San Vicente is a municipality in Palawan noted for its long beach front and dense forest covers. While it is classified as a first-class municipality, it remains vulnerable, environmentally and economically, to the devastating effects of climate change. The Climate Change Commission (CCC), through the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCAP), aims to build the resiliency of municipalities like San Vicente by creating eco-towns or ecologically sustainable and economically stable communities. The Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) was contracted by the CCC to help San Vicente become an eco-town.
The San Vicente project commenced October 2013 and ended with the final fieldwork January 2014. It prioritized as beneficiaries those from poor families, especially women, who are micro-entrepreneurs and are also beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4 Ps).
Through SEDPI’s financial literacy workshops, participants are given the opportunity to break from unhealthy financial practices and cultivate a mindset that welcomes financial power as a value. This is a crucial first step to start a trend of strategic financial planning in the family.
This project requires the active leadership of the local government unit (LGU). The LGU’s role is critical as it should be able to create local legislation to make San Vicente friendly to microfinance and enterprise development. In aid of that, SEDPI facilitated an orientation that should give the officers a general direction in terms of creating ordinances that would secure a well-functioning market and a healthy financing scheme for the beneficiaries.
SEDPI is proud to be part of the San Vicente project. It has played the vital role of bringing together CCC, the San Vicente LGU, Dungganon Bank, and the locals to map the road towards eco-town. And SEDPI is dedicated to see this through, until San Vicente harvests its first fruit, or vegetable, of tangible success.