Covid-19 impacts for Indigenous Women in SME's in APEC economies

Mihimihi: We would like to give our thanks to the incredible wāhine (Indigenous women) who shared their wisdom, challenges, successes and hopes for themselves, their families, communities and businesses.? We appreciate the courage, optimism, innovation and relentlessness that it takes to lead the economic, social, environmental and cultural development for our peoples.

A special thanks to Riripeti Reedy for her tautoko and passion for this mahi. The hard copy of this research has just been released - this is a summary of the findings.

BACKGROUND

For over two decades, APEC has been working to advance women’s economic integration in the region. In 2011, APEC Leaders welcomed the San Francisco Declaration on Women and the Economy that encouraged economies to take concrete actions to realise the full potential of women. APEC’s work has focused on the integration and empowerment of women, by enhancing their access to capital and assets; markets; skills and capacity building; leadership opportunities, voice and agency; and access to innovation and technology.

However, women of diverse backgrounds continue to face multiple disproportionate barriers to economic empowerment compared to men, for example, when accessing credit and capital, participating in formal labour markets, and in entry, retention and advancement in the workforce.

In 2019, “Women, SMEs and Inclusive Growth” was identified as a priority to give new momentum to efforts through the La Serena Roadmap.?

The Roadmap seeks to encourage action in key areas, including:?

A. Empowering women through access to capital and markets

• Promote and facilitate cooperation in the public and private sector to help ensure that women, including women of diverse backgrounds, and women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), can access capital and assets, in both local and international markets.
• Enhance women-owned and women-led MSMEs’ ability to participate in global value chains.
• Provide capacity building activities and opportunities for networking, mentoring, and digital skills-building, among other core skills, to increase women’s business competencies and encourage their participation in the digital economy and innovation.
• Exchange experiences and best practices that can effectively increase the participation of women in local, regional, and global markets.

Sitting within the La Serena Roadmap and with a focus on COVID-19 recovery strategies, this APEC project looks to build the capacity of participant economies to support the recovery and participation of Indigenous and diverse women-led MSMES in the Asia-Pacific region.?

We developed nine case studies on Indigenous and diverse women-led MSME businesses and their experiences under COVID-19.?

All participants agreed to participate in a virtual workshop in 2022, where they can share their experiences in an APEC-wide virtual forum.? Key interviews sought to understand:?

1. How and why indigenous women establish their businesses??
2. What defines their business as indigenous? How their business operates?
3. How has Covid-19 impacted their business and how they have responded?
4. What helps and hinders indigenous women in business?
5. What additional support would help/grow their business???
6. What advice they have for other indigenous women?

The participants were:

1. Carolina Barria - El Fogon, Chile
2. Olinda Silvano – Shipibo artist, Peru
3. Annette Sete – Maku Gifts and Lava Girl Fashion, Papua New Guinea
4. Gretta Carney – Hapī, New Zealand
5. Maire Kipa - Kahukura Māori Healing, New Zealand
6. Heather Te Au Skipworth – Ironmāori, New Zealand
7. Marie Delorme - The Imagination Group, Canada
8. Denyse Nadon – Bear Vision Inc, Canada
9. Victoria LaBillois - Wejipeg Excavation Inc, Canada

Emerging Themes

There is a continuum of what being an ‘Indigenous’ business means

Most businesses had a strong focus on lived values and the incorporation of culture.? For many there was also a recognition of traditional knowledge built into the business model.? Many focussed their work on Indigenous employment and enterprise. For many, cultural practice and knowledge was core to their business.??

Many of the women we spoke with drew strength and skills through networks, collectives and solidarity with other Indigenous women.? Many women gave service and provided leadership to their Indigenous communities and tribal councils/organisations.? The wellbeing of families and communities was core to the endeavours of many of the women we spoke to.

There was minimal support when starting up

Very few businesses could identify any support that they had accessed in the start-up phases and most reflected that they had to go it alone.?

Many remain ‘informal’ businesses, which means that some benefits of having a business cannot be realised, e.g. accessing finance and support.?

Ongoing technology support to promote their goods and services is a common theme for many women.? This ranges from selling goods online, connecting communities, establishing websites and running online training and development.

There is an underestimation of the value of the business

Participation in the case study allowed the business owners to reflect on the value of the business – not only for themselves but for their families and communities.? Generally, women under-estimated the importance of what they do and who they do it for.

A number of the business owners shared learnings of issues with intellectual property and sharing of their knowledge.?

There is tension between being strategic and operational?

Most of the business owners recognised that they spend too much time working in the business and not enough time working on it (financial management, business development, planning, understanding future trends), and COVID-19 seems to have amplified this.

The COVID-19 response did not hit the mark

The Government COVID-19 welfare responses and business support were generally difficult to access – often the businesses weren’t eligible or the process was overly bureaucratic. Support that was accessed didn’t meet the business need or only met it for a short period of time.? A number of the businesses are at risk of going out of business due to the impact of COVID-19.?

The changing regulatory environment as a result of COVID-19 has also been a challenge, again with little support provided and the business owners generally had to try to work things out for themselves in terms of their new ways of operating.? A number reflected on the importance of receiving positive feedback to help them get through the day.?

What APEC Economies Can Do?

Across the stories and wisdom shared with us by those we interviewed, it seems that there is much more that APEC economies and countries can do to sustain and support Indigenous women led small to medium size enterprise and businesses.? We recommend the following:

• Develop strategies and policies that recognise the value/s of Indigenous businesses/enterprise (including the social benefits and sustained cultural identities)
• Understanding and recognising the diversity of businesses, entities, formal and informal
• Business advice and support for Indigenous women and Indigenous women’s networks
• Provision of technology training and development
• Provision of start-up funding and development support for Indigenous women
• Offer targeted support for women led Indigenous small businesses
• Develop opportunities that support Indigenous enterprise networking across APEC economies.

La Serena Roadmap - https://www.apec.org/meeting-papers/annual-ministerial-meetings/2019/2019_amm/annex-a