Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs)

Bringing Back Jobs Safely under the COVID-19 Crisis in the Philippines: Rebooting Small and Informal Businesses Safely and Digitally

The ILO and the Government of Japan have partnered to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) operate safely under the prolonged community quarantine and adapt to the New Normal business environment with improved workplace safety and health practices and better equipped to take advantage of the available digital tools and the expanding digital economy opportunities.

A convenience store worker amid the COVID-19 lockdown in the Philippines. © ILO/M. Rimando

Project objective

The Bringing Back Jobs Safely Project will contribute to improving the safety and health of workers in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the non-metropolitan regions of the Philippines and mitigating the negative socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Project outcomes and key activities

Outcome 1: Workplace of regional MSMEs is made safer and more productive in the New Normal environment with the COVID-19 risks.
  • Deliver the training on workplace safety and health practices that simultaneously enhance productivities of MSMEs through the training-of-trainer based replication model.
  • Establish an inter-disciplinary knowledge management system between the public health data and the data on occupational safety and health inspection and social security coverage of COVID-19 related cases.
Outcome 2: Regional MSMEs and alternative livelihoods have reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection and enhanced productivity with digital modalities for business operations.
  • Deliver the training that will support the digitalization of MSME business operations through the training-of-trainer based replication model.
  • Support the first three Innovation Hubs to be built in provincial cities and help them operation in collaboration with the local satellites in order to provide added internet connectivity and co-working spaces to the provincial MSMEs.
Outcome 3: Strengthened awareness and/or promoted knowledge exchange among non-beneficiary MSMEs on the advantages and modalities of safe workplace and digitalized business operation.
  • Develop case studies of the best performing MSME beneficiaries to showcase the MSME success stories on maintaining safer and healthier work environment and digitalizing their business operations.
  • Advocate the success stories beyond the direct beneficiaries of the project through the media, SNS and the institutional network of the partners.
  • Support the leading partner agencies to enhance their institutional capacity to sustainably provide the support most useful for the MSMEs to cope with the current and future pandemics.

For further information please contact:

Ms Katherine Brimon
Project Manager
ILO Bringing Back Jobs Safely Project
Email

Ms Bea Arnela Parungo
Project Coordinator
ILO Bringing Back Jobs Safely Project
Email