Amidst the Muslim Holiday on April 3, 2019, over 160 aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners coming from the Summer Capital of the South – Marawi City and the City of Majestic Waterfalls – Iligan City, attended the joint event of Connected Women and UNDP. Plaza Alemania of Iligan City was filled with eager participants who didn’t want to miss the learning on how they can build and start their online career and business.

Women and the Future of Work in Marawi and the Rest of the Bangsamoro

Following the UN Women’s International Women’s Day theme for 2019, “Think equal, build smart, innovate for change,” the program focused on informing and inspiring innovative ways in which they were able to advance gender equality, particularly through financial inclusion, labor participation and women’s economic empowerment. Atty. Mohammad Al-Amin Julkipli, Programme Analyst for Resilience and Peace Building of UNDP Philippines opened the event with a motivational key message to the women from Bangsamoro areas.

Ruth Yu-Owen, a successful businesswoman proud of her Chinese-Tausug roots, also kickstarted the event by sharing her humble beginnings, challenges, triumphs and how she co-founded Connected Women, an organization aimed at improving the economic participation of women through technology adoption and entrepreneurship. “Use technology to initiate movements, to make a difference in people’s lives. Change lives. Be of help. Always help when you can,” Ruth shared.

Gender Equality, Women’s Economic Empowerment and Resilience in BARMM

Also gracing the event is Amina Rasul-Bernardo, the President of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy. She left the crowd with an informative and thought-provoking talk about the amazing contributions of women and how they remain unacknowledged, invisible and anonymous. “It’s about time that Moro women are recognized in our history and be credited for the work that they do,” she remarked.

Joining her in a panel is a young public servant and a Public Administration student of MSU Marawi, Johaniah Yusoph and Niña Espinola-Abogado, Oxfam’s Partnership and Programme Manager, Digital Financial Inclusion.

Possibilities that Digital Marketing Can Bring

Technology has paved the way for startups and businesses to grow and flourish. Through social media, Facebook and Instagram, entrepreneurs are now able to increase their brand awareness and build better customer relationships.

More was discussed in a panel on “Technology-empowered Entrepreneurship” with Selahuddin Hashim, CEO of The Moropreneur Inc., Ria San Gabriel, Head of Community of Connected Women, and Aisha Flores, former Commissioner of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos and Senior Lecturer of the University of the Philippines Institute of Islamic Studies. The participants learn the advantages of cost-efficient digital and social media marketing platforms to set up profitable business ideas and promote existing products and services to improve their incomes.

Engr. Oweida Smith of DICT and Sittie Norjehan Hassan Macapundag, a top graduate of the Rural Impact Sourcing program, shared the economic opportunities that tech can bring to help uplift the situation in Marawi. Connected Women Program Manager Liezl Dunuan also led an activity to introduce remote work, debunk false ideas on working from home and share free resources to kickstart an online career such as an online digital marketing course called “WE-Train, WE-Match,” made possible through the collaboration of Connected Women, Facebook and DICT’s Tech4Ed.

Work With Women Everywhere

Yes, we do work with women everywhere! Harnessing technology, our “Best Selfies” and “Best We-fies” winners were actually chosen by our teammates based in Bulacan and Lucena. Our banners and cool swag bags carrying Connected Women’s tagline “Work With Women Everywhere” were also designed by a women-founded online creative agency in Taguig, Dezynspace. Talk about digital!

On top of UN Women’s theme on innovating change for women, the event also followed International Women’s Day 2019 theme #BalanceForBetter and Connected Women’s #High5for5. These are not just for the month of March – campaigns run all year long – a reminder to do what you can to truly make a positive difference for women everywhere.