Encouraging Village Welfare through Women's Empowerment, FEB Unud Holds International PKM in Sangketan Village, Tabanan

Denpasar, Press Bureau of BEM FEB Unud - The Faculty of Economics and Business, Udayana University (FEB Unud) held an International Community Service (PKM) activity on (24/06) in the Meeting Room, Village Head Office, Sangketan Village, Tabanan, Bali chaired by I Gede Nandya Oktora P., S.E., M.B.A., CRA, CRP. The three main objectives of this activity are to increase knowledge and add insight to PKM participants, improve participants' skills to expand the business scale of processed agricultural products, and encourage the role of women in efforts to optimize the village economy. This PKM activity raised the name "EmpowHER: Unleashing Women's Entrepreneurial Potential in the Digital Era through Global Collaboration at Sangketan Village, Tabanan, Bali" which means exploring the potential of women entrepreneurs in the Digital Era in collaboration with Sangketan Village. This activity involved participants from lecturers and student representatives of GEP and IBSN Faculty of Economics and Business, Udayana University, as well as PKK Sangketan Village, Tabanan, Bali.

 

The problem of the widening gender gap, especially in leadership roles, can certainly be an obstacle to economic growth with an unbalanced ratio of women's leadership roles in work. This can be seen in the Gender Empowerment Index and Gender Development Index along with the emergence of the 4.0 industrial revolution which is feared to widen the gender gap and contribute to higher job losses for women, especially technology-related mastery. This picture is the background or main reason for this international service to be carried out. The selection of Sangketan Village as the location for the implementation of the service was carried out because this village has more female residents than men with a sex ratio of 76.66 in 2016. In addition, the potential of the village which has various business fields such as coffee plantations, VCO, Aren Sugar, Honey, Bees, and traditional snacks where product marketing is still limited so that farmers' income is still not optimal is also the basis for choosing Sangketan Village as a collaboration partner for this International PKM.

FEB Unud International PKM activities which include counseling and mentoring are specifically intended for PKK mothers in Sangketan Village in accordance with the purpose of the activity which is to encourage the role of village women. The counseling and mentoring event took place with material presentation and sharing sessions for PKK mothers conducted between representatives of IBSN students, GEP, and PKK Sangketan Village. Then, the material presentation was given by Gumilang Andika from the Associate Program Manager of KOPERNIK and Dr. Sayu Ketut Sutrisna Dewi, S.E., M.M., Ak. as a lecturer at FEB Unud as well as the Director of the Unud Business Management Agency. Departing from this PKM activity, in the future, the empowerment and role of women must be taken into account to contribute in all lines of development from upstream to downstream, especially in supporting the optimization of village potential through the role of village women to be free from gaps and backwardness. It is also one of the 5th SDGs points related to the involvement of village women and gender equality.

Preparation for PKM International activities only takes about 1-2 weeks. Although the preparation is relatively short, this International PKM can run successfully which is certainly inseparable from the hard work and cooperation of the entire organizing committee so as to successfully collaborate with various international partners while empowering women in Sangketan Village. Through this PKM, it is expected that women, in this case PKK mothers, have and are able to improve their skills to expand the scale of the processed agricultural product business. Thus, in the end, it will create an increase in household welfare in Sangketan Village and contribute to the achievement of village welfare. In line with this, I Gusti Agung Ayu Apsari Anandari, M.S.E who is one of the organizing committee also hopes that PKK mothers can utilize the existing potential for sustainability and welfare in the future.