A training organised by the Forest Smallholders Project of the European Forest Facility (EFI) in a small village of the Lampang Province north of Thailand has provided women with the skills they need to engage in family timber businesses and play more diverse roles, thereby contributing to more sustainable livelihoods.
Gender equality and women’s economic empowerment are important aspects of our work supporting wood-based micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Mekong region. Women play significant roles and contribute to the sustainable management of forests and forest-related businesses at the household and community level. However, women often do not benefit equally and their participation in decision-making processes has been restricted.
Challenges faced by women are multi-layered. The heavy physical workload in forest plantations and timber processing, in conjunction with social gender norms, confine them to reproductive and unpaid domestic work. Enhancing women’s capacity and participation in economic activities in the forest sector can boost rural livelihoods, increase their inclusion in sustainable forest resource use, and reduce deforestation and forest degradation.
We have published a briefing to analyse the challenges women are facing and to identify how gender equality in the small-scale forest sector can be pursued.
In the informal forest sector, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are often characterised as “illegal”. In this brief, the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme and EFI make a case for acknowledging the complex circumstances of forest-sector MSMEs and argue that if MSMEs do opt to formalise their business, there should be incentives and support to ensure that they benefit from formal status.
The COVID-19 pandemic is exacting a devastating toll on wood-based micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
MSMEs are the backbone of Myanmar’s economy. They constitute 99% of formally registered enterprises, and generate significant livelihood and employment opportunities. But the pandemic has had severe impacts on customer demand, revenue, finances, workers and the availability and distribution of raw materials. Myanmar’s MSMEs also face difficulties accessing support from COVID-19 relief programmes.
These are the findings of a survey of some 200 MSMEs conducted by the European Forest Institute (EFI) and the Sagawa Institute of Organization Development. Members of the Myanmar Arts and Craft Association and the Wood-Based Furniture Association were surveyed as part of EFI’s Sida-funded work in support of forest- and timber-based MSMEs in the Mekong region.
The MSMEs were surveyed nationwide in August 2020, most of these micro and small businesses. The survey found that COVID-19 had forced most enterprises to stop or permanently close their business. A staggering 33.6% of respondents closed their operations permanently due to the crisis, while 65.2% stopped them temporarily.
As a way forward, an EFI briefing recommends that industry associations collaborate with the Government to ease the challenges that MSMEs face in distributing products and purchasing raw materials from official sources. The associations should also assist their members by providing documents and sharing information to help them access short- and long-term financial loans. Finally, associations have an important role to play in supporting business registration and licensing of informal enterprises to enable them to access COVID-19 relief programmes.
MSMEs are the backbone of Myanmar’s economy. They constitute 99% of formally registered enterprises and generate significant livelihood and employment opportunities. But the pandemic has had severe impacts on customer demand, revenue, finances, workers and the availability and distribution of raw materials. Myanmar’s MSMEs also face difficulties accessing support from COVID-19 relief programmes. These are the findings of a survey of some 200 MSMEs conducted by the European Forest Institute (EFI) and the Sagawa Institute of Organization Development.
Since 2016, the European Forest Institute (EFI) has been supporting wood-based micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in four Mekong countries to operate legally and sustainably. Under its Forest Smallholders Project, EFI has been testing solutions to MSMEs’ key challenges in pilot projects. Lessons learnt from these pilots are documented and disseminated nationally, regionally and internationally. Through its support to MSMEs, the Project promotes gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the forest sector.
This website has been produced with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of the authors and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of funding organisations.
Somporn Khongthanakrittakorn
Khamphoui Saythala