mikocanares Uncategorized

Step Up assists WTRC in Men’s Forum

Men @ Work Forum.
Men @ Work Forum.

Step Up Consulting was engaged by the Wholistic Transformation Resource Center to facilitate the Men@Work Forum held at the First Pacific Leadership Academy in Antipolo last 24-26 November 2014.  The forum was attended by key partners of WTRC, more notably Tulay sa Pag-unlad, World Vision’s Community Economic Ventures, Taytay sa Kauswagan, Visayan Forum, Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Kabalikat sa Maunlad na Buhay, Katuwang Resource Center, Center for Community Transformation, Opportunities International Australia, and the Alliance of Philippine Partners for Enterprise Development.

The workshop aimed to discuss the challenges faced by men living in poverty, how social development organizations have responded to the issue, and what more can be done so that men can reclaim its place in the development of families, worlkplaces, and society.  In Asia and all around the world, statistical data showed that men in general lagged in achievements in education, economic productivity, and community leadership, though at the current state of things, men are still occupying top leadership positions.

Speakers for the forum where Far East Broadcasting Network chief Dan Cura, Denis Murphy of the Urban Poor Associates, Geoff Osborne, Bridget Centenera and David Bussau of WTRC, James Tioco of the Sowers of the Word, Ruth Callanta of CCT, and Melbay Maggay of the Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture.

mikocanares Asia, Business Planning, Capacity Building, Consulting Services, core expertise, Core services, Facilitation, Non-Government Organizations

Step Up Facilitates Center for Community Transformation Board Retreat

Board and Staff of the Center for Community Transformation during its Board Retreat.
Board and Staff of the Center for Community Transformation during its Board Retreat.

Step Up consulting was contracted by the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) to facilitate its Board Retreat.  The strategy workshop of the organization was held at the CCT Retreat and Training Center last 21-22 November 2014. The event was attended by around 30 board members of the big CCT Family and approximately 30 members of its senior management. The topic for this year’s board retreat is ‘mentoring’.  A resource person provided the overall context of the event, Mr. Peter Lees of Sharpeting Stone (Australia).

CCT is an organized Christian response against poverty and social injustice. This is carried out through the fusion of social development initiatives and evangelical mission in a uniquely Filipino context. It serves urban and rural poor communities throughout the Philippines, in pursuit of its desire to see changed lives, strong families, and transformed communities centered on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. From a single organization years back, CCT is now a group of 12 ministries or companies focusing on health, education, skills training, and spiritual transformation.

CCT’s board is composed of Christian businessmen who are at the helm key businesses in the country and engaged in property development, pharmaceuticals, car dealership, food and beverage, and retail supermarkets.

mikocanares Business Planning, Capacity Building, Consulting Services, core expertise, Core services, Facilitation, Financial Management, Governance

Step Up Assists Rural Bank of Loboc

Board and staff of the Rural Bank of Loboc during the business strategy workshop.
Board and staff of the Rural Bank of Loboc during the business strategy workshop.

After five successful and profitable years of operation, the Rural Bank of Loboc, Inc. has grown in an unprecedented pace and achieved a set of financial indicators that speak of the bank’s operational sustainability. To revisit its directions and chart a new set of goals to 2020, the Board of Directors hired Step Up Consulting to facilitate the process to assist them in looking at their bank operations and plan for the next six years.

As a culminating event,  a workshop was held at the bank’s office in Loboc, Bohol on 9 November 2014. The workshop was attended by 5 of its board of directors, one bank consultant, and all members of the staff. The workshop resulted to a strategic plan that the Board will pursue to 2020.

The Rural Bank of Loboc was conceptualized in early 2004 as a major component of The Grand Dreams for the Development of Loboc. This dream, which served as a guide for the administration of Mayor Calipusan, focused on key priority areas labeled as LITHOPE – which stands for livelihood, infrastructure, tourism, health, organizational strengthening, peace and order, and education.  The idea then was to revive a previous proposal of converting the credit cooperative into a rural bank to finance development initiatives in the municipality.  If this would not work, it was planned that local Lobocanons will be organized to set up a bank that would serve the town’s financing needs for agriculture, small and medium-scale enterprises, and other productive activities, with the end view of promoting economic growth and development of Loboc and the economic empowerment of the Lobocanons. The second route was decided as the most viable option.

