Livelihood beneficiaries offered market to sell their products

The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) is offering marketing assistance to workers in the informal sector to enable them and microentrepreneurs to sell and promote their products online.

Called Dole Livelihood Beneficiaries Products Showcase, the free online market platform developed and managed by the Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns aims to enhance the selling and marketing capabilities of the beneficiaries of the Dole Integrated Livelihood Program.

In order to help improve their products and services, a product review is also featured in the online platform where buyers or customers can provide feedback or rate the marketed products.

“We recognize the unique contribution of workers in the informal sector in the country. We want to improve their status of living, strengthen their enterprises and livelihood, as well as to protect their rights as workers,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement.

Transition

According to Assistant Labor Secretary Benjo Santos Benavidez, the ultimate agenda of the labor department is to transition the informal workers into the formal economy.

He said this was the reason why the Dole had envisioned the online marketing platform to help the livelihood beneficiaries in selling their products.

“We want you to have a sustainable livelihood. This is one of the tools we have developed to help you sell your products,” Benavidez said.

Among the informal sector and livelihood groups expected to benefit from the program are construction workers, domestic workers, microentrepreneurs and tricycle drivers. —TINA G. SANTOS