| The Alliance of Philippine Partners in Enterprise Development,
Inc. (APPEND), the first and one of the largest networks
of microfinance organizations in the Philippines, is composed
of ten microfinance organizations and one microfinance-oriented
thrift bank. As of June 30, 2004, APPEND is assisting
a total of 305,817 microentrepreneurs from all over the
Philippines.
In 2002, APPEND launched its five-year National Transformation
Program with the goal of providing transformational
microfinance and business development services to One
Million microentrepreneurs by year 2006. APPEND also
established a partnership with Fundacion CODESPA under
the program Expansion Y Mejoramiento de los Programas
de Microcredito de APPEND, Filipinas. The program aimed
to support the expansion of microfinance services in
the Philippines by developing the capacity of the APPEND
network to confront the sustainable expansion of microfinance
programs. Under the program, APPEND continues to step
up its capacity building efforts to equip its member
organizations and enable them to provide more efficient
and effective services to its clients. Under the second
phase of its partnership with Fundacion CODESPA, APPEND
conducted 32 trainings for its member organizations.
From January to May 2004, APPEND conducted 23 Scale
Up Branch trainings. Five of these trainings served
to orient 160 new branch staff on the over-all operations
of six branches that were put up in Cavite, Naga City
(Camarines Sur), Legazpi City (Albay), Surigao City
(Surigao del Norte), Lucena City (Quezon) and Sta. Cruz
(Laguna). The trainings focused on the areas of management
and supervisory skills of microfinance personnel, credit
risk management, facilitation and communication enhancement,
accounting, human resource/relations and client satisfaction.
Another training was held on TSKI partnership and relationship
building with microfinance entrepreneurs. A total of
908 personnel benefited from these trainings.
Likewise, Board Governance trainings were also conducted
within the period. These served as venue for the exchange
and discussion of strategies to reach the One Million
goal of reaching poor households, and the achievement
of the triple bottom line of outreach, sustainability
and transformation. Lectures and workshops were held
to further develop the governance skills of the board
members and enhance the synergy of the board and management
of the organizations. The trainings were attended by
57 Board members, Executive Directors and Management
from the APPEND partners.
APPEND conducted training for the management staff
of the APPEND members on Leadership Development and
Enhancement, Managers' Course and Advance Entrepreneurial
Skills and Management. The trainings on Leadership Development
and Enhancement were done not only for the Board members
and Executive Directors but for the second-line managers
as well. Participants for managers course learned the
key principles for managing people, process and resources
and how to effectively influence people and outcomes
through better communication styles. The 154 participants
were also taught how to build strengths and overcome
weaknesses through a self-development plan. The Advance
Entrepreneurial Skills and Management course, on the
other hand, focused on how to spot business opportunities
and the role of project studies and business plans,
organize and manage a business enterprise. Personnel,
financial, production and marketing aspects of a business
enterprise were also discussed. The course, attended
by 13 participants, was very helpful in the design of
a training module for the NGOs' microentrepreneurs.
In May 2004 APPEND conducted two Market Research and
Product Development trainings to enhance the capacity
of its member organizations especially in the areas
of microinsurance and business development services.
On the overall, fifty (50) management and operations
personnel of APPEND's member organizations were trained.
The first training that had 25 participants, served
as a review of existing and in-progress microinsurance
initiatives of the APPEND partners. A presentation of
the overview of OI's insurance research project in the
Philippines, and exchange of experiences and learnings
also took place among representatives of Alalay sa Kaunlaran
sa Gitnang Luzon,Inc. (ASKI), Kabalikat Para sa Maunlad
na Buhay, Inc. (KMBI), and Taytay sa Kauswagan, Inc.
(TSKI)
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