Wimler, Ateneo de Davao, MINCODE and PhilSmile staged a conference with the theme “The Role of Migrants in Sustainable Development” in Davao City on January 24, 2015. The event attracted at least 120 participants from all over Mindanao to discuss pressing issues of migration and development.
The conference had four sessions that aim to explore the link of migrant remittances to sustainable development. The sessions were: (1) migrant remittances and sustainable development; (2) migrant remittances and families left behind; (3) savings, investments and entrepreneurship; and (4) impact of remittances on education.
SEDPI’s President and CEO took part on the first session on linking migrant remittances to sustainable development. He shared how SEDPI’s financial literacy programs to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) abroad are able to invest in microfinance institutions and social enterprises in the Philippines. “SEDPI aims to strengthen the personal finance status of migrants abroad in the hope that they become social investors. To date, approximately 100 SEDPI-trained migrants have invested in in SEDPI Development Finance that were used to leverage resources from commercial banks. The leveraging effectively increased SEDPI’s resources that were in turn invested in microfinance institutions and social enterprises all over the Philippines.”
Other speakers of the conference were representatives from various government and non-government organizations such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Council of Filipinos Overseas, Department of Labor and Employment, ERCOF, Atikha and ASKI Global among others.