To date, the Rural Bank of Loboc serves the financing needs of the town of Loboc and nearby municipalities.

mikocanares conference presentations, Governance, Local Government Units, Open Data, Research Projects

Step Up Presents Research in 8th ICEGOV – Portugal

Michael Canares with other members of the ODDC network
Michael Canares with other members of the ODDC network

Michael Canares, managing consultant of Step Up Consulting Services, presented his research entitled – “Full Disclosure Policy and its Impact on Local Governance in the Philippines”, in the recently concluded International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance held in the historic city of Gumaraes, Portugal. The research paper was one of the outputs of the Open LGU Research Project which Step Up implemented in 2013.

Mr. Canares also facilitated the session on Open Data Intermediaries together with Sumandro Chattapadhyay of Data Meet India. The study on Open Data intermediaries is one of the Web Foundation-funded synthesis papers on Open Data in Developing Countries research that Step Up manages together with a team of researchers from India and South Africa.  In the session, Mr. Canares was joined by other members of the Open Data Research Network – Leo Mutuko of Ihub (Kenya), Sandra Elena of CIPPEC (Argentina), and Ricardo Matheus of Brazil.

ICEGOV is a series of International Conferences on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance taking place annually around the world. The series focuses on the use of technology to transform the working of government and its relationships with citizens, businesses and other non-state actors in order to improve public governance and its contribution to public policy and development (EGOV).

The ICEGOV conference series is coordinated by the United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV), based in Guimarães, Portugal, in continuation of the work of the Center for Electronic Governance at UNU-IIST in Macao, China, which founded the ICEGOV series.

mikocanares Business Planning, Capacity Building, Consulting Services, core expertise, Core services, Facilitation, Non-Government Organizations

Step Up assists Visions of Hope Christian School

VOHCS board and staff during the workshop.
VOHCS board and staff during the workshop.

Step Up assists Visions of Hope Christian School (VOHCS) in its strategic planning exercise conducted last 13 October 2014. The workshop was held at the Ascott Hotel Makati and was attended by the Board members and staff of VoHCS headed by Board President James Tioco.

The Visions of Hope Christian School provides free pre-school education and shares the Gospel to children and youth from poor families. VOHCS has established 27 community based kindergarten schools. VOHCS also runs three residential schools. Two of these schools, in Magdalena and in Puypuy, hoise children from the streets. The third one, in Sarangani Province, houses children from the B’laan and Taga Kaolo tribes.

VOHCS is part of the bigger Center for Community Transformation (CCT) family.  According to CCT’s website, CCT “is an organized Christian response against poverty and social injustice. This is carried out through the fusion of social development initiatives and evangelical mission in a uniquely Filipino context. It serves urban and rural poor communities throughout the Philippines, in pursuit of its desire to see changed lives, strong families, and transformed communities centered on the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”

 

It was founded in 1992 by development practitioners who believe that development strategies could best be achieved by enriching the spirituality of a person. Over the years, the Lord has enabled the organization to deliver wholistic, sustainable, and community-based programs and services that cater to the needs of the whole family. These services have opened opportunities for the community partners to grow and reach their full potentials as individuals created in the image and likeness of God

 

 

mikocanares conference presentations, Research Projects

Step Up Represents the Philippines in European Evaluation Society 2014

Mr. Canares during one of the EES sessions
Mr. Canares (seated, first row, second from left) during one of the EES 2014 sessions

Step Up Managing Consultant Michael Canares attended the European Evaluation Society Conference in Dublin, Ireland last September 26-30 and is the only author presenting a research paper on the Philippines. Mr. Canares was also the chair of one of the sessions on “Evaluation for Organizational Effectiveness”.

The European Evaluation Society  is Europe’s premier evaluation organization that seeks “to promote the theory, practice and utilization of high quality evaluation in Europe and beyond. This goal is pursued inter alia by bringing together academics, policy makers and practitioners, by setting up events and by offering platforms that connect relevant disciplines, partners and sectors and encourage knowledge exchange, good practice dissemination, professional co-operation and bridge building.”

