DOLE, Coca-Cola to empower women OFWs through program

The Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) deployment rate has been steadily increasing in the past 5 years. To date, there are about 2.3 million Filipinos working abroad, of which 50.5% are women who are mostly employed in the domestic, entertainment and care-giving fieldsin Asia, with high concentration in the Middle East countries.
As a country, the Philippines depends on remittances more than any country in Asia and we are ranking third in the world next to India and Mexico. According to BankoSentralngPilipinas, remittances from abroad account to at least 10% of our country’s Gross Domestic Product, this made our economy recession-proof as other countries are impacted with the global economic downturn. The Philippines, as a major supplier of labor migrants to over 100 countries, is also among the leading women migrant sending country along with Indonesia.
At the family level, based on the research conducted by Philippine Institute for Development Studies, the average earnings of OFWs are often 4 to 5 times higher than what they can possibly earn on the same type of work in the Philippines. When remittances arrive to their families, these are spent on debt payment (34%); daily household operations (32%); acquisition of consumer durables (13%); education (10%); business capital (5%); shelter (3%); and savings (1%). While these remittances spending practicespositively impact food, health and education of the families, we can see the lower importance given to possible entrepreneurship venture that can multiply the remitted money and savings for the future. This type of spending behavior entraps women OFWs to the work almost all their productiveyears abroad.
This economic benefit from women OFWs comes with a very high social cost – the separation of family as a unit, which often led to estrangement, alienation or worst disintegration. According to the Institute of Labor Studies of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the continuing feminization of migration has the most detrimental impact to the family and children, especially when the mother is the one who goes to abroad for work. Families often go through a lot of major adjustments when women migrate because along with her also goes the caregiving and nurturing responsibilities. For the part of women in relation to the majority of work available for them, they often face unfair labor wages, deplorable labor conditions, and sometimes violence and abuse. In some countries, domestic work is not even considered as a formal employment. Studies conducted by non-governmental organizations estimated that about 9 million Filipino children are left behind as one or both parents migrate for work permanently or temporarily to other countries.
In order to help curb the social cost of women migration, DOLE and Coca-Cola Philippines has agreed to put in place enabling mechanisms that can potentially help women OFWs explore possible economic opportunities when they come home. The Women Entrepreneurs Reintegrated and Economically Active at Home (WOMEN REACH!) program launched today aims to economically empower women OFWs by providing them access to business skills and life training and access to business enhancement or start-up capital assets.
“The program partnership is targeted towards our returning women OFWs, especially our domestic workers and caregivers. The program shall equip them with the right support to build their entrepreneurial confidence so they can establish or enhance their own micro-enterprises within their own localities and eliminate the need for them to go abroad again,” says DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz.
This public-private partnership is a combination of several program components, the Coca-Cola Philippines STAR (Sari-Sari Store Training and Access to Resources) and DOLE’s Assist WELL (Welfare, Employment, Legal and Livelihood) programs that can readily accommodate returning women OFWs as they arrive.
Starting this year, the WOMEN REACH! Program shall initially target 10,000 women OFWs profiled and assessed by DOLE, subject to adjustments based on the influx of returning women OFWs. The WOMEN REACH! Program partnership is in collaboration with various DOLE attached agencies, chief of which are the Philippines Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA), National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO), Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BWSC), International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB)and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). TESDA is also the primary partner of the Coca-Cola Philippines in the implementation of the STAR Program since 2011.
“We are one with the Philippine Government in helping ensure economic opportunities are available for women. I believe that this partnership with DOLE will enable us to help bring lasting impact in the lives of marginalized women OFWs. We hope that the combination of each organizations’ expertise will enable the development and implementation of a sustainable, replicable and scalable micro-enterprise support mechanisms for women,” concludes Coca-Cola Philippines President and General Manager Diego Granizo.
The STAR Program is part of The Coca-Cola Company’s 5by20 global initiative that aims to empower 5 million women within its value chain by the year 2020. Started in 2011, the STAR Program is implemented nationwide and has already touched the lives of more than 47,000 women micro-entrepreneurs, this is out of the 200,000 target in the Philippines up to year 2020. Returning women OFWs with existing micro-retailing businesses such as sari-sari stores or carinderias, shall automatically qualify for STAR Program scholarship to undergo the Basic Entrepreneurship and Gender Sensitivity Training, primarily at the STAR Center for Excellence operated and managed at the TESDA Women’s Center in Taguig City and other STAR Program trainings conducted in the regions.
DOLE’s Assist WELL Program, by virtue of DOLE Order No. 139-14, is a package of freeassistance and services to ensure the successful reintegration of any OFWs returning to the country. Sec. Baldoz mandated the establishment of Assist WELL Processing Centers in strategic locations. Currently, there are 2 international Assist WELL Processing Centers in Seoul, South Korea and Dubai, UAE, and a total of 20 regional centers across the country – allocated one center per region, except for regions 8 and 6 with 2 centers each and NCR with 3 processing centers located at POEA, OWWA and NRCO offices. The WOMEN REACH! Program is among the livelihood opportunities supported under Assist WELL. After the successful training of women OFWs under the 5by20 STAR Program, they will be extended various business enhancement programs of Assist WELL that will enable them to grow their retail businesses.
In the coming months, the WOMEN REACH! Program shall also collaborate in the development of basic entrepreneurship and gender sensitive curriculum and training modules intended for women OFWs who plans to start-up their own micro-enterprises. █