Category: Social Entrepreneurship

ADMU-DS and ACSent Train Consuelo Foundation Partners

The Development Studies Program and the Ateneo Center for Social Entrepreneurship conducted a five-day social entrepreneurship training for Consuelo Foundation partners from February 4 to 8, 2012 at the Ateneo de Manila University.

At the end of the five-day workshop, the participants were able to come up with workable ideas for social enterprises. The first day of the training provided an orientation on social entrepreneurship and helped participants prepare presentations of their social enterprise ideas. On the second day, the participants presented before a panel which will provide comments on the participants’ social enterprise ideas. During the last three days, speakers ran workshops on key functions of social business enterprises including marketing, operations, accounting, and stakeholder management.

The trainers are faculty of the Development Studies Program and the John Gokongwei School of Management. Mr. Mariel Vincent Rapisura and Mr. Edwin Salonga were one of the resource persons for the event.

SEDPI Chairperson Speaks at First Liwanag Worldfest

Through Initiatives Organizing and Networking (MISSION) is the organizer of the Liwanag World Festival on Creativity and Sustainability. The first Liwanag Worldfest was held on January 29 to February 2, 2013, at the Philippine Women’s College in Davao City. The event showcased brilliant, heart-centered initiatives in all dimensions of sustainability: ecological, economic, cultural, political, societal, human, and spiritual.

Well known speakers and figures of society were among the speakers of the Liwanag Worldfest. Among them were Gina Lopez, Tony Meloto and Maria Ressa. SEDPI’s chairperson, Mr. Edwin Salonga, was also one of the speakers in the event. He shared his knowledge and experiences on “The Social Enterprise Movement: Towards a MoreEquitable and Sustainable Philippine Economy”

SEDPI Fosters the Season of Sharing

Annually, Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Incorporated (SEDPI) celebrates Christmas season through a series of activities that aim to give back to communities in simple yet meaningful ways. SEDPI’s 2011 Christmas celebration was started with an afternoon spent with the orphans and street children living at Tanglaw House of the Virlanie Foundation.  The activity – which was held last December 15 – was attended by a total of 43 children with age range of 6 to 12 years old. The afternoon was filled with games and dance numbers which all the kids and the staff members of SEDPI enjoyed.  As gifts, SEDPI provided the children with school supplies and other basic needs such as rice and toiletries.

The celebration continued with a Christmas party for the staff. It was held last December 16 at the Phillip’s Sanctuary in Antipolo. Phillip’s Sanctuary is a nature park that features amenities for relaxation and team building activities for organizations.  The staff happily participated and finished all the challenging games and team building activities conducted by the official facilitators of the sanctuary. The Christmas party was highlighted by the annual exchange of gifts between the staff members.

The tragedy that struck Northern Mindanao barely a week before Christmas dampened the spirit of the holiday season. Typhoon Sendong ravaged the cities of Cagayan De Oro and Iligan as well as other neighboring municipalities.  It left on its wake thousands of dead bodies, hundreds of missing individuals and billions of properties destroyed. SEDPI reached out to the victims through donating PhP10, 000 to the Ateneo Disaster Response and Management (DReaM) Team. The donations were primarily used for relief efforts for the victims.  In the same way, SEDPI also donated PhP20, 000 to Ateneo DReaM Team when typhoon Pedring devastated Northern and Central Luzon last September, 2011.

Social Entrepreneurship: A New Way of Doing Business

The League of Corporate Foundations (LCF) held its tenth Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Expo last July 20-21, 2011 at the SMX Convention Center. With this year’s theme “Taking CSR to New Heights”, they gathered heads of different leading corprations and foundations in the country to share how they enable their businesses to make strategic social investments.

On the second day of the CSR Expo, there were different breakout sessions. One of the sessions was titled “Entrep ka? Sosyal! (Scoial Entrepreneurship: Changing Lives, Sustaining Communities)”. Four guest speakers graced this session – Mr. Mariel Vincent A. Rapisura, President of Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI); Fr. Xavier Alpasa, SJ, Social Entrepreneur for Hotel Maya; Mr. Brian Avanceña from the advertising agency, Creative Juice Manila; and Mr. Danilo Songco, President and CEO of PinoyME Foundation.

Mr. Rapisura opened the session by explaining the concept of Social Entrepreneurship. He shared a number of concepts cited most in defining Social Entrepreneurship, but he focused on the concept that Social Entrepreneurship is not limited by resources. Social entrepreneurship therefore involves the promotion of enterprises that create wealth benefiting not just a person but the public at large or the marginalized sectors of the society.

