first to do it, but I think we have contributed by putting the spotlight on women entrepreneurs. I make this distinction because there are already groups who are doing excellent work in advancing women’s rights. In empowering women, we have to make economic growth inclusive and sustainable.
We have a lot of women among our Go Negosyo mentors. It is quite a sight to see successful women in business mentoring other women entrepreneurs; it is women who have it all helping women who have nearly nothing at all. The more we explore the MSME communities outside of the NCR, the more we uncover just how much potential lies in the women-run MSMEs in the provinces.
At Go Negosyo, we already have a project with indigenous women in Davao, and we continue to learn from that experience. These IP women have so much to offer in terms of traditional basketry, beadwork and accessory-making. The approach to helping them become entrepreneurs, however, involves not just teaching them business and management skills, it extends to creating market linkages, even personality development, and health and wellness education. Helping women in small communities involves taking into consideration their roles in the household; some women, for example, drop out of activities because they need to attend to the children.
If we manage to scale up our efforts to help Filipina entrepreneurs, meaning, help them learn from the successful models of our ASEAN neighbors, bridge new markets for them and many more, it would be a big step. With the pro-active stance of our women leaders, I think we can move forward the women agenda in the ASEAN. With a strong leadership from the women’s groups, the Philippines can provide the vision, the structure and the mechanism to make it happen.
Source: Go Negosyo - www.philstar.com
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