There is no tool for development more effective than empowerment of women – Kofi Annan-
In order to add to the achievement of Bank Indonesia’s vision, The Program Sosial Bank Indonesia (PSBI) is currently directed to focus more on the household economy. The household economy can be done directly or through the creation of a household change agent. Well educated family members are one of the assets for the quality improvement of family income.
The role of women as a family’s finance minister is not exaggerated. This is because the responsibility of the mother’s role in managing various household activities, from children’s education, financial cash flow, and a variety of other aspects which could impact the family’s quality of life. It’s a big role, not only in the household sphere, but also provides a considerable contribution to the Indonesian economy in general.
Population Census in 2010 issued by the Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik [BPS] in Indonesian) showed that the number of women in Indonesia reached 118,010,413 or 49.66% of the population of Indonesia. From the approximately 99.7 million productive working age population, 36.2 million or 36.4% are women. Based on these statistics it can also be seen that the productivity of women in driving improvements of a household’s economy in particular, and Indonesia in general is also likely to be increased.
This is the reason behind the initiative of Bank Indonesia, to strengthen education and give support to women through an empowerment program entitled “Pemberdayaan Perempuan yang Inklusif dan Berkelanjutan” (inclusive and sustainable women empowerment program). This program is a long-term program that is a part of PSBI’s impactful theme “Empowering Women”.
This program has four main focuses: financial literacy for women micro-entrepreneurs, financial literacy for young women, the environment, and food security. This 3-year program is aimed to reach 3,000 women for business empowerment, and 2,000 Young women through entrepreneurship training that we call Youthpreneur. This program will be held in Jakarta and Tangerang a district of Banten. These areas are selected to reflect that in 2013, Jakarta and Banten had the highest unemployment rate of 9.94% in Jakarta and 10.1% in Banten which is higher than the unemployment average rate for the whole of Indonesia which is 6.25% (based on BPS data in 2013).
We hope partnership between Bank Indonesia and YCAB Foundation will become a cycle of change. Our premise of change is not only to change life of the women, but also we hope that this program also affect the next generation, through YouthPreneur program. By delivering skill to the mothers we hope that it can be ‘legacy’ to their children. We believe that this program can be a powerful tool that create a positive change and improve their welfare.
“Empower the mothers of low income families so that the second generation can be educated. This is the importance of both inclusion and education as a powerful tool to get out of poverty, to ensure positive change over generations” – Veronica Colondam, CEO/Founder YCAB Foundation