“Role of social enterprises for transformation in the Philippines: Cases of Gawad Kalinga social enterprises”

• Main Author: Lomotan, Maria Milagros Regina I.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2023
• Subjects: Social entrepreneurship—Philippines; Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation (Philippines); Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/12660
• Institution: De La Salle University

Social enterprises have emerged as a viable development strategy for poverty alleviation in the Philippines. This vital mechanism of providing sustainable livelihood opportunities for the marginalized poor is the focus of this paper which seeks to assess social entrepreneurship as a mechanism for empowerment in the Philippines through comparative case analysis of the Plush and Play and First Harvest women micro-entrepreneurs. The study asks the question: How do social enterprises specifically micro-enterprises facilitate empowerment of the individual marginalized women micro-entrepreneurs? The assessment is important in the light of the Philippine development goal to achieve poverty reduction through social enterprises that provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for women micro-entrepreneurs. The cases features are initiated by Gawad Kalinga social enterprises Plush &Play and First Harvest, Key informant interviews and focus group discussions were done in 2018 at the Gawad Kalinga Farm in Barangay Encanto, Angat, Bulacan. The study contributes to effective models of social enterprises that facilitate women empowerment of women micro-entrepreneurs in the Philippine rural context. In particular, the research provides a development model on the Philippine social enterprises that lead to empowerment of women micro-entrepreneurs from marginalized communities and empowerment of the community in the Philippine context.