In November 2006, SEDPI embarked on its first international training in the Netherlands. Commissioned by Oxfam-Novib, SEDPI brought with them their expertise and delieverd the “Fundamentals and Methodologies of Microfinance” to participants representing more than 20 migrant organizations based in The Netherlands originally from Asia, Africa and Latin America.  Seven months later, Oxfam-Novib again tapped SEDPI to facilitate a training on Financial Literacy to the same group and to the United Migrants Domestic Workers (UMDW). With the training, UMDW was able to show that migrants can make socially-responsible investments to microfinance institutions in the Philippines. Due to its success,  the Financial Literacy training will be delivered in five areas in the Netherlands in 2008 – Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Groeningen and Flevoland. It is also planned to be replicated to Filipino communities in Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy.

With the topic “Fundamentals and Methodologies of Microfinance,” participating Netherlands-based migrant organizations from Africa, Asia, and Latin America were acquainted to the various lending approaches and microfinance methodologies, development impact of microfinance, and emerging best practices in the industry . A few days after the training, the participants wrote an evaluation report on their own volition and submitted the same to Oxfam Novib. The report stated that “the training presented the functional dimensions of microfinance, addressing key issues and trends. It went further to introduce some of the effective processes for achieving optional structures for a successful delivery of microfinance programs.” More importantly, it stressed that “the training was excellently delivered in an environment of humor making participants learn with fun and achieve the motivation they need,” while “valuable information were used to drive home all the important aspects of the program.”

Financial Literacy introduced methods and practices on saving, budgeting and investing remittances. All topics were under the context of leveraging remittances as a powerful resource for development through financial integration; and use for both consumption and productive purposes.  Making use of its jovial brand of training to get content-heavy discussions across to participants, SEDPI again received good reviews. As commented by one of the participants, “[The] combination of theory and practices from personal experience made the [learning process] wonderful and enjoyable.”

With plans of supporting microfinance institutions in its country, members of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) traveled to the Philippines to attend trainings at the Ateneo and visit a well-established microfinance cooperative in Manila. Not long after, CBN employed the services of their trainers to deliver Ateneo’s Microfinance Diploma Course with the end goal of enhancing the capacity of its staff in providing regulation and supervision to microfinance banks.

The first of two sets of trainings was held on March 2007, with topics including Fundamental and Methodologies of Microfinance, Financial Product Design, and Financial Analysis. The trainings ran for two weeks, and were held in Lagos, Nigeria. In its reviews, the topics were seen as “very promising, interesting, and relevant.” Further, the participants commented that the speakers gave “excellent presentations” and have “deep knowledge” of the topics. The second leg of the trainings was again held in Lagos, this time on the topics of Delinquency Management, Risk Management for Microfinance Institutions, and Managing, Developing, and Supervising Microfinance Staff. The trainings are best summarized by a comment made by one participant: “The lectures were enlightening, and the manner of presentation was refreshing.”
Talks are now underway of providing regular trainings to CBN staff in the future. With the help of Ateneo’s Microfinance Capacity Building Program, through SEDPI’s resource persons, it is hoped that better supervision and regulatory environment will be provided to microfinance banks of Nigeria.

Microfinance Opportunities is a women-owned microenterprise resource center that promotes client-led microfinance. Established in 2002 as a non-profit organization, it seek to facilitate an improvement in poor people’s lives by increasing their access to well-designed and well-delivered financial services. It occupies a specialized market niche within the microfinance industry, providing action-oriented research, training, and technical assistance in three client-focused areas: financial education, microinsurance and client assessment.
From July to November 2007, SEDPI implemented the module pilot test on the financial education for remittance receivers module of Microfinance Opportunities. The module pilot test was conducted in partnership with the Bank of the Philippine Islands. Market research through focus group discussions and individual interviews were conducted and at the same time a pilot test training was conducted to BPI remittance receivers for this project. The training module was warmly received by participants. Recognizing the importance of financial education, SEDPI will be implementing training of trainers to microfinance institutions and at the same time assist them in the development of financial products that integrate remittances. This training completes the financial education that SEDPI has conducted to remittance senders abroad.

Cordaid combines more than 90 years’ experience and expertise in emergency aid and structural poverty eradication. It is one of the 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.

In August 2007, Cordaid assigned SEDPI to undertake an organizational appraisal with the Coalition of Social Development Organizations – South Cotabato (CSDO-SC) in Mindanao. CSDO-SC is a consortium of various Non-Government Organizations and People’s Organizations in the province. It aims to unify the goals, directions and strategies of its members in order to optimize impact in its area of coverage.
Through the appraisal, SEDPI was able to identify institutional capacity building needs of the network to adequately absorb funds from Cordaid. Several recommendations were made to enhance CSDO-SC’s operations and prepare it to handle larger funds for the benefit of its network members and ultimately the marginalized sector in their areas of operations. CSDO-SC was able to access USD600,000 loan fund and USD162,000 institutional support and client development fund from Cordaid.