Fr. Xavier presented Hotel Maya in Isla Culion, Palawan an example of a social enterprise. It was put up by a Jesuit-run school, the Loyola College of Culion, to be a teaching facility for the study of eco-tourism. Mr. Songco wrapped up the session by tying up concepts of CSR and social entrepreneurship.

Ateneo Sets Up Four Training Hubs for Microfinance

The Ateneo Microfinance Capacity Building Program (ADMU-MCBP) recently set up four training hubs in Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Dipolog. The establishment of the training hubs is part of the programs overall strategy of bringing capacity building services closer to microfinance institutions.

The training hubs make microfinance training courses available and more accessible to more microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Philippines. It is hoped that more MFIs will benefit from this initiative. Participants need not travel to Manila to attend training courses in microfinance. Courses will be regularly offered in key cities all over the Philippines that could lead to a Diploma in Microfinance conferred by the Ateneo de Manila University.

Leticia Loquinario, the Chief Operating Officer of Katipunan Bank said, “The administrative costs related to attending courses in microfinance traditionally available only in Manila is drastically reduced. We no longer need to pay for plane fares and lodging for enabling us to send more of our staff to attend the trainings.” She added, “we also invite other MFIs in Mindanao to attend the training since we view them as our collaborators, not competitors.”

The hubs were established in partnership with the Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF), Mindanao Alliance of Self-Help Societies – Southern Philippines Educational Cooperative Center (MASS-SPECC), and Katipunan Bank (KB). The BPI Foundation also supports Ateneo’s establishment of training hubs in microfinance.

In the past five years, the ADMU-MCBP has trained close to 5,000 microfinance stakeholders from almost 1,800 development organizations. Cumulatively, these development organizations reach out to more than 3 million poor households in the Philippines.

SEDPI and i-Genius Deliver Workshop on Social Entrepreneurship

Social enterprise is experiencing a meteoric rise in interest and relevance in the Philippines and the rest of the world. It is an entirely new way of working, a way of creating a new sort of wealth and most of all, a way of changing people and the world. It is not an easy route and the conflicts between social goals and business, values and democratic working call for innovative approaches to planning, governing, selling and managing.

Through the auspices of the British Council, SEDPI and I-Genius delivered a workshop entitled “How to Start a Social Enterprise” on September 28 to October 1, 2010 at the Discovery Suites in Pasig City. The workshop aims to equip budding social entrepreneurs with information on getting started on their social enterprise venture by providing tips on business strategies and planning, marketing and communications including using new media in establishing networks plus raising finance.

One of the participants wrote, “The training has been an eye-opener for me. It has helped classify several aspects of the responsibilities of a social entrepreneur. This also motivated me to put into action long time plans to put up an enterprise/group that can be socially relevant very informative, interactive, practical. I learned a lot.”

Tommy Hutchinson, founder and CEO of I-Genius, was the lead facilitator of the workshop. Vincent Rapisura and Edwin Salonga who are President and Chairperson of the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. provided the local perspective in social entrepreneurship.

Tommy established I-Genius, a world community of social entrepreneurs with members in over 90 countries.  Its aim is to provide support to social entrepreneurs, encourage them to connect with one another and inspire more people to become social innovators. SEDPI, on the other hand, provides innovative and excellence-driven capacity building services to microfinance stakeholders and social enterprises in the Philippines and around the world.

SEDPI Clinches 2 Projects and Conducts 6 Training Events in March

SEDPI was able to clinch two projects from two international organizations – Mercy Corps and Microfinance Opportunities. Mercy Corps commissioned SEDPI to conduct financial education for remittance senders training to Overseas Filipino Workers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in cooperation with Western Union Foundation. On the other hand, Microfinance Opportunities commissioned SEDPI to conduct module pilot test of its financial education microinsurance and risk management module to microfinance clients in the Philippines.

For the month of March, SEDPI staff delivered si training events. Two of the trainings were under the Ateneo-BPI partnership. The trainings were “Microinsurance and Savings” held in Cebu City and “Delinquency Management” held in Tacloban City. SEDPI staffalso delivered two training events on “Financial Product Design and Development & Innovations in Delivery Systems” in partnership with the People’s Credit and Finance Corporation through the Ateneo de Manila University. These were held in Legaspi in the Bicol region and Butuan in the Caraga region. Two customized training were also conducted for the World Wildlife Fund and Rural Bank of Katipunan held in Cagayancillo, Palawan and Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte respectively. A total of 116 participants from 36 organizations attended the training events.

