Filipina Social Entrepreneurs! Here’s What You Need to Know About the WHWise Program

The social enterprise scene in the Philippines holds a lot of promise. Case in point: the number of social enterprises has tripled in the last decade, and it's the young guns leading the way. This was according to a November 2017 study by the British Council and the Philippine Social Enterprise Network (PhilSEN), as supported by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), which showed that the country's social enterprises experienced a spike in new startups.

Moreover, the study showed that social enterprises are empowering women, with 56% of the 206 surveyed employing women and 44% being women-led enterprises.

"More than half of the jobs created in the past year benefitted women and newer social enterprises are more likely to be led by women," the study said.

It's no wonder, then, that there are initiatives in place to keep this flame of empowering women social entrepreneurs alive, one of which is support through funding and grants from institutions.

One of the opportunities available to women social entrepreneurs in the Philippines is the Women-Helping-Women: Innovating Social Enterprises (WHWise) Program, which is funded by the Department of Science and Technology's Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD).

The WHWise Program is a grant that provides gender-focused support to women-led social enterprises, namely funding up to P5 million and activities like incubation, mentoring, business support program, capacity building, fabrication support, and marketing and market validation.

The call for proposals for the program opened last June 16 and will close this July 15, 2022, at 5 PM. Interested applicants must submit a full-blown proposal to the DOST Project Management Information System (DPMIS).

The proposal must fall under any of these categories to constitute as a research and development project:

• It must require specific technical assistance in refining their product;
• It must entail research and development assistance in improving their prototype into a market-ready product; or
• It must be in need of a specific technology.

Are you a Filipina social entrepreneur or an aspiring one? If you are interested in learning about the funding and support available for your enterprise, here are some things you should know about the WHWise program, such as who can apply and how proposals will be reviewed and selected.

Who's Eligible to Apply to the WHWise Program?

Certain requirements must be met before one can apply for the WHWise Program. The social enterprise must bear the following qualifications:

• Be an enterprise that is spearheaded by a woman entrepreneur
• Be a social enterprise that directly helps and works with a community
• Must have a need for a specific technology, or require research and development assistance, and technical assistance on an expertise

According to DOST-PCIEERD, the social enterprise must also be registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a minimum of one year to a maximum of seven years as of May 2022. Moreover, it must have an early-stage prototype for its product or service and not just ideas or concepts; bear demonstrated capability to conduct research and development (R&D) and differentiate research from their business operations; and have the legal personality to give out an official receipt for the grants-in-aid receipt.

Applicants for the grant this 2022 were required to submit a capsule proposal to the PCIEERD by June 30 and were made to attend preparatory activities that cap off with Proposal Writeshop Conferences until the first week of July. Those who attended these activities must then submit a full-blown proposal by mid-July.

How Will Your Application Be Reviewed and Selected?

Would your proposal pass muster? The full-blown proposals will be evaluated based on a set of criteria for each level of evaluation, namely the Division Level, PCIEERD Management Team (PMT) level, Technical Panel (TP) level, Governing Council (GC) level, and the DOST Executive Committee (EXECOM).

The criteria include the workability and technical viability of the proposal, maturity of the technology, social and environmental impacts, commercial viability, and management capability.