Gender Responsive Economic Actions for the Transformation of Women II (GREAT Women II)

Building on GREAT Women 1’s success, GREAT Women Project II, also otherwise known as Supporting Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Philippines, is a PhP 334.9-million project that was developed to provide a timely opportunity to improve sustainability, productivity, and competitiveness of women’s micro-enterprises and to continue enhancing the enabling environment for economic empowerment of women.

Under this project, a new module was developed for the Gender Responsive Value Chain Analysis (GRVCA) that factors in “greening” as a vital component in the development of women-owned and family-based SMEs.

DTI handles this project together with Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Agriculture (DA), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Philippine Commission on Women (PCW), small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and private sector representatives.

DTI, as the lead implementing agency, has established a project management office based in DTI-Region IVA to coordinate and manage the implementation of the project nationwide.

GREAT Women 1 Project (GWP1) Outcome Assessment

The Beneficiaries of GREAT Women 1 Project in Quezon Province

The Beneficiaries of GREAT Women 1 Project in Iloilo

As part of the initial steps in the preparation of the Outcome Assessment of the GREAT Women 1 Project, a coordinative meeting with regional and head office implementers to discuss the manner, conduct and schedule of filed assessment was held in October 2019. In October 25, impact assessment interviews with the Barugo Roscas Producers in Barugo, Leyte were organized. In the following month of November, an Impact Assessment session with DTI Camarines Sur and Focused Group Discussions in CAR, Quezon, Bohol, and Iloilo were also conducted.

Accomplishments in 2018

Monitoring of Canadian-funded projects – coordinated the visit of Mr. Stephen Weaver to GREAT women micro-entrepreneurs as part of his official travel to oversee/monitor all Canadian-funded projects
Provision of cluster materials – provided materials on coffee and cacao roadmaps as inputs to GWP2 Women Project Management Office (PMO) for the research on the proposed restructuring of the GWP2 project for 2018 onwards.

GWP2 PMO-PMT Transition Meeting: For the project to take the sectoral approach in its implementation for 2018-2020 aligning to the industry clusters of DTI. The value added of the project is the integration of the gender principles in the cluster plans.

DTI informed Project Steering Committee (PSC) regarding its discussions on the proposed priority industry cluster held with the National Industry Cluster Coordinators. She noted that DTI is waiting on the final list of priority regions and structure before cascading it to concerned Regional Industry Clusters.
DTI expressed concern on the low number of women micro entrepreneurs enrollees in coffee and cacao industries and noted that there would be a more realistic number for these industries once profiles are completed and validated. DTI asked the body to allow it to complete and validate the profiles of the WMEs.

WEE Project Inter-Agency Consultation Workshop where the following are discussed: Project Review and Assessment of Implementation in financial year 3; and Value Added of the WEE Project to target Regions per Industry Cluster as approved by the PSC.

Identified 9 regions (CAR, 2, 3, 4A, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11) to be included under the Industry Cluster Approach. Selection was based on the WME enrolment, validated by NIC heads and agency partners and triangulated through consultation with private sector partners
DTI identified regions will continue to implement its initiatives in support to WEE but will not anymore lead the convergence group.

Accomplishments in 2017

Conducted the 10^th National Convergence Group (NCG) meeting on 20 January 2017. The Baseline research by DAP and the Green Gender Responsive Value Chains Analysis (GGRVCA) guide were presented for comments and suggestions of the body. The meeting also discussed the then upcoming monitoring mission from Canada headquarters, and clarified the roles and responsibilities in the national, regional, and provincial levels. In line with the Women’s Month celebration in March, the GREAT Women’s beneficiaries’ products were showcased for the whole month of March.
The Philippine Commission on Women Project Management Office (PCW-PMO) met with the Department of Trade and Industry Project Management Team (DTI-PMT) and Resource Generation and Management Services (RGMS) Bureau for the Year-End Inter-Agency Planning and Assessment. The body agreed to have the PMO download the budget for the hiring of project assistants in the regions concerned, as well as the budget for the increase in salary of the TEVs. PMO was also assigned responsible for the conduct of training on project evaluation for Project Assistants and partners.
A target of the GWP2 is to have a functional Women’s Economic Empowerment’s (WEE) task force in the cabinet cluster by 2017, and some trade and policy framework amendments. During the Year-End Inter-Agency planning and assessment, the body expressed the need to have the other assistances provided to Women Micro Entrepreneurs (WMEs) e.g. product development, green and gender integration, etc. and not just the trade fair participation—be reflected to the accomplishment reports.

