MARCH as women’s month is the perfect time to launch the first in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean): an all women-focused online platform. With technology as enabler to support women networks, collaborations and enterprise trade, a grouping of organizations came together on March 5 to launch the Gender Responsive Economic Actions for the Transformation (Great) of Women information-communications technology (ICT) Platform (GW-ICT Platform).
The aim of the GW-ICT Platform is to link women entrepreneurs, in business and professional sectors and women’s groups through technology that will enable their economic empowerment and create networking strength. Taking the lead are the Business and Professional Women Network-Makati (BPW Makati) with partner PLDT Smart Foundation Inc. and PLDT SME Nation Inc. Multinational company IBM (Philippines) Corp. offered their SmartCloud as the GW-ICT Platform’s social business tool.
Supporting this ICT Platform is the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Philippine Commission for Women (PCW) and the Enabling Communities with Hope and Opportunities for Sustainable Initiatives (ECHOsi) Foundation. These three groups now run the GW-ICT Platform’s value and supply-chain development program—with support from the Canadian government—and market preparedness for woman-entrepreneurs. The GW-ICT Platform is an integrated platform to address gender issues in both micro- and social enterprise development and deliver a truly inclusive economic development. The goal is to help women up the supply and value chain. Today this platform is the country’s gender platform.
The GW-ICT Platform hopes to bring in other women groups, such as Women Business Council, Women Corporate Directors, Spark, Network of Enterprising Women and Women CEO group, among others. The PLDT-Smart Foundation hopes to align their SME Nation woman-entrepreneurs. The PCW and the DTI Women’s Desk joint role is to draw in Gender and Development (GAD) Focal Persons in government agencies into this platform for networking opportunities by way that GAD budgets can really support women’s economic development. The longer term direction is to invite women under industry and professional groupings. This GW-ICT Platform may prove to be the online group where women can support their own value or supply chain in their businesses or professions.
This is also to drumbeat the women activities related to the buildup of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Women and the Economy Forum in September, and the value of collaborating and connecting for the Asean Economic Community in December.
Access into the GW-ICT Platform is given to one central person of each group who invites the members into their own groups into the SmartCloud. Online, they can have group meetings, chat, mentoring, e-mail, instant message, resource share and easy Web conferencing, where meetings can be held securely. Mentoring programs, market place, job placements, recruitment and events are offered to all in the GW-ICT Platform. In this space women can truly help women find jobs, trade, teach each other and, as a whole, become a transformative force in the economy.
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Jeannie E. Javelosa is the founding president of BPW Makati; president of the ECHOsi Foundation Inc.; and cofounder of ECHOstore and the EON stakeholder-relations firm. This article reflects the opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the BPW network. Women Stepping Up is a rotating column of members of BPW Makati. For more information on BPW Makati, visit www.womensteppingup.org.