NCRFW partners with Go Negosyo for 2009 Women’s Month celebration
The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), the government’s machinery for women’s advancement, has collaborated with the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE) for the “Go Negosyo: Babae, Yaman Ka ng Bayan!”, a women entrepreneurship summit which will be held on March 2, 2009 at the World Trade Center, Pasay City.
Designed to be the biggest women’s event of the year, it will feature negosyo basics – best marketing practices for small enterprises, entrepreneurial financial managem,ent, leadership styles, competitiveness in the export market, technology utilization – to tips and advice on the concerns that women entrepreneurs face: health and wellness, fitness, family life and work balance.
There will also be booths and exhibitors that will showcase different products and services for women consumers.
According to NCRFW Chair Myrna T. Yao, this year’s Women’s Month theme “Babae, Yaman Ka ng Bayan!” aims to spread the entrepreneurship advocacy among the Filipino women.
“The NCRFW continues with its advocacy anchored on the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) emphasizing the state’s obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill women’s rights in social, economic, political, civil and family spheres,” Chair Yao said.
NCRFW and PCE joined efforts to give inspiration to Filipino women and to promote an optimistic and entrepreneurial culture among Filipinos.
PCE has been successful in holding Go Negosyo caravans in key cities in the country where they held lectures, expos and forums on the basics of entrepreneurship.
“Economic empowerment is both a means and an end to achieve gender equality. Women and men are partners in steering society’s development. Society cannot progress without the contributions of women, who comprise almost half of our population. Women cannot contribute fairly when barriers hinder their access and use of economic resources,” Chair Yao added.
This year’s event is focused on championing women’s economic rights by engaging women in micro-enterprise development. Considering the present global financial crisis, it is timely to tap half of the country’s resource, the women, and create a gender-responsive environment to encourage and support them to venture into high-value and more meaningful economic activities and enterprise development.
The 2009 Women’s Month theme also supports the fulfillment of the country’s international treaty obligations, particularly of the UN CEDAW, the Millennium Declaration, and International Labour Organizations (ILO) conventions.
It is also in cognizant of the Arroyo Administration’s Ten-Point Agenda and the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) 2004-2010 which identifies the creation of three million enterprises and ten million jobs, with women as the main target of micro-finance initiatives.
