Gender and SSE: On Women’s Leadrepreneurship in Covid Times
Homenet Philippines, through PATAMABA-WISE president Josephine “Olive” Parilla explained the concept of women’s leadrepreneurship in covid times during a webinar March 11 in celebration of Women’s Month sponsored by the Asian Solidarity Economy Council (ASEC), UN Women Economic Empowerment Program in Asia, and the University of the Philippines Women’s and Gender Studies.
This activity is the first in a series that is meant to evolve into a training course on gender and social solidarity economy (SSE) co-sponsored by the three organizations mentioned, and to be rolled out in May.
Olive presented the origins of the concept of leaderpreneurship, tracing it to the advocacy of organized women in the informal economy decades back. She connected it to the empowering dimensions of SSE especially during the time of covid, which had a huge impact on women informal workers. Grassroots communities have responded to covid by shifting to alternative production (of Personal Protective Equipment, for example) , by launching solidarity-based actions, and by coming up with ways forward involving policy changes. (Her power point presentation may be found in click here)
ASEC is part of the global network promoting solidarity economy called RIPESS, and the women leaders of RIPESS decided to feature grassroots women in their March 8 newsletter in celebration of Women’s Month. Olive Parilla was one of several women from various continents featured in the newsletter.
Homenet Philippines: Towards achieving income security through alternative livelihood
Several speakers from six countries in Asia and Europe, representing ILO, trade unions and workers’ organizations, shared stories of various initiatives towards achieving income security in the age of COVID.
On the Asian side, Homenet Philippines through Josephine “Olive” Parilla presented the story of PATAMABA WISE focusing on alternative livelihood. This was based on a participatory action research conducted by her base organization together with Homenet Philippines supported by the Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC), a key organizer of the Asia-Europe webinar.
Her presentation had the following content: 1) Introduction to PATAMABA WISE, the informal sector (IS), and IS issues (including gender issues); 2) COVID -19 Pandemic: Impact and Response;3) PATAMABA WISE Agenda and Approaches: Alignment with SSE Dimensions and SDGs;4) Approaches: Leadrepreneurship and SSE to espond to IS and gender issues; and 5) Some Ways Forward, (It can be downloaded at click here.)
