Economic Empowerment for Women & Marginalised People: Building an Online Directory of APAC Micro-Businesses
At a friend’s New Year’s Eve party, where we rang in 2023, we went around and shared our theme or word for the year.
The theme/word is what we envision and plan to work toward for the year ahead.
The word I gave was Security.
This word deeply resonates with me because I witnessed & experienced so much financial trauma before & during COVID.
In 2017, I started experiencing financial difficulties (within and without my control) that snowballed yearly.
This string of unfortunate events culminated in my biggest financial hit during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
I was 6 months unemployed.
I’m emotional typing this because the trauma resurfaces with the associated emotions.
Especially the fear of being forced out of a country I was born & raised into to a passport country I’ve never lived in — during the height of a global pandemic.
“Dark times” is an apt description of that period in my life because of my “last resort” thoughts.
As someone with that experience and in a relatively better position today, I feel impassioned to do something, however small, to ensure that someone else experiencing something similar (or worse) has a fighting chance — especially if they’re further disadvantaged due to their gender or other vulnerability.
One of the things I wanted to look into was Economic Empowerment — for myself, my loved ones, and marginalised communities.
This is what spurred me to build a directory of micro-business owners that fit any/all of the following criteria:
- 100% owned by women and/or people from vulnerable groups
- Supports women and/or vulnerable groups
If you know an Asian-Pacific (APAC) micro-business with something unique to offer residents/tourists that fit the above criteria, nominate them with this form to be included in an online directory that I hope to publish this year.
What sparked this idea was a conversation among friends.
Friend A: I love supporting local, women-owned businesses.
Me: Oooh, there should be an online directory listing all these local, women-owned businesses that we can support.
Friend B: Oh yeah, like on a Google Sheet or something, right?
Me (thinking): If a directory doesn’t exist, I should build it myself. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It could be as simple as listing the businesses on a Google Sheet and sharing it online.
At least, that’s how I vaguely remember the conversation and my thought process going.
Throughout the day, I let the idea incubate.
By bedtime, I realised how beneficial this would be beyond supporting women-owned businesses in Malaysia.
I dreamed bigger and excitedly drafted the first version of my nomination form.
The form you see today was after sharing it with trusted friends and refining it based on their feedback.
Why is this online directory needed?
As far as I know, such a directory doesn’t exist and should be because it’s a helpful resource for both the givers (people with privilege who would like to do some good while they make a purchase) and the receivers (marginalised people).
By supporting marginalised communities, we’re helping to economically empower them.
Economic empowerment of marginalised communities helps to:
- Promote full, productive, and fair employment/work for all
- Positively impact families, communities, and society by reducing poverty, increasing food security, and reducing inequalities, e.g. gender inequality
- Ensure better health outcomes and social mobility by increasing access to healthcare, education, and housing
- Contribute to a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable economy in APAC
Who would this directory benefit?
Micro-business owners in Asia-Pacific that have been negatively affected by the global pandemic and are still struggling to recover because of several factors such as:
- Gender-based discrimination, e.g., trans men/women business owners
- Limited access to finance, e.g., women unable to get loans/credit because they work in the informal sector
- Cultural & societal norms, e.g., women and girls expected to stay home and take on the burden of unpaid labour (physical & emotional) by looking after the family
- Lack of supportive policies and infrastructure, e.g., lack of child care services for single mothers in the informal sector
- Unequal distribution of resources, e.g., obstacles in obtaining digital devices and internet connectivity
- Climate change, e.g., crop failures, responsibility for collecting water & managing household sanitation, adverse health effects, increased risk of violence & exploitation, and so much more
Empower micro-business owners and vulnerable groups in APAC
If you know an APAC micro-business/micro-business owner that identifies or supports women and/or is in one or more of the following vulnerable groups, nominate them with our form:
- Women (including Rural/Indigenous Women)
- LGBTQ+
- Homeless
- Stateless Individuals
- Refugees
- People Living Below the Poverty Line
- People with Disabilities — visible, invisible, hidden
- Senior Citizens
- Other vulnerable groups/marginalised communities
