Women's Empowerment in Indonesia
Low female labor force participation (FLFP) has been a concern in many countries. In Indonesia, FLFP is only 53.7 percent, 27.9 percent lower than male labor force participation. However, over the past few years, Indonesia has been striving to strike a healthy balance by focusing on women's empowerment and the country presenting its good practices of gender equality at the commemoration of International Women's Day at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters has been a great stride.
Indonesia’s representatives highlighted the efforts to achieve gender equality through digital technology and education promotion as well as good practices, including the Women-friendly and Child-Caring Villages (DRPPA) program. The DRPPA program integrates gender perspectives and children's rights into the governance and development of villages. It also encourages the empowerment of village communities and is carried out in a planned, comprehensive, and sustainable manner. However, Indonesia’s corporate realm must step up to bring a tangible difference to the gender equality scenario.
DANA and Ant Group recently set a great example for this by announcing the launch of SisBerdaya, a local initiative dedicated to empowering Indonesian women entrepreneurs, primarily those from ultra-micro and micro businesses. The initiative aims to help these individuals develop their business management and digital skills, keeping them competitive in the digital economy while innovating and advancing their businesses. Such efforts toward upskilling women and creating more employers among them are a need of the hour, and they will benefit the economy at large. We dedicate this special issue to the women entrepreneurs in Indonesia.
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