Tesda, Coca-Cola sign deal to empower women economically

THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) and Coca-Cola Bottlers Corporation forged a partnership for the implementation of a national program that will empower women economically.

Dubbed Sari-Sari Store Training and Access to Resources (S3TAR), the Coke-Tesda program is targeting around 100,000 women all over the Philippines to undergo the training program until 2020.

In Davao City, Tesda is eyeing a total of 1,000 women beneficiaries during its first year implementation. The program is being implemented in several cities in the country, and Davao is one among those along with Cagayan de Oro, Cebu and Taguig.

Each year, around 10,000 beneficiaries are being eyed to undergo training from different key areas in the country. The same program will be rolled out in National Capital Region (NCR), Pampanga, Tarlac City, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Puerto Princesa City, Bacolod City, Misamis Oriental, and Cebu City.

Adel Tamano, director of Public Affairs and Communications Coca-Cola Bottlers Corp, said the firm will help women micro-entrepreneurs overcome the barriers they face in business.

Tamano said the S3TAR has three parts aimed at developing women entrepreneurs to have more sustainable source of income. These include business and life skills training, access to finance and financial services, and access to merchandising support and business assets.

Under the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by executives of Coca Cola and Tesda, S3TAR consists of interventions for small sari-sari stores, focused mainly on providing normal basic entrepreneurship training and facilitation of access to business resources such as product and merchandising support.

Tesda, the MOA added, will form the local convergence team which shall be responsible for the recruitment, program implementation, monitoring and evaluation at the local level.

In Davao City, three groups of women from each district will benefit from S3TAR. These groups will be the ones to select who the deserving beneficiaries to undergo the training.

After three years being in the program, an impact monitoring and assessment will be conducted based on the set of program objectives.

Tamano said beneficiaries must be adults and have existing small store.

He said the training will begin in October, and trainers from Manila be coming over to Davao to facilitate.

Sonia Lipio, executive director of the Regional Coordination Office of Tesda, said the agency will be the ones to provide the training modules that are customized to become more fitting to the needs of the women beneficiaries.

"We will help women on how to grow their business," Lipio said, adding the holding of the training is not just about helping women but more of providing them sustainable living.