Participated in the GWP2 mid project evaluation by an external evaluator.
Met with the DTI-Information Systems Management Service (ISMS) and agreed that an offline monitoring tool in excel format is to be used nationwide by the project assistants in the absence of an online database system. This offline monitoring tool will nonetheless be the basis for the online database should the project agree to develop one. Another potential basis is the BSMEDs database which can be tailor-fitted according to the GWP2s needs accordingly. BSMED provided the data fields to PCW for review and service matching.
GWP2 Mid project evaluation by an external evaluator.
In celebration of the annual National Women’s Month and as part of the worldwide observance of the International Women’s Day (IWD), the Resource Generation and Management Service (RGMS), in partnership with the Bureau of Domestic Trade Promotion (BDTP) and the GREAT Women Project 2 DTI Project Management Team (GWP2 DTI-PMT), spearheaded the conduct of a local trade fair from March 21-April 25, 2017 at the OTOP Makati Showroom, Ground Floor of the Trade and Industry Building, 361 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City.

With the theme, “WE Make Change Work for Women”, the trade fair featured the different improvements and enhancements undertaken by DTI to make its services for Women Micro Entrepreneurs (WMEs) better. This initiative highlighted the participation of the selected GWP2 WMEs nationwide. The activity aimed to address one of the identified needs of the WMEs which is access to market. The local trade fair was participated by at least 80 women entrepreneurs who showcased their different products e.g. fresh and processed food, woven items, shoes and bags, home decors, fabrics, etc. from the different regions nationwide.

In celebration of “Made in the Philippines Product Week”, Director Lydia Guevarra of DTI-RGMS and Ms Remy Adedoja of Laguna Water Hyacinth Handicrafts Producers Association were interviewed last 23 August 2017 by CNN’s Newsroom Ngayon.

Per review of the year’s accomplishments and the project goal and targets, the PMO suggested to re-structure the project, while still covering the same sector. The new arrangement will to cover areas where sector/s is/are strong and established to ensure success. The target WMEs are also those which have high potential of success under the priority sectors.

Accomplishments in 2016

Conducted the following meetings/workshops:
- GGRVCA workshop for the Southern Mindanao Regions (Regions 11, 12, and CARAGA), Northern Mindanao and Zamboanga Peninsula Regions (Regions 9 and 10), project partners (DOST, DA, BFAR, DTI and private sector representatives)
- GWP 2 DTI Technical Working Group (TWG) Planning Workshop
- 3rd Project Steering Committee (PSC) Meeting
- DTI Year 2 Planning
- Meeting with GWP2 Project Management Officer (PMO) for inputs to the National Convergence Group (NCG) Assessment and Planning
Facilitated development of the GGRVCA module for use in the conduct of the GGRVCA for the stakeholders. Actual roll-out of the GGRVCA was done to Quezon, Region 4A, Pampanga, Region 3 and Legaspi and Naga, Region 5.
Conducted the 9th National Convergence Group (NCG) Meeting. Discussion during the meeting included the following: Presentation of highlights of partners’ (DA, DA-BFAR, DTI-PMT, DOST (CO, PTRI), ECHOSi, NATCCO and PCW-PMO) activities in the past 6 months, upcoming activities, concerns and emerging project implementation issues, and recommendations. The draft module of GGRVCA was presented and feedbacks from the partners were provided.
Conducted the assessment of the project implementation of the GREAT Women 2 Project vis-à-vis the approved Year 1 Work and Financial Plan (WFP) as inputs to the Project Steering Committee (PSC) Meeting on 26 October 2016 and for the Year 2 WFP preparation. The assessment was conducted at the GWP 2 Project Management Office in DTI-Region 4A, Calamba, Laguna.
Conducted the DTI Regional Coordinators and RGC members on Capacity Enhancement on Monitoring and Evaluation Using the RBM Approach which was held at the Makati Palace Hotel on 17-21 of October 2016. The objective of the workshop was to make the project run smoothly as planned and to help the project on how to address the needs of WMEs, as well as the needs of the Enablers/Implementers in all the regions using the Results-Based Management Approach.
Developed the Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E) Guide, led by PCW and its partner NGAs, LGUs, and private sectors, which is intended for the use of GWP2 implementer

Foreign-Assisted Projects

Gender Responsive Economic Actions for the Transformation of Women II (GREAT Women II)

GREAT Women 1 Project (GWP1) Outcome Assessment