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Michael Canares, Step Up managing consultant, presents his paper in an international conference convened by the United Nations Research Institute for Sustainable Development (UNRISD) last 6-8 May 2013 at the International Labour Organization (ILO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.  Mr. Canares’ paper was one of the 44 selected presentations in the conference out of a total of 560 submissions.

The conference presentations revolve around the theme “The Potential and Limits of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE)” organized by both UNRISD and ILO.  It was attended by delegates from more than 70 countries.  Mr. Canares’ work entitled “Scaling Up:  Interactions, Challenges, and Opportunities of Social and Solidarity Economy in the Philippines” was part of the panel on SSE and Local Development chaired by UNDP Director Petra Lantz.  It was the only paper coming from Southeast Asia and the only presentation tackling SSE in the Philippines and in the region.

“I was fortunate to be one of those selected to present in the conference, with a generous grant from the South-South Cooperation Office of the ILO”, Mr. Canares said.    The paper received substantial comments from his researcher friends prior to its submission to UNRISD.  Very recently, UNRISD communicated with Mr. Canares regarding future publication plans of the paper which is currently available in its draft form at the UNRISD website.

Social and solidarity economy is regaining interest in academic circles and policy debates because of the failure of neo-classical economics to promote equitable and sustainable growth as evidenced by recent financial crisis in the US and in Europe.  It was also brought back into the agenda after the Rio+20 Meeting a year back in Brazil to press for country commitments to challenge current models of development that are just mere expansions of the capitalist model.

The UNRISD and ILO conference in Geneva is an effort of both agencies to rethink development models and present Social and Solidarity Economy as an alternative. SSE involves several forms of business organizations, cooperatives, self-help groups, and community-based enterprises, the subject of Mr. Canares’ paper.

Step Up Consulting Services assisted the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA) in improving their financial management systems through the conduct of a financial management training course.  The course was held in Davao City in February 2013.

Managing Consultant Michael Canares was engaged by the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) as faculty on financial management.  The DAP and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is implementing a Management Development Program (MDP) for BDA. The MDP for BDA is a broad modular program with four main courses: Personal Efficacy and Leadership; Managing a High-Performing Organization; Strategic Public Management; and, Governance and Development. 

Mr. Canares was joined by Mr. Gilbert Lumantao of DAP as resource person for internal audit and internal control while he handled the sessions on financial management basics, planning and budgeting, reading and analysing financial statements. Participants of BDA were very thankful for the sessions. The president of the Board of Directors expressed that this was the first time that they were taught how to read and analyse financial statements. They also said that after the training they will be more cautious in signing financial reports prepared by their accountants and bookkeepers, as they now understand them.

Step Up Consulting Services was contracted by the Metro Naga Development Council through the GREAT Women Project to facilitate the conduct of a Trainers’ Training on Results-based Monitoring and Evaluation. The training was conducted in Macagang Business Center in Nabua, Camarines Sur and was attended by selected representatives from local government units, national government agencies, non-government organisations, and academic institutions.

The training intends to capacitate future trainers on results-based M&E in the analysis, planning, design, conduct, and evaluation of capacity development interventions for local government units and common service facilities.

Michael Canares, Managing Consultant of Step Up Consulting Services was invited by Dr. Analyn Salvador-Amores of University of the Philippines Baguio to be its guest lecturer on a class on Development Theory and Practice last March 9, 2012. The class was attended by graduate students in the College of Social Sciences.

Mr. Canares’ talk was on the topic “What is the relationship between government and international agencies in ‘development practice’? How alternative is alternative development?”.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 28 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Step Up Consulting Services signed a new contract with Soil and Water Conservation Foundation to write a profile report for its newly-assisted barangays in the municipality of Batuan, Bohol.  The report will present the socio-economic condition of the barangay residents prior to project implementation.

Assigned to the engagement is Marijoe Narca and Michael Canares, with the administrative assistance of Marilou Epe-Sale.

Step Up Consulting Services was hired by Soil and Water Conservation Foundation to facilitate a credit management training for its assisted people’s organizations in Bohol. The training was conducted at the Bohol Biodiversity Complex in Bilar, Bohol, last 3-4 November 2011.

Step Up training facilitator Maricor Evangelista-Burbos, who has extensive experience in credit management was the resource person for the two-day activity. Step Up has developed a training module on credit management fit for use by people’s organizations. The training module was developed by Michael Canares, Step UP managing consultant, who is also a certified public accountant.

Mr. Abraham Jose Apit landed 6th place in the recently concluded board exams. Mr. Apit, from Loay, Bohol and a BS Accountancy graduate of Holy Name University, was an intern at Step Up Consulting Services in the summer of 2010 and has worked in at least two engagements with the firm.

Mr. Apit appreciated his internship at Step Up Consulting Services, as it afforded him the opportunity to apply classroom learnings in actual work situations.  He assisted his professor, and Step Up managing consultant Mr. Michael Canares in a consulting engagement with MUAD Negros, in Bacolod City, and in two other audit engagements.

Mr. Apit spent his summer internship at Step Up Consulting, together with Paul Richard Stroud, another passer in the CPA board exams, and Mr. Julius Lim.

Step Up Managing consultant Michael Canares attended the joint conference of the Development Studies Association and the European Association of Development Training Institutes last 19-22 September at York University in the United Kingdom.  Mr. Canares presented a paper in the Gender and Development working group on his work on women’s access to economic opportunities.

The conference theme was “Rethinking Development in an Age of Scarcity and Uncertainty” and was attended by more than 75o academics and practitioners.  There were four plenary sessions, over 100 panels, and more than 400 papers presented.  The conference sought to find new ways of doing things, new approaches in development work, no theories from which to learn new ways of doing.

Mr. Canares’ paper was entitled “Investing in the Local: Rethinking Gender Mainstreaming Approaches for Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Philippines”.

Michael Canares, managing consultant of Step Up Consulting Services is one of the more than 50 academics invited to the Poverty and Behavioral Economics conference hosted by the United Nations University- World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) based in Helsinki, Finland. The conference was held at the Marina Congress Center last 1-2 September 2011.

The conference intended “to take stock of current knowledge, to draw out the major policy implications, and to chart promising areas for research” on poverty withe the perspective of development economics. Presenters were famous economics as Ravi Kanbur, Dean Karlan, and Sendhil Mullainathan and topics ranged from the economics of happiness, prospect theory, uncertainties and valuations to corruption and violence. UNU-WIDER

Mr. Canares is one of the very few young academics from the global south invited to the gathering. He has worked recently with UNU WIDER on two projects in the past – on entrepreneurship and conflict, and urbanisation and development. UNU-WIDER is ranked one of the top ten think tanks in the world.