TACLOBAN CITY – The International Labour Organization (ILO) has started rolling out a low-cost enterprise development program for potential entrepreneurs in storm-ravaged communities as the humanitarian response group moves to livelihood recovery phase.
The ILO gathered last week hundreds of stakeholders from the United Nations – affiliated agencies, government, private sector and existing small and medium enterprises raise awareness on the Community-Based Enterprise Development (C-BED), a strategy applied in some countries in Asia and Pacific in the aftermath of a crisis.
“The starting point in C-BED is the identification of existing knowledge and capacities. From there, stakeholders build skills on basic principles of business development, such as costing and marketing,” said ILO Tacloban field office coordinator Ma. Cecilia Colarina.
The ILO said that the system is very suitable for storm-ravaged areas like Eastern Visayas considering that “even with very minimal capital, an individual can put up a business using most accessible tools in pursuing businesses.”
According to ILO website, “C-BED is a low-cost, easy to implement training programs for helping entrepreneurs and micro-business owners to plan and improve their businesses.”
“Carried out without external trainers or resources, C-BED has been specifically designed for use among poor, vulnerable and marginalized communities where funding and capacities are limited or communities are hard to reach due to social or geographical constraints,” the ILO said.
C-BED was developed by the ILO in an effort to make business development training an option in any community. The community-based methodology offers a new approach for non-formal training in contexts where there is low institutional capacity and in environments characterized by limited resources.
The system differs from other enterprise development programs of ILO since it has no quality control measures to regulate delivery organizations and associations; no training of trainers and no trainers; no certification of facilitators or qualification for graduates; materials are open source and free; and the training can be completed in 16 hours.
The business development strategy has been implemented by the ILO in poor communities in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Solomon Islands, and Kiribati. (SARWELL Q.MENIANO)