The conference in Dublin was attended by more than 500 academics and practitioners on evaluation coming from different countries across the globe.  The conference was held at the Conference Center Dublin.

 

mikocanares Capacity Building, Consulting Services, core expertise, Core services, Governance, Internal Audit

Step Up Completes Internal Audit Mentoring for Misamis Occidental

PGMOC participants during one of the mentoring workshops.
PGMOC participants during one of the mentoring workshops.

Step Up Consulting was contracted by the Provincial Roads Management Facility to conduct mentoring activities for the Provincial Internal Audit Office (PIAO) of Misamis Occidental on audit communications and audit recommendations monitoring from August to October 2014. The highlights of the engagement were the conduct of mentoring workshops on the two topics.

The mentoring activity was intended to enable participants to understand the importance of monitoring and tracking internal audit recommendations;  learn how to establish an effective internal audit monitoring system; and know the importance of communication and writing skills in providing effective and persuasive management advise. As part of the outputs of the mentoring process, the PIAO was able to draft an Audit Recommendations Monitoring process, and a draft Audit Communications Plan.

Step Up was greatly appreciated by the participants for the topics they learned and for the process the mentors used in conducting the mentoring activity.  The participants rated the Step Up 9.33 out of 10.  The Step Up team was composed of Alvin Luis Acuzar, Jean Celeste Paredes, and managing consultant Michael Canares.

mikocanares Location, Office

Step Up Has Moved!

Step Up Consulting has moved to a new location. After 10 productive years at 3 G. Visarra Street, Step Up Consulting looks forward to 10 more productive years at its new office at Door 4, K of C Building, K of C Drive, Tagbilaran City.  It also has a new phone number – +63 38 501 0373.

For exact location, please see the map below (locate the blue arrow’s tip):

picture earth

mikocanares Capacity Building, Consulting Services, core expertise, Core services, Facilitation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Non-Government Organizations, Results-based Management

Step Up Conducts Most Significant Change Training

MSC Participants - CCT Tagaytay.
MSC Participants – CCT Tagaytay.

Step Up was commissioned by Woord en Daad to conduct the Most Significant Change (MSC) Training for its partners in the Philippines and Bangladesh.  The training was conducted at the CCT Tagaytay Retreat and Training Center last 24-26 September 2014 and was participated in by 9 participants from the Philippines, 4 from Bangladesh, and 1 from the Netherlands, a representative of the commissioning organization.

Woord & Daad is an international development organization, established in the Netherlands, working in 20 countries with 29 partner organizations. A number of its partner organizations is interested in increasing capacity on learning through participatory methodologies. For this training, Woord en Daad chose Most Significant Change as the method to be implemented by two of its partners in the Philippines and one partner from Bangladesh.

MSC involves the collection of significant change (SC) stories emanating from the field level, and the systematic selection of the most significant of these stories by panels of designated stakeholders or staff. It intends to capture project outcomes, and in some cases, impact without having to use project or program indicators.

The participants were very impressed with the results of the training.  The post-training evaluation of participants showed that Step Up scored very high in training facilitation, logistics, planning, and design.  The main trainer was Michael Canares and Step Up handled all training logistical arrangements, from the design of training bags to the choice of training materials.  Step Up will also provide post-training support to the organizations as they conduct their pilot implementation of MSC in their respective organizations.

 

mikocanares Capacity Building, Consulting Services, core expertise, Core services, Facilitation, Financial Management

Step Up Conducts Training on Financial Management

FM participants during the training workshops.
FM participants during the training workshops.

The Bol-anon United Sectors Working for the Advancement of Community Concerns (BUSWACC) contracted Step Up Consulting to conduct a series of financial management training for its member organizations, assisted cooperatives, individual entrepreneurs, and people’s associations . The training on Basic Financial Management was conducted last 27-28 August 2014 at the FCB Foundation training room.

The training is the first of a series of training activities on financial management sponsored by BUSWACC. Ms. Arlen Canares, training specialist on financial management of Step Up was the resource person for the activity.

The participants appreciated the learning sessions that focused on the importance of recording, financial analysis, cash management, and internal control.  The workshop employed a variety of training methodologies that enabled the participants not only to learn the concepts but also try specific skills on their own.  Financial management training is one of the core expertise of the firm.