FOCAS Mindanao Area Manager Em Torrente (left photo) along with Ria GoTian of NEDA Central Office and Weng Dano of Landcare Project (not in photo) oriented some 30 participants on the basics of economic analysis of micro-enterprise, agribusiness and natural resource management projects on Oct. 23-24, 2007 in Casa Reyfrancis, Tagbilaran City.
Efficiency, growth, and sustainability - key words which used to reverberate only among corporate circles are now becoming the mantra of development workers. This comes after the realization that development projects, whether financed through local or foreign grant, have to adopt sound economic principles and practices in order to achieve growth and sustainability. This is much more of a norm for micro-enterprise and agribusiness projects which promise to generate employment and income increment to poor families in the countryside.
Thus, under the auspices of the Australian Agency for International Development - Philippines-Australia Community Assistance Program (AusAID-PACAP), the Bohol Focused Community Assistance Scheme 1 (FOCAS 1), has organized a training on Economic Analysis of Micro-enterprise, Agribusiness and Natural Resource Management Projects on October 23-24, 2007 in Casa Reyfrancis, Tagbilaran City.
The training was designed at providing participants with the knowledge, skills and appreciation (KSA) on financial analysis, including hands-on experience in evaluating cash flow statements and formulating recommendations for improving economic sustainability of FOCAS projects. Thirty participants have successfully completed the training. The said participants are FOCAS management committee (FMC) members themselves representing the government, non-government, community and the private sector working on three project themes, namely, enterprise/agribusiness development (FOCAS 1), eco-cultural tourism (FOCAS 2) and sustainable agriculture (FOCAS 3). A select team of resource persons from PACAP (Mr. Emmanuel “Em†Torrente), NEDA (Ms. Reina Elena GoTian) and Landcare Project (Ms. Maria Noelyn Dano) provided the necessary technical inputs and learning environment which truly enriched the participants. Management and administrative support were also equally provided by Ms. May V. Blanco (PACAP Provincial Project Officer for Bohol), Mr. Blair Panong (Senior DTI Specialist and FOCAS 1 Management Committee Chair) and Misses Mylove Cardinoza and Sol Virtudazo of the FOCAS 1 Secretariat.
The Bohol FOCAS program has been implemented in 17 municipalities (dubbed as most deprived based on 2004 LPRAP survey) and operationalized into 4 distinct but strategically linked themes namely: FOCAS 1 (Enterprise/Agribusiness Development), FOCAS 2 (eco-cultural tourism); FOCAS 3 (sustainable agriculture); and FOCAS 4 (water and sanitation). PACAP, which is now on its 21st year of countryside development work, commits to support a total of 26 FOCAS projects in Bohol or an aggregate grant of PhP 91.8 million from 2006-2009. (Sol Virtudazo/FTCP).
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