Step Up Consulting

Step Up recently concluded its audit of Sacred Heart Learning Center based in Baclayon and a review of the financial statements of Bohol International College Alumni Association. Both clients are part of Step Up’s mission program of making financial services accessible to small organizations while at the same time offering on-the-job trainees a concrete experience in the conduct of financial attestation services.

Step Up trainees Paul Stroud, Julius Lim, and Abraham Apit were involved in this engagement. Abraham Apit heads the junior team in ensuring that the objectives of the engagement were met.

The Nortehanon Access Center (NAC), Inc. was formed in late 2005 by a group of civil society organizations in Northern Samar.  The aim was to establish a broad coalition of civil society organizations that will work together and harmonize development efforts in reducing poverty in the province. With the support from the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF), a poverty mapping was conducted in 2005 to determine the poverty situation in Northern Samar and identify the poorest municipalities based on selected poverty indicators. The result of the poverty mapping posed a challenge to the local NGOs and POs.  And in October 2005, a general assembly was convened attended by 33 NGO and PO representatives which elected interim members of NAC governing board.  The interim Board subsequently drafted the VMGO and formed an organizational structure that would best respond to the development challenges in Northern Samar.  NAC was finally registered with SEC in March 27, 2006 and was granted an operational fund from PEF in December 2006.

Four years after, NAC sees the need to restrategize to make itself relevant to the communities that it sought to serve.  A strategic and financial planning was conducted by Step Up Consulting Services with the board and staff members of NAC.  The activity was held at Castle Peak Hotel in Cebu City last May 5-7, 2010.  Michael Canares, Step Up managing consultant facilitate the activity funded by Peace and Equity Foundation.

Step Up Consulting services started working with the Multi-sectoral Alliance for the Development of Negros on a consulting engagement that seeks to strengthen the organization’ monitoring and evaluation system and financial management.

MUAD-Negros is an island-wide alliance of NGOs, POs, church-based groups, and multi-sectoral bodies organized to help improve the quality of life in Negros island. To realize this vision, MUAD-Negros defined its program, “We-CARE Negrosm,” to assist 10,000 poor families by 2013 by establishing stable sources of livelihood access to basic social services and a balanced environment, and effective governance.

Step Up’s commitment to MUAD-Negros will run up to August 2010 when the revised M and E manual shall be completed and an enhanced financial management system will be implemented by the organization.

The Gender-Responsive Economic Actions for the Transformation of Women (GREAT Women) Project is a governance and capacity development project that aims to promote and support a gender-responsive enabling environment for women’s economic empowerment, particularly those in microenterprises.

Bohol is one of the eight project sites across the country of the said project. More particularly, the project works with the Provincial Government, and the municipalities of Balilihan, Buenavista, and Jagna.

Step Up works with Jagna in at least two engagements – the finalization of its Comprehensive Development Plan and the formulation of the strategic document for the convergence strategy for the Calamay industry.  It has also been recently engaged by the Municipality of Balilihan in the preparation of its Comprehensive Development Plan. The Provincial Technical Working Group of Bohol also commissioned the firm in the consultative conference on women’s economic enterprises, and the recent annual evaluation and planning held in Anda, Bohol.

Step Up’s involvement with the GWP started with its Managing Director was invited by the Philippine Council for Women to attend a training on gender training for non-gender experts in Manila sometime last year.

As its continuing commitment to train quality professionals in the workplace, Step Up Consulting accepts this summer three trainees in the person of Mr. Paul Richard Stroud, Mr. Abraham Jose Apit, and Mr. Julius Lim.  The three trainees were exposed to the three core services of Step Up, namely, development research, financial management, and capacity building.

Two of the trainees have already joined Mr. Canares in two trips outside Bohol, more particularly in Bacolod for an engagement with the Multi-sectoral Alliance for the Development of Negros.  Two of them were also able to experience using information technology to process business transactions.

The trainees started working with Step Up in early April this year.

Mr. Michael Canares, managing consultant of Step Up Consulting Services was awarded Rafael Buenaventura Most Oustanding Finance Educator of the Philippines for 2009-2010. The award was given to Mr. Canares in an awarding ceremony held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last January 27, 2009 at 4:00 in the afternoon.

There were 10 semi-finalists who competed for the award from different schools and universities across the country, namely, De La Salle University, Technological Institute of the Philippines, University of Asia and the Pacific, Southville International School and College, and Holy Angels University of Luzon, University of San Jose Recoletos and Holy Name University of the Visayas, University of the Philippines-Mindanao and Ateneo de Cagayan of Mindanao.  Mr. Canares, an assistant professor at Holy Name University beat the representative from USJR to win the regional award for the Visayas.

The following were the winners for the regional awards – For NCR: Dr. Evelita Celis, Technological Institute of the Philippines; for Luzon:  Dr. Alice Valerio, De La Salle University; for Visayas: Michael Canares, Holy Name University; and for Mindanao:  Dr. Virginia Lourdes Yacapin, Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan. From the four regional awardees, Mr. Canares was chosen as the most oustanding.

The awards were given by the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines and Citi group of Companies. The Board of judges was chaired by Mr. Cesar Buenaventura and composed of top executives and officials from Citibank, Ayala Corporation, FINEX Foundation, Asian Institute of Management, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Board of Treasury.

STEP UP Consulting Services launched a new website today to improve the old one it used to maintain two years back. The website uses the functionality of wordpress.com but features important information of the organization.

It is hope that the new website will now be able to update readers of the current activities of the organization.