ASSESSMENT OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF WOMEN INVOLVED IN MICRO, SMALL, AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (MSMES) IN THE PHILIPPINES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY WITH SELECT ASEAN COUNTRIES
Creators: name: Solina, Myrtle Faye
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Business studies
Gender studies
ASEAN
Business environment

description: <strong>Background of the Study</strong><br> The ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises<br> (ACCMSME) in 2020 cited that small and medium enterprises are key drivers and<br> contributors to economic growth, account for 88.8% to 99.9% of all establishments,<br> and generate between 51.7% and 97.2% of total employment. As such, the ASEAN<br> Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025 stated that the region would give new<br> emphasis on assisting and promoting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)<br> in its economic integration through a more structured and targeted MSME program.<br> The program will be put in place to enhance MSME competitiveness, resilience, and<br> to enable more significant benefits from ASEAN integration through various<br> measures such as (a) promotion of productivity, use of technology, and adaption of<br> innovation; (b) increase access to finance by developing and enhancing current<br> framework, strengthening traditional infrastructure, enhancing policy environment<br> and measures that foster alternative and non-traditional financing; (c) enhance<br> market access and internationalization through the development of support schemes<br> and integration into the global supply chains, e.g., promotion of collaboration with<br> multinational corporations (MNCs) and large enterprises, foster the use of<br> e-Commerce, and boost strategies to promote exports through export clinics,<br> advisory services and rules of origin (ROO) utilization, and (d) enhance MSME policy<br> and regulatory environment that supports intra- and inter-governmental cooperation<br> and coordination mechanism through the involvement of MSMEs in the<br> decision-making process to enable better representation of MSME interests, extend assistance to<br> microenterprises in the informal sector and their integration, and streamline<br> processes involved in obtaining permits and business registrations to enable less<br> costly and faster business formation (ASEAN Secretariat, 2015).<br> True to its overarching message, ASEAN: A Community of Opportunities, the<br> region also recognizes the critical role of women in entrepreneurship. As such, the<br> Joint Statement of the Second ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Women (AMMW)<br> issued in October 2015 in Manila recognized that the realization of these principles<br> requires the active engagement of all ASEAN Member States (AMS), sectoral bodies<br> under the three (3) pillars of ASEAN, and stakeholders including civil society,<br> academia, media, and private sectors. Further, the AEC Blueprint 2025 stated that<br> promotion of entrepreneurship and social capital development by creating a more<br> conducive environment for entrepreneurship. Some of the ways to realize this is<br> through the ASEAN Online Academy and enhancing social capital development for<br> MSMEs, with particular focus on youth and women, are among its priorities (ASEAN<br> Secretariat, 2015).<br> Focusing on women, Amartya Sen (2001), on his essay entitled “The Many<br> Faces of Gender Inequality”, has identified seven (7) varieties of disparities between<br> genders, namely (1) mortality inequality, (2) natality inequality, (3) basic-facility<br> inequality, (4) special-opportunity inequality, (5) professional inequality, (6)<br> ownership inequality, and (7) household inequality. Mortality inequality directly<br> tackles life and death with women being observed to have high mortality rates than<br> men on communities with documented gender-biased as compared to communities<br> with little or no gender bias. Natality inequality is the preference for boys over girls,<br> which is a characteristic of patriarchal societies. Basic-facility inequality, as the name<br> suggests, are biases that involved basic needs such as equal opportunity to attend<br> school and social functions. Special-opportunity inequality covers privileges such as<br> access to higher education, training, and professional work, among others.<br> Professional inequality is those inequalities which pertain to promotion in work and<br> occupation. Ownership inequality relates to biases in property ownership, which was<br> identified to affect not only the voice of women in the society but also makes it harder<br> for women to enter and to flourish in commercial, economic, and even in some social<br> functions. Household inequality directly tackles the unequal distribution of household<br> roles and responsibilities, which in some societies, is to take for granted that men will<br> naturally work outside the home. In contrast, women could do so if and only if they<br> could combine such work with various inescapable and unequally shared household<br> duties.<br> Given the above scenarios, this study explored the business environment for<br> Filipino women involved in the micro, small and medium enterprises. It drew a<br> comparison with select ASEAN countries, namely Singapore and Myanmar, using<br> the available published resources.
description: Masters Thesis