Category: Social Entrepreneurship

SEDPI Renews Partnership with Stichting Habagat, Inks Another with OFSPES Italy

In October 2009, SEDPI signed Memorandum of Agreements (MOA) with two Overseas Filipino (OF) organizations. SEDPI renewed its partnership with Stichting-Habagat based in the Netherlands and OFSPES based in Italy.

The MOA aims to facilitate savings and socially responsible investments from OFs in Europe as well as advocating financial literacy to both migrants and remittance receivers. Through the efforts of both organizations, a total of PhP5 million (USD100,000) worth of social investments have been mobilized and have trained approximately 400 migrants on basic financial literacy since January 2009.

Stichting-Habagat is a group of Filipino migrants in the Netherlands who were politically active in the Philippines in the 1980s. It aims to promote and generate support for issues and concerns for the people of Southern Philippines, particularly in Mindanao, through campaigns and information drive. On the other hand, Associazone Pilipinas OFSPES Onlus is a non-profit associating implementing a program for OFs entitled Leasership and Social Entrepreneurship, of which, financial literacy is a vital component.

The Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) was founded in 2004 with a simple but powerful vision–sustainable social enterprise for the economic empowerment of the poor. By believing in and working hard to realize this vision, and spreading the best microfinance practices on various points of the globe, SEDPI has carried the flame of sustainability through capacity building and balancing social and financial goals.

Five years on, young but confident with its achievements, SEDPI continues to affirm its vision. By edifying MFIs and microenterprises, and by giving financial education, SEDPI has directly and indirectly put homes, communities, and societies in a better position to sustain themselves. This will be SEDPI’s commitment in the decades to come

Private Enterprise Accelerated Resource Linkages Project

The Private Enterprise Accelerated Resource Linkages Project Phase 2 (Pearl2) is a Private Sector Development project of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The Project’s goal is to contribute to reduction of poverty in the Philippines through equitable and sustainable development. PEARL2 works directly with Business Support Organizations (BSOs) and Investment Promotion Centers (IPCs) to support the development of Small and Medium Enterprises that create meaningful jobs for both men and women.

SEDPI was tasked to evaluate the performance of the project in delivering capacity building services to BSOs. The evaluation showed that in PEARL2’s provision of capacity-building interventions, PEARL2 has achieved considerable level of success in strengthening the financial performance and management capacity of BSOs. Majority of the SMEs assessed reported improvements in their business operations and most of them attributed such progress to the assistance, services, or programs of their respective BSOs. On the side of SME employees, majority of those interviewed revealed a sustained or improved income level and also citing improved living conditions in terms of nutrition, water, sanitation, lighting, and housing.

Plan International

One of the goals of Plan Philippines is to improve the economic capabilities of the rural families and therefore reduce the poverty-inflicted risks and impacts to children. Plan hopes to achieve this through its sustainable livelihood development program. The program aims to facilitate and deliver critical services that will improve the capacities of the poor to develop and implement livelihood activities. Plan Philippines recognizes that a sustainable and logical approach to livelihood development in this context starts with ensuring that people are being provided of appropriate support interventions that would best address their needs particularly in improving their livelihoods.

SEDPI facilitated capacity building to technical staff and community leaders in Plan’s areas of operations. The capacity building is in line with the thrust to help communities develop group enterprises that would result in wider outreach and benefits for the majority of community populations. Simple business plans were developed and used
as a guide of the people to plan and implement their own community-based enterprises