Category: Microfinance

On April 23, 2013, the Small Business Corporation (SBC) awarded a project to SEDPI to conduct capacity building to two microfinance institutions. The project involves two microfinance institutions under the Rural Microenterprise Promotion Program (RuMEPP). RuMEPP is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to promote entrepreneurship by developing existing microenterprises and developing new ones.

A component of RuMEPP is the Microenterprise Financing facility for Rural Development which is a nationwide wholesale financing program for microfinance institutions with focus on the 19 poorest provinces of the Philippines. SBC is a major stakeholder in the program as the wholesale lender of funds to qualified microfinance institutions.

The two microfinance institutions included in the project are Fatima Multipurpose Cooperative in Leyte and Bibak Multipurpose Cooperative in Kalinga Apayao. The two organizations will undergo capacity building under SEDPI. There will be two components of the capacity building – organizational appraisal; and technical and mentoring assistance

Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) started 2013 with an influx of clients. For the first quarter of 2013, the SEDPI booked a total of approximately PhP4 million worth of capacity building services. This is a third higher than the target of the social enterprise for the quarter. There were a total of eight projects that were booked for the period.

Organization	Project Description	Location
Bank of Makati	Microfinance trainings to the bank’s management staff in preparation for expansion	Metro Manila
Climate Change Commission Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit	Environmental conditional cash transfer Subsector research Financial literacy trainings	Siargao Island
Department of Agrarian Reform	Training and Manual Development for DAR lawyers	Metro Manila, Davao, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Rizal
Institute of Social Entrepreneurship in Asia	Case study of Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Mutually Reinforcing Institutions through SEDPI CEO	Laguna
Oxfam International	Training on Making Markets Work for the Poor Subsector Research Social Enterprise Ideation for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene	Maguindanao
People’s Alternative Livelihood Foundation, Inc.	Organizational Appraisal to Improve Microfinance Operations	Sorsogon
Progressive Bank	Technical and Mentoring Assistance to Improve Microfinance Operations	Iloilo
Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan	Anti-Discrimination	Baguio

 

The projects with the Climate Change Commission and Oxfam International account for approximately 70% of the total contracts. SEDPI typically allocates 60%-70% of total contract cost for administrative expenses. With the projects booked, SEDPI GSE hopes to contribute to fulfilling its mission; and to contribute to the body of knowledge in the development sector.

Last March 7 – 9, 2013 SEDPI trained the middle managers of Community Rural Bank of Catmon (CRBC) on Financial Analysis in Catmon, Cebu. The course aims to equip the participants with knowledge and skills that would enable them to format basic financial statements, compute for basic financial ratios, utilize these ratios to analyze financial performance of the bank and propose solutions based on the analyses. The training was delivered as a part of the technical and mentoring assistance that SEDPI provides to CRBC.

With plans to expand and deepen its outreach in their current area of operation, CRBC recognized the need to capacitate their middle managers on how to further make sound managerial decisions based on accurate analysis of their financial performance. Through this, the middle managers will be able to understand more deeply the impact of operational processes to their performance. During the three-day training, the participants were also introduced to the industry standard of a number of important financial measures such as portfolio quality, efficiency, profitability and financial structure.

One of the participants mentioned that the training allowed them to understand financial statements which they were not adept with prior to the training. Another participant also added that the activities, which made use of their own financial statements, are a great help in terms of providing a format and step by step actions that they can follow when they compute for succeeding financial performance of the bank.

Both trainers from SEDPI, Ms. Emilenn Kate Sacdalan and Ms. Enid Madarcos, received excellent ratings from the participants.

With the shared mission of sustainable development and financial inclusion through developing capacities of microfinance institutions, the Ateneo De Manila University and BPI Globe BanKO inked another milestone to its partnership. The renewal of partnership between these two institutions hopes to extend further capacity building assistance and services to microfinance institutions in the country.

ADMU and BPI Globe BanKO Through the Years

The partnership between ADMU and BPI Globe BanKO started in 2007 during which one of the primary concerns of in terms of sustainability of microfinance operations is the lack of capacity building. “Back then, microfinance institutions need more than money for capital. They need to build their capacity in order to reach sustainability”, said Mariel Vincent Rapisura, Program Manager of the ADMU Microfinance Capacity Building Program. This idea became central to the establishment of the first partnership between ADMU and BPI Globe BanKO. The joint initiative aims to equip microfinance institutions – rural banks, cooperatives, non-government organizations – with relevant knowledge, skills and tools that will help them strengthen and boost their microfinance operation.  It delivers research-based capacity building services to participants which allow them to identify practical points that can readily be applied to their respective institutions.

From an initial 6 training courses, the ptogram’s number of courses expanded to 35. These include core courses on fundamentals and methodologies of microfinance, market-based product design and development, delinquency management and financial analysis. To date, a total of 89 training events have been delivered to more than 1,800 participants from 279 microfinance institutions all over the Philippines. This translates to an outreach of at least 2 million microfinance clients. The training courses have also attracted participants from Asia particularly Indonesia, Singapore and Cambodia.

