Step Up Consulting

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.

Step Up Consulting services was contracted by the Hugpong sa Kalambuan-Dabaw (HKDI) and World Vision to conduct an end-of-program evaluation of the area development program implemented in 12 communities in Davao City.  Michael Canares served as the chair of the 6-member field evaluation team. He was assisted by research associate Jean Celeste Paredes, also of Step Up.

The presentation of evaluation results was done at Regency Hotel in Davao City last 16 August 2011 and was attended by board of trustees, barangay leaders and HKDI partners.

HKDI is a community based organization established almost 13 years ago that envisions a developed and peaceful community wherein families freely exercise their faith and live in accordance with the will of God/Allah/Magbabaya. It also desires to help build communities that model the values of social justice, respect the rights and dignity of people, take care of the environment, and actively involve in building a government that is responsive to the genuine needs and aspirations of the people.

The Provincial Internal Audit Service Office of the Province of Bukidnon conducted a training on (internal) audit report writing last 11-13 August 2011 at Loiza’s Pavillion in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon.  Step Up Consulting Services head Michael Canares was invited as a resource person for the said activity.

Ms. Gemma Borreros, Provincial Coordinator of the Provincial Roads Management Facility (PRMF) in Bukidnon invited Mr. Canares.  It can be noted that Step Up also was hired by PRMF in Bohol to assist the Provincial Internal Audit Office (PIAO) to capacitate the newly created PIAO in the conduct of risk assessments, and the formulation of the internal audit manual and annual audit plan.

The participants were very appreciative of the said activity because the methods employed by Mr. Canares were very relevant to the current condition of the province. Mr. Canares used actual case studies as a learning platform to discuss theories and principles in internal audit.  Ms. Marilou Bueno, PIASO head together with her team were appreciative of the training methodology that they will be inviting Mr. Canares again in the October this year.

Step Up recently signed a new contract with Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) for the financial monitoring and evaluation of two of its grant holders based in Cebu City.  The engagement intends to evaluate loan restructuring proposals of the two organizations as a basis for a course of action on the part of PEF.

Peace and Equity Foundation has been a long time client of Step Up Consulting Services dating way back 2004.  Step Up has undertaken several consulting contracts with the organization, most noteworthy were the assistance provided to water user associations in managing their water systems, the development of a training module for bookeepers of people’s organizations and community-based associations, and a manual for restricted grants.

As part of its evaluation contract with World Vision Philippines, Step Up conducted a training on data analysis for four evaluation teams from different parts of the country last July 26-29, 2011.

The training was held at Golden Peak Hotel in Cebu City and was attended by roughly 25 members of evaluation teams from Surigao, Davao, Cagayan/Isabela, and Cavite.

The training was facilitated by managing consultant Michael Canares with associate consultant Marijoe Narca and research associate Jean Celeste Paredes.  It covered sessions on quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, use of technology for data consolidation and analysis, interpretation, and report writing.

Michael Canares was invited by the Indonesia Social Justice Network to attend the conference on Climate Change, Disaster Management and Social Justice Response” held at Jogjakarta Plaza Hotel in July 12-15, 2011. Mr. Canares was also one of the presenters in the panel session on Climate Change and Policy with his paper “The Sudden Shift: what prompts greater local government response to climate change challenge in the Philippines?”.

At the end of the conference, Mr. Canares headed the team to formulate the end-of-conference statement which was presented to Indonesian media. He sits at a panel together with Mary Zurbuchen, director for IFP Asia and Russia in the press conference and presented the “Unified Statement for Social Justice in and Era of Climate Change”.

Step Up conducts the midterm assessment workshop of the European Union-funded project “Empowering Indigenous Communities for Inclusive Development”. The project is implemented by the Ilog Kinderhome Foundation, Inc. in the province of Antique benefitting 1000 members of the Ati and Bukidon communities.

Step Up managing consultant Michael Canares facilitated the workshop attended by more than 40 participants representing local governments units, national government agencies, and indigenous communities held at Westown Hotel in Iloilo last July 3-6, 2011.