The Drua Innovation Small Grants Scheme Innovators with Minister Manoa Kamikamica[Source: Ministry of Trade, Co-operatives, SMEs and Communications/Facebook]

Accessing markets and earning the right price for environmentally sustainable products is one of the major challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the country.

This was highlighted by Sele Tagivuni, co-founder of Grace for Community Investments, who works closely with women artisans from the Lau Group.

He says that Grace for Community was one of the businesses awarded the Drua Innovation Grant under the United Nations Development Program and outlined plans to utilize it.

“The Drua innovation funding now has really challenged us to move from the CSO space to the social entrepreneurship space. Our project is quite exciting now. Where we deal with the three pillars of sustainability and trying to push women, especially in the Lau groups, in their traditional artisanal skills and craftsmanship of doing masi.”

Tagivuni adds that the aim is to provide a platform for women and make their work easier by creating an e-hub and working on understanding the supply chains, while another pillar is environmental stewardship for them to plant their own sources sustainably.

The UNDP is working closely with women-headed enterprises and vulnerable communities, fighting for equal access to funds with the objectives of Fiji’s Climate Change Act and the National Climate Change Policy.