Establishment of Training Hubs

The rise in the demand for affordable training prompted the program to develop an innovative strategy that could address the issue. Mr. Rapisura said “If training events are conducted in Manila, other expenses far exceed the registration fee for the training. This makes institutions hesitant to send their staff. In order to address this, strategic partnerships with microfinance institutions are formed to localize the delivery of training”.  Through the establishment of training hubs, training courses are made more accessible to microfinance practitioners especially those outside Metro Manila. This strategy allowed for wider geographical coverage of the training. Current training hubs include Alalay sa Kaunlaran Inc. (ASKI) in Central Luzon, Nueva Segovia Consortium of Cooperatives (NSCC) in Northern Luzon, Community Rural Bank of Catmon (CRBC) in Cebu, Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF) in Western Visayas, Metro Ormoc Community Cooperative (OCCCI) and Eastern Visayas Cooperative Federation (EVCF) in Leyte and Kasagana-Ka Development Center Inc. (KDCI) in Metro Manila.

Way forward

The Philippines has a relatively mature microfinance industry. The track record of the partnership, however, showed that as the landscape of industry shifted so has the challenges. Institutional capacity therefore must continuously be able to adapt to these changes. Mr. Rapisura added further that “capacity building is a loop. As a facilitator of the process, we commit ourselves to innovation to ensure that the partnership bears fruitful results”. These include identification of strategic training hub locations; development of new modules; and direct technical assistance to microfinance institutions.

ADMU and BPI Globe BanKO shall relentlessly provide quality capacity building to microfinance institutions in order to safeguard achievement of the common goal.

Every year SEDPI celebrates Christmas for its management staff. It has also been a tradition for the management staff to select a certain group of marginalized sector and create a Christmas event with them. In 2012, the management staff of SEDPI chose to celebrate its Christmas Party with patients of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) on December 12, 2012.

A total of 50 children and their parents were provided with food and school supplies. Dr. Jennifer Olay, coordinated the event. She was also the host during the event. The medical staff of PCMC entertained the children with a dance number and parlor games were also conducted. Mercator models Maria Venus Raj, JC Tioseco and Benjamin Alves led the gift giving ceremony for the children.

Dr. Jennifer Olay is a fellow at PCMC. Jonas Gaffud is the CEO of Mercator Models, a leading modeling agency that is more popularly known in producing beauty queens. Dr. Jennifer Olay, Jonas Gaffud and Mariel Vincent Rapisura, SEDPI CEO, are classmates at Saint Vincent High School located in the remote province of Quirino.

The Nueva Segovia Consortium of Cooperatives mounted two consecutive trainings on Internal Control and Strategic Planning. The training was held on November 26-29, 2012 in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur. A total of 37 participants from 20 organizations attended the training on Internal Control while 31 participants from 20 organizations attended the Strategic Planning training.

The topics covered for the Internal Control training were: understanding risk management; business cycle approach for internal control; internal controls for human resources, accounting, administrative controls and inventory system; internal audit; audit committee; and external audit. On the other hand the topics covered for the Strategic Planning training include external analysis; internal analysis; institutional values; vision questing; clarifying the mission; setting objectives; formulating key result areas and performance indicators; generating strategic options; crafting programs, activities and tasks; and matching strategic plan with resources.

The trainers were evaluated with an excellent rating of 4.62 for both trainings. The highest rating possible is 5.00 and the lowest is 1.00.

“The knowledge I gained during the course helped me understand deeper my work and my role in KDCI”, said Mr. Erickson Bagsic. He is currently a field manager of Kasagana-Ka Development Center Inc. (KDCI) and is one of the eight KDCI staff who received a Diploma in Microfinance from Ateneo De Manila University. Ms. Lala Dacallos, who also received the diploma, added that the whole experience was enjoyable because of collective learning with her fellow KDCI staff. The diploma was conferred last October 5, 2012 during KDCI’s celebration of its 10^th anniversary. SEDPI’s President, Mariel Vincent Rapisura and the Director of ADMU’s Development Studies Program, Leland Joseph Dela Cruz were present to award the certificates.

In addition to the diploma, 16 KDCI staff also received certificate of completion for having completed the modular requirements of the Diploma in Microfinance course.  Ms. Judylyn Joven, one of the staff awarded with the certificate of completion and also the current Chief Operations Officer of KDCI, said that “Our learning from the course allowed us to know that we are doing the right things in terms of running our microfinance program.

The diploma course is part of the capacity building partnership between ADMU, SEDPI and KDCI. SEDPI started to deliver ADMU microfinance courses to KDCI in 2009. Ms. Celine Ramos, HR Officer of KDCI, stated that “the initiative built the   capacity of the staff to participate in discourses and dialogues on microfinance. As a result, the staff became innovative in developing ideas and solutions to challenges encountered”. Ms. Joven added that “this collaborative effort from ADMU, SEDPI and KDCI will develop the capacity of KDCI staff toward a common goal of helping the clients of the institution”.

In 2010, KDCI was established as ADMU and SEDPI’s training hub partner in Metro Manila. The training hub partnership aims to strengthen the capacity of microfinance practitioners in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. Through this, more participants are expected to receive their diploma in the coming years.