Digital Governance of the Women Entrepreneurs Organization (PERWIRA) in Empowering MSMEs

Abstract

Discrimination against women, including in the economic sphere, essentially indicates that women's human rights are still being neglected. One effort to increase women's participation in the economy is the establishment of the Indonesian Women Entrepreneur Union (Perkumpulan Perempuan Wirausaha Indonesia /PERWIRA). Technological advances, particularly the use of the internet as a communication tool, have inspired PERWIRA to apply Information and Electronic Transactions (IET) in managing its activities. Increasing the capacity and governance of PERWIRA's activities can only be carried out efficiently and effectively if supported by proper management. In this regard, IET can be used as an approach in managing PERWIRA's activities. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of adopting the IET approach, thereby producing a system and/or good example in implementing activity management for organizations involving women MSMEs. It applies empirical research using a sociological-legal approach, collecting data through purposive sampling-based interviews. It finds that the challenges faced by PERWIRA are not only at the individual level of MSME actors but also at the policy ecosystem and institutional capacity levels. At the individual level of women MSMEs, limited access to capital and financing makes it difficult for PERWIRA to encourage its members to scale up their businesses, especially in the micro business sector. Women MSMEs in PERWIRA still manage their businesses traditionally, accompanied by a lack of understanding of risk management and cash flow. In addition, digital transformation has not been evenly distributed among MSME members. PERWIRA also faces internal challenges related to uneven capacity among regional-level administrators. Therefore, a collaborative approach between PERWIRA, the government, and the private sector is often offered as a solution. However, such partnerships and synergies are not easy to achieve because they require the alignment of government policies. Therefore, this study adopts IET-based management to harmonize partnerships and synergies between PERWIRA and its members, including the development of partnerships and synergies with the government and the private sector.