Empowering Women through People's Weaving Business for Supporting Village Development in South Central Timor Regency

Abstract

The typical South Central Timor woven fabrics have the excellence of using natural materials. The weaving business is a business whose sustainability is continuously fought for and is generally carried out by women to help the household economy. However, the weaving business that has been running for a long time has not brought prosperity to the weaving craftswomen. This situation happened because they still experienced obstacles in accessing sources of raw materials, capital, ability to manage a business, marketing, limited business networks, low education, limited knowledge to develop innovations, facilities and infrastructure, and competitiveness with manufactured woven products. Therefore, it is necessary to empower the weaving craftswomen in weaving groups in villages. Empowerment is carried out to improve the welfare, competitiveness, and independence of the weaving craftswomen who can later contribute to the village development process in the South Central Timor Regency in the economic, social, and cultural fields. Empowering women in the people's weaving business needs to be carried out with synergy and collaborative innovation, knowledge among stakeholders, such as the government, private sector, academia, weaving groups/weaving craftswomen, as well as the media with empowerment activities focused on developing human resources, institutional development of weaving groups, capital, developing innovative and productive business, conveying the right information, and environmental sustainability. It is necessary to develop training innovations aimed at increasing the economic value of weaving, promotion and marketing training through digital media, as well as coaching and mentoring for access to raw materials, capital, markets, information, network expansion and business partners, and technology mastery.