The Philippines Women's Economic Empowerment initiative is aimed at increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of women's microenterprises and will fund up to $8 million in new initiatives over six years (2014–2020).
The Project's executing agency, the Philippine Commission on Women, will work with the private sector, and key local and national agencies (including the Philippines' departments of Trade and Industry, Agriculture, and Science/Technology), to help women entrepreneurs:
- enhance their products;
- improve their productivity and marketing;
- increase compliance with safety and business regulations and standards: and
- connect to domestic and global markets.
Once completed, it is expected that approximately 25 percent (11,500) of an estimated total of 46,000 women's microenterprises operating in the food and textile subsectors in the Philippines will have benefited from increased sales of at least 30 percent per year, along with a re-investment rate of at least 20 percent per year.
The Philippine Commission on Women oversees the implementation of the Philippines Magna Carta of Women, and facilitates the coordination of stakeholders in government, the private sector, and civil society on issues pertaining to women's empowerment. The Commission has also been a long-standing and successful partner of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada.
