Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc.

The training of trainers course supports knowledge and skills transfer for the staff and trainers of organizations to be able to conduct trainings on their own. The course discusses the key principles and practices of adult learning and the characteristics of a good learning environment. The training approach teaches practical skills such as speaking effectively to groups, facilitating discussions and groupworks, responding to questions, and giving and receiving feedback. Participants will be given a chance to practice their communication skills through workshops and sample training sessions. They will also be given trainer guides to help them craft their own training programs or revise existing training programs for local adaptation.

There is a natural strategic link between microfinance and remittances. Research data show that 40% of total remittances go to the rural areas where MFIs are present. However, most MFIs fail to recognize the opportunity in remittances as one of the means to achieve financial sustainability and social mission. Remittances as a fee-based product offer the opportunity to MFIs to achieve financial goals. At the same time, money from poor migrants in host countries send remittances to even poorer households in their countries of origin. MFIs could offer remittance receivers the opportunity to leverage remittances with pro-poor financial products, thus achieving their social mission. The course will present different remittance operations models where MFIs could participate. It will outline the advantages and disadvantages of the different remittance operations models as well as tools on how to negotiate with money transfer operators. The course will also provide guidelines for microfinance institutions on how to develop pro-poor financial products that are linked to remittances.

Middle managers play a crucial role in microfinance since they could be considered as the backbone of the microfinance institutions (MFIs). The middle management is the point where microfinance’s lofty mission must be translated into a sustainable and scalable operation. The middle managers are often poorly equipped to deal with this challenge. The course is designed to provide microfinance managers with a holistic understanding of various areas involved in managing microfinance operations. Participants are expected to gain practical knowledge and skills for effective delivery of microfinance products and services. The course covers topics such as management and leadership roles, the role and dynamics of teams, conflict resolution, assessment of microfinance operations, customer services, review of strategic plan, and review of skills needed to be an effective manager. The training approach includes workshops especially designed to assist microfinance managers in handling the various operational issues that they face such as delinquency, financial performance monitoring, human resource issues, and strategic plan issues.

A subsector is the network of firms that supply raw materials, transform them and distribute finished goods to a particular consumer market. The subsector approach training recognizes that small firms operate within a larger production and distribution system, and that it is not possible to look at small firms alone. This course examines large firms that compete with micro and small enterprises (MSEs), supply inputs and market small-firm output. It aims to help MSEs survive in a highly competitive and fast-changing business environment. Among the topics covered are microenterprise development, subsector analysis, subsector selection, subsector mapping, value chains, interventions and commercially viable solutions, and solution providers.

The course on strengthening internal control and effective management information system provides guidelines for establishing operational activities that assist the MFI in identifying vulnerabilities, designing and implementing controls and monitoring the effectiveness of controls. The strengthening of internal control is linked with the MFI management information system. It also highlights problem resolution as a means for risk management and internal control. Topics to be discussed include understanding management information system and the importance of microfinance reports. Finally, the difference between internal control and internal audit will be discussed and how these will be implemented and facilitated in different organizations.

A microfinance institution (MFI) faces several types of risks. The strategic credit and risk management course aims to help MFIs identify the different risks they are facing in the organization. This course helps microfinance institutions develop and improve the quality of their risk management processes. It focuses on problem prevention, early problem identification and control. Particularly, this course will focus on credit risk management. This course provides an understanding on how to detect and minimize credit risks of MFIs. The course includes a discussion on delinquency and client selection. Included in the discussion of the course is how to craft a flow chart to be able assess the risks in each processes. Finally, a session on action planning will be conducted to be able to ensure that learning will be implemented in the participants’ organizations.

The strategic planning course addresses the issues of strategic and operational planning that are vital to the successful development of microfinance institutions. The course uses the right to left planning approach as the framework for the strategic planning process. This approach involves careful analysis of an organization’s vision, mission, objectives and goals. The course aims to shed light on the institutional values, as well as generate winning strategies, programs and activities. The strategic planning course also aids MFIs in clarifying their niche and differentiation in the competitive industry they are in. The course offers various methods in conducting internal and external analysis that aids an MFI in positioning itself in the microfinance industry. Another topic to be discussed in the course is financial modeling. Various forecasting techniques will be used to aid participants in crafting financial projections for their strategic plans.

Social mission is one half of the dual mission of a microfinance institution. Aside from measuring the financial performance of an organization, it is as important to measure its social performance. This training aims to give participants a broad understanding of social performance in microfinance. The starting point for many MFIs has been their mission and commitment to providing access to the poor and helping them improve their social and economic conditions. But while the microfinance industry over the years has adopted a set of financial indicators with clear reporting standards and guidelines to determine the financial health of institutions, there exists no corresponding set of social performance indicators. Recently, the microfinance industry’s widespread interest in complementing financial assessments of MFIs with assessments of their social performance has blossomed into a number of different tools for this purpose. At the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to understand the different components of social performance management, as well as social performance indicators and how these indicators can be adopted to the context of the MFIs.

The risk management, internal control and audit course aims to help microfinance institutions identify the different kinds of risks they are facing in the organization. The course provides guidelines for establishing operational activities that assist the MFI in identifying vulnerabilities, designing and implementing controls and monitoring the effectiveness of controls. Special emphasis is given to problem prevention, early problem identification and control. The course also highlights problem resolution and installation of proper information systems as a means for risk management and internal control. The course also provides in-depth discussions on how internal and external audits are conducted, and how they could be used to the advantage of an MFI. At the end of the course, it is hoped that participants could develop strategies and programs for improving the quality of their risk management processes.

This course will cover an advance area of delinquency management. Specific strategies in fighting delinquency will be discussed with the participants. Actual delinquency cases in MFIs will be used as learning materials for the training. This will result to thematic strategies that will address client, MFI, and externally initiated causes of delinquency. Portfolio management will also establish a systematic process of knowledge sharing between field staff and branch manager, and among branch managers themselves as well. One of the highlights of portfolio management focuses on addressing the issue of MFI’s effective implementation of the removal of ‘tapal’ system and transition to individual liability.