In celebration of Women’s Month, the Ateneo Center for Social Entrepreneurship (ACSEnt), in partnership with the World Bank and the Australian Embassy, held a landmark forum on “Women Entrepreneurship and Financial Inclusion.” One of the event’s highlights was the presentation of a field-based study by Vincent Rapisura, President of SEDPI, focusing on the resilience of women nano-entrepreneurs in Mindanao.
Funded by the World Bank and Australian Aid, the SEDPI study focuses on nanoenterprises—the smallest informal businesses with asset sizes between ₱3,000 to ₱150,000. These are often unregistered, operated by women, and driven by necessity rather than opportunity. Though largely invisible in policy, they are essential to community-level economic resilience.
Drawing from longitudinal data and focus group discussions from Regions XI and XIII, the study revealed how women navigate successive crises—pandemics, natural disasters, and economic shocks—while shouldering household responsibilities. These entrepreneurs, often overlooked and unregistered, operate on necessity, not opportunity. SEDPI’s work shed light on their adaptive strategies, showing that savings, community-based insurance, and non-credit-based interventions offer more sustainable solutions than conventional loans.
Rapisura emphasized the value of indigenous financial mechanisms like Damayan and SEDPI’s own KaTambayayong program, which delivers faster and more relevant support than traditional insurance products. His recommendations—ranging from subsidized childcare, emphasis for social safety nets and innovative savings products, to flexible micro-housing loans—highlight a holistic, gender-sensitive approach to building resilience.
The study resonated with insights from the World Bank, which stressed the urgent need to improve women’s access to formal finance, and from Investing in Women, which underscored the role of gender-lens investing in addressing systemic funding gaps. Together, these perspectives formed a unified call for inclusive, practical, and community-rooted interventions.
Dr. Liliana Sousa of the World Bank shared data on gender gaps in financial access. Mr. Conrad De Jesus from Investing in Women discussed gender-lens investing in Southeast Asia, while Mr. Daniel Simpson of the Australian Embassy highlighted Australia’s commitment to women’s economic empowerment. The forum was opened by Dean Roberto Galang of the Ateneo John Gokongwei School of Management and Dr. Zafar Mustafaoglu, Country Director of the World Bank.
SEDPI’s on-the-ground experience complements global development agendas, offering innovative and localized models to empower the invisible yet indispensable women entrepreneurs of the Philippines.
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