ISEA conducts Seminar Workshops on the BTP WEE in AVCs for Corporate Agribusiness and SMEs/SEs for June to August 2023
From June to August 2023, the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA) conducted a series of Seminar Workshops on the Benchmarks for Transformational Partnerships and Women’s Economic Empowerment in Agricultural Value Chains (BTP WEE in AVCs or Benchmarks) for corporate agri-business corporations and small medium enterprises/social enterprises (SMEs/SEs) combining online and face to face delivery to its partners.
The Seminar Workshop with Pilmico Foods Corporation was conducted last June 14 to 15 and 17. Pilmico Foods Corporation is a corporate agribusiness in the Philippines engaged in yellow corn production. As a result of the workshop, PFC committed to strengthen its policy and practice on smallholder inclusion and WEE in its agricultural value chains following a 10-year Vision and WEE Plan. It has defined key action from August 2023 to January 2024 to ensure that the WEE Plans will be integrated into their CSR Plans from January 2024 onwards.
Similarly, the Seminar Workshop with GlowCorp, a social enterprise which serves as marketing arm of cooperatives, peoples’ organizations and individuals engaged in organic rice and muscovado sugar, underwent a process of self-scoring, visioning and planning with ISEA on July 10-11, 2023 in BHotel, Quezon City, Philippines. This was followed by a virtual Seminar Workshop with the Federation of Peoples Sustainable Development Cooperative (FPSDC) which is a marketing arm of its member cooperative in the country primarily for organic rice, coco sugar and muscovado sugar. Both of the two-day workshops resulted to their 5-year plans to integrate WEE in their policies and programs.
Another virtual workshop took place with the Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc. (PSFI) last August 7 to 9, 2023. PSFI is the social arm of Shell companies in the Philippines that aspires to spearhead fit-for-purpose projects that responds not only to the needs of Shell’s worksites and host communities, but to the rest of the country.
These seminar workshop were aimed at: (1) increasing appreciation on the key elements and sub-elements of the BTP WEE in AVCs framework and scorecard and their relevance in enhancing how they engage small producers, especially women, in their respective value chains; (2) utilizing the BTP WEE in AVCs scorecard as a tool for evaluating the corporate agribusiness corporation or SMEs/SEs’s strengths and weaknesses in engaging small producers, especially women in their respective value chains; (3) better appreciating the situation of women in AVCs and what WEE means in this context; (4) to better appreciate their particular context and potential in contributing to improving women’s participation and women’s economic empowerment in their enterprise, their agricultural value chain and the communities affected by their operations; and (5) developing an initial plan of action to operationalize their role as enabler of women’s economic empowerment in their enterprise, their agricultural value chain and the communities affected by their operations.