Women domestic worker empowerment program: A community based facilitation guide for women domestic workers’ self and economic empowerment

Domestic work is considered to be an important occupation and source of paid employment for millions women and young girls in the Philippines. Around 1.9 million Filipino domestic workers, aged 15 years old and above are into this line of work, women make up 84 per cent of workers who are engaged in domestic service in the country, whereas they comprise only 38 per cent of national total employment. Filipino domestic workers, like most of their counterparts abroad, have been excluded from national labour legislations and in other forms of social protection mechanisms until recently. In 18 January 2013 that the Philippine government enacted the Domestic Workers’ law otherwise known as the Batas Kasambahay, after the country’s historical step to ratify the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 189 Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers in 5 September 2012. Despite this, improving the lives and working conditions of domestic workers in the country would entail more than just inclusion in the social protection and recognition as a labour sector; domestic workers would still have to find ways to augment their meager wages to make ends meet to achieve decent work and life for their families and for themselves. ILO aims to contribute in promoting and advancing decent work for domestic workers through the implementation of the Women Domestic Worker Empowerment Program: A Community Based Facilitation Guide for Women Domestic Workers’ Self and Economic Empowerment.

Project symbol

PHI/13/51/JPN

Admin unit

CO-Manila

Start date

01/10/2013

End date

31/05/2015

Total allocation

102844

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

102844

Development Partners

Japan, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Country/Countries

Philippines

Outcomes

Formalization of the informal economy