SULU - Dotted with beautiful beaches and rich in history as the former home of the Sultanate of Sulu, the Sulu Archipelago, extending from the southern Philippines to Malaysia, is an island province of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, commonly known as the BARMM.
Prior to the creation of the BARMM as a self-governing region of the Philippines in 2019, this poor and largely Muslim territory suffered for years from separatist and intercommunal violence and persistent underdevelopment. Both the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were active in the archipelago, which was also home to the Abu Sayyaf group, a splinter group of the MNLF that engaged in kidnap-for-ransom and other terrorist activities.
While the creation of the BARMM has
ushered in a new era of peace and the prospect of progress and economic
development, Sulu, like other provinces of the BARMM, still registers high rates of poverty, with
the nation’s highest unemployment, lowest access to banking, and lowest
household incomes.
These economic disadvantages fall
especially hard on women. A baseline survey by The Asia Foundation conducted in
2020 found that barely half of female respondents (50.3 percent) had a job or a
business, and that most women who did have a livelihood were engaged in
small-scale, informal businesses such as the home-based convenience stores
known as a sari saris,
backyard farming, or selling local delicacies in public markets.
Like the Bangsamoro region more
generally, Sulu also suffers from the lingering psycho-social effects of years
of conflict, and women have been particularly affected, whether as former
combatants themselves or as widows and survivors left to provide for their
families.
Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs
Peace has brought new hope to Sulu for
progress and economic development, including greater economic participation for
women. Despite temporary setbacks due to the Covid pandemic, several plans to
develop the BARMM are underway.
In Sulu, business and tourism are
booming, offering a unique opportunity to consolidate the gains of
the peace process and promote economic development, particularly for Sulu
women. Amid these signs of opportunity, The Asia Foundation and several local
partners have launched Accelerate
Women’s Entrepreneurship for Peace and Prosperity, or ACCELERATE, a
program supported by USAID, Australian DFAT, and the Visa Foundation that
promotes livelihoods for vulnerable and marginalized women in Sulu and the
BARMM by helping them acquire skills and training, facilitating access to
markets and capital, and linking women entrepreneurs to partnerships, coaching,
and mentoring support. In Sulu, The Asia Foundation implements the project in
partnership with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.
Most of the women participating in
ACCELERATE are former combatants, wives or family of former combatants, or
previous victims of violent extremism. Among the key elements of the program is
training in branding and marketing for women with existing small businesses.
Participants learn how to better present
their products and how to join the booming digital economy to engage customers
online. Small grants are provided as additional capital to some of the women
entrepreneurs to help them expand their businesses.
To broaden their customer base,
ACCELERATE helped organize a product exhibition in Metro Manila for the
artisanal products of Sulu women. This was the first time that the unique textiles
and woven products from Sulu had received a national showcase, and in the
future ACCELERATE plans to continue supporting access to wider markets for Sulu
products.
Success Stories
Recently, a number of Sulu women shared
with us their stories of personal success and how their families and
communities had rallied to support their entrepreneurial journeys.
Ayang Muksan is a former combatant who
was captured and detained in Malaysia for six months along with her two
children. To rebuild her life in Sulu and support her young family, Ayang
started a small business weaving colorful mats. Since her training with
ACCELERATE, she has begun to expand her business and market her products at
trade fairs.
Aspiring entrepreneur Nursima Juhaili
wanted to try her luck working in other countries as an Overseas Filipino
Worker, but her father had heard stories about the risks to women living and
working abroad and would not give her permission. Instead, Nursima was able to
get training from ACCELERATE in food production and entrepreneurship. She
became the team leader of a women’s association that produces seaweed crackers,
seaweed noodles, papaya pickles, and fish balls. For Nursima, the skills and
knowledge that she and her associates gained from ACCELERATE “are worth more
than a million pesos and inspired us to work better for ourselves and for our
families.”
In November 2021, I had occasion to
attend a graduation ceremony in Luuk, Sulu, for 104 women who had received
training from Sinagtala, one of ACCELERATE’s partner organizations. Sinagtala
combines training in skills such as weaving with psycho-social counseling and
support. Some of the graduates also received training in product development
and marketing and have started to find wider markets for their products.
The Road Ahead
The journey to entrepreneurship for the
women of Sulu is not yet complete. Access to finance remains one of the stumbling blocks to
growth for small businesses in the Philippines, especially in the BARMM.
The central bank’s Report
on the State of Financial Inclusion in the Philippines 2018 found
that citizens of the BARMM were unbanked in 108 out of 118 local government
jurisdictions, and 92 percent of the region overall does not have banking
access. ACCELERATE’s own baseline research confirmed that financial and digital
inclusion were central challenges to women’s entrepreneurship in Sulu.
This problem is compounded by low
awareness among otherwise eligible businesses of the financial services that
are available from banks and microfinance institutions, despite the strong
interest in obtaining these services among micro-entrepreneurs seeking capital
to grow their businesses. ACCELERATE is already working with local banks and
microfinance institutions to address this and similar issues.
Meanwhile, the rise of the digital
economy represents both an opportunity and a challenge for Sulu’s women
entrepreneurs, due to uneven access to digital services and poor internet
connectivity in many parts of the BARMM. This is another potential area of
policy work for ACCELERATE, and we are currently piloting an online
platform to help them link with global markets and network with
other entrepreneurs.
At this auspicious time in the BARMM, the
women of Sulu are showing that they have tremendous potential to grow, adapt,
and succeed. Entrepreneurship is one important pathway to an economic future
that will translate into improved gender equality and greater power for women
to chart their own futures for themselves and their families.
Provincial Governor Sakur Tan has also
provided livelihood not only to women, but other sectors as well, in an effort
to promote sustainable jobs. Tan, an influential figure and a philanthropist,
is aggressively pursuing tourism development considering Sulu has many things
to offer - from its rich and colorful history and culture to the pristine
nature and white powdery beachfronts.
Tan, a key figure in Sulu’s dramatic development,
has repeatedly called on fishermen and farmers to collectively work and form
cooperatives and pledges them financial support.
The provincial government is closely working with national government agencies to ensure the success of various programs and projects in Sulu’s 19 municipalities and much more now under the administration of President Bongbong Marcos. Indeed, Sulu is a place to visit and invest. (By Jerryll Reyes, The Asia Foundation’s project manager for ACCELERATE in the Philippines. With additional reporting from The Mindanao Examiner.)
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