SEDPI Holds Ten Training Events in February

The month of February was fruitful for the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. A total of 10 training events were delivered for the month. Of the training events conducted, six are customized; one is conducted under the Ateneo-BPI  partnership; one new training is introduced in Ateneo; and two are conducted in the Netherlands.
A total of 200 participants from 40 development organizations attended the training events. The customized trainings delivered are on crafting financial projections for branch operations; managing and developing human resource for microfinance institutions; fundamentals and principles of microfinance; and character and capacity-based lending. The Ateneo-BPI partnership training on financial analysis was conducted in Baguio City. Two trainings on financial literacy for remittance senders were conducted in the Netherlands both in Filipino migrant communities and communities of other migrant nationalities. The latest offering of the Ateneo Microfinance Capacity Buiilding Program successfully introduced its new training entitled: “The New Frontier: Linking Microfinance and Remittances.”

The training events were all evaluated as excellent with trainers getting a rating of 4.80 and training topics were rated 4.67. SEDPI uses a rating scale of 1 to 5 in its evaluation system, with one as the lowest and 5 as the highest possible rating.

SEDPI Conducts 94 Training Events in 2008

In 2008, SEDPI’s delivery of trainings increased by 27% from 74 training events in 2007 to 94. The increase in training events was due to the continued patronage of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation to conduct training to their management staff in Africa. At the same time, the Ateneo-BPI Microfinance Capacity Building Partnership as well as the People’s Credit and Finance Corporation also were main stays as partners to reach out to more microfinance stakeholders.

As a result, SEDPI was able to increase its number of development organizations reached from 502 in 2007 to 985. Rural banks overtook the number of microfinance institutions reached that was dominated by NGOs in 2007. Cumulatively, SEDPI is able to reach out to 400 rural banks, 275 NGOs, 76 cooperatives and 234 other development organizations. The number of international organizations reached likewise increased.

SEDPI still maintained its positioning of reaching out to small and medium microfinance institutions (those with less than 400 million in portfolio) which comprose 88% of the total outreach.

Coupling the increase in outreach is the improvement in the evaluation of participants of the trainings conducted. SEDPI uses a scale of 1 to 5 in its evaluation where 1 is the poorest performance and 5 as excellent performance. For 2008, rating on SEDPI trainers improved from 4.60 to 4.65 and rating on training topics improved from 4.39 to 4.59.

SEDPI continues to draw inspiration from this achievements and will strive to reach out to more microfinance stakeholders and continually improve the delivery of its services.

Linking Up with CORDAID

SEDPI and SCCI have signed cooperation agreements with Cordaid, one of the largest NGOs in the Netherlands. The SEDPI-Cordaid partnership has four components:

l The Capacity Building for Small and Emerging Microfinance Institutions seeks to improve the financial performance and organizational sustainability of small and emerging MFIs. Participating MFIs will be given the tools and techniques to improve their financial products, streamline service delivery, and reach out to more poor households. Under this component, eight MFIs are undergoing TAMA all over the Philippines. A 0% capacity building loan may be extended to the MFIs so they can cope with the expenses incurred for TAMA.

l The Wholesale Loan to Microfinance Institutions complements the first component. Through SCCI, small and emerging MFIs can access loans that would otherwise be unavailable to them. By establishing their loan track record, MFIs can eventually borrow from commercial sources.

l The Financial Literacy Program for Remittance Senders and Receivers aims to inculcate in these groups the discipline and commitment of personal financial management. The program also encourages the productive use of remittances through socially responsible investments and intends to break the cycle of dependency on remittances. The training provides concrete guidelines and practical tools to make informed decisions on investments, business establishment, and financial planning. To date, some 1,000 overseas Filipinos have attended the training programs held in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Singapore, and United Arab Emirates.

l The Guarantee Fund to Migrant Investments seeks to boost migrants’ participation in socially responsible investments. Migrants may invest in SCCI’s Sustainable Investment Fund, which carries a higher rate of return than commercial banks. Cordaid has placed a guarantee to migrant investments placed with SCCI through an escrow agreement with Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company. The guarantee aims to protect migrant investments in SCCI up to PhP250,000. The SCCI pioneer investors are members of the United Migrants Development Workers and Stichting-Habagat based in the Netherlands.

Cordaid is one of the world’s biggest international development organizations with a network of almost a thousand partner organizations in 36 countries in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America. It has more than 90 years of experience and expertise in emergency aid and structural poverty eradication. The counterpart bodies work on various themes, including healthcare, quality of urban life, access to markets, and peace and conflict.