e CONNECTED n‘Peace Empowered lives. Resilient nations. “ACTIVITY, + | Connected Women — Marawi Meetup and Planning on Women Entrepreneurs | |__| in Technology and Digital Space od. DATES 6-8 November 2018 VENUE Saber Mamitua, MSU Marawi PARTICIPANTS |_| 50 Participants ~ Marawi Women Entrepreneurs, Connected Women officers ‘and volunteers; NPEACE Alumni, Facebook, DICT, MinDA, Philippine ‘Commission on Women (National PCW and/or ARMM-PCW) FUNDING = | Financial Inclusion for Recovery of Marawi (FIRM); Project Number: 00110891 SOURCE Output 2 (no. 00110135) - Pathways to increased access to inclusive financial products and services, including those based on Islamic finance principles and ‘gender-sensitivity, defined. ‘Activity 2.5 - Conducting training with local women partners on financial inclusion, islamic finance, empowerment, and protection 1. Background ‘The armed conflict in Marawi City and other parts of Lanao del Sur displaced more than 465,000 people, caused substantial damage and loss to public and private assets, and severely disrupted businesses and other sources of employment and livelihood. This conflic-driven economic downturn came on top of pre-existing levels of poverty and financial exclusion which were among the highest in the Philippines already before May 2017. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM, in which Marawi City and the province of Lanao del Sur is located, is the only region in the Philippines where more than half of the population is below the poverty level. Furthermore, about 89% in the region are unbanked as of 2015—tepresenting the highest percentage of financially excluded regions in the country While the Marawi crisis severely affected massive populations, its impact and heavy toll on certain vulnerable groups and sectors (such as the women and children) require special attention. Even before the attack there of the ISIS-inspired groups in May 2017, the pre-existing situation of conflict and Violence (e., rido or clan feuds) and of the overall socio-economic stagnation have already seen affected Maranao women suffering from the so-called ‘double burden’ syndrome a phenomenon that disproportionately puts women at risk from physical and other harms (le. gender based abuse and violence) s they act as both income providers and the household budget purse holders/managers. The threats to women’s well being who have to take on these double, nay, multiple burdens in terms of Incomes and livelihoods for their families are exacerbated by other structural and systemic defects such as the state of financial exclusion mentioned above, which forces many of the affected communities to conduct business and deals almost entirely using cash-based transactions instead of otherwise readily- available safer and more efficient cashless and digital means.More than a year since the liberation of the City, economic activity in and around Marawi is slowly returning, although not in the Most Affected Area (MAA), which is still closed and unlikely to be habitable until a large reconstruction program shall have been completed. This means that many families wll remain displaced and may be forced to find new areas to live in atleast for this long interim, period. In the interim, they may likely be required to change or adopt new livelihoods. Given this context, substantial and protracted assistance will be required to ensure that the displaced populations have access to assistance for restarting business and livelihood activities. This will be important in order to avoid IDPs engaging In negative coping mechanisms, ie. not only taking on unsustainable debt from unverified sources or joining rebel or violent extremist groups who are still actively recruiting in the province and are reported to offer monetary payments to new recruits Supporting enterprises is particularly important because the majority of displaced Maranaos appear to be self-employed, e.g. as ‘traders’ or those involved in small-scale services; rather than relying on larger employers for thelr income recovery. In terms of training and capacity development, a majority of IDPs polled during one of UNDP's focus group discussion (FGD) wanted to learn new skills to diversify their skill set, particularly those that would lead to a new source of livelihood. There s a greatinterest on the partof the IDPs to shift to other means of livelihoods that would hopefully make it easier for them to find a way to earn income during the lengthy period of recovery and rebuilding, Le. learning about mobile and physically unbounded (remote) livelihood opportunities and those based on digital or online technologies. For the women sector in particular, scanning the vast envitons for their specific livelihoods support requires consideration for the need for safe spaces where women between and among themselves can start a discussion on anything about their concerns, but mainly on opportunities for livelihood. With support from the N-Peace Network and Connected Women, an organizational community-led meet-up cof women entrepreneurs, professionals and freelancers who are passionate about shared advocacy of driving technology adoption for women will be held in Marawi City ‘The Connected Women Marawi meetup aims to be a venue for sharing best practices and trends on adopting technology for business, remote work, and personal life affected women all over the world. It is also an avenue to build community and to inspire women by fellow women. M. OBJECTIVES: ‘The Connected Women meetup in Marawi City is an initial, preliminary step that aims to target women. (and men) who are to be supported through increased investments in capacity and skills that prioritize the inclusion (including financial inclusion) and empowerment of women and girls, and ultimately ‘change the discourse on the roles of women in peace-building. The overall goals are geared toward strengthening an enabling environment for peace and stability in the Bangsamoro and sustain the gains for peace and development in the area by capacitating the affected women through a mix of experience-sharing, training, and longer-term accompaniment on developing strategies in contributing to the livelihood capacities. Through the meet up and the succeeding workshops, itis aimed that these women shall be capacitated and transformed into women, with more peaceful and diverse perspective without uprooting from their cultural norms and tradition, Specifically, the activities seek to achieve the following objectives: ‘© Gather volunteer women entrepreneurs and advocate in Marawi to share, connect, work and learn — both online and offline Officially launch of Connected Women - Marawi Planning for the 2019 Activities for Connected Women and N-PEACE collaboration on women, financial and digital inclusion and empowermentIll. Methodology The meetup shall be conducted using a mix of experience-sharing, lecture or seminar-type training, and face-to-face substantive interaction with resource persons and experts from Connected Women, N- Peace Network, UNDP, DICT, following the detailed activity description below. IV. Activity Description and Flow Day 1 - Arrival of Participants Day 2 Connected Women-Marawi Meet-up and Launching _ Time ‘Activity 5 G0 - 0930" | Regisation | 30- 10:00 | Opening/W (1530- 16:00 _| 16:00 onward V. Activity Management The project will be implemented under Project FIRM of the UNDP to be directly supervised by the Resilience and Peace Building Unit (RPBU). This will ensure that UNDP exercises closer supervision over this project. VI. Budget