Press Release
March 9, 2007

Recto Wants Microfinance Programs Finetuned

Target women engaged in livelihood pursuits in poor communities.

Sen. Ralph Recto has called on government to fine-tune its microfinance programs, noting that without proper measures, funds like the P300-million Canadian grant for empowering women would go to waste.

We have to ensure that all funds earmarked for empowering women are used precisely to make them economically strong and transform them into leaders of their communities, Recto added.

His call came after women attending a celebration of International Womens Day at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium told President Arroyo that they did not benefit from the microfinance program.

Recto stressed this rude awakening should prompt policymakers and financial managers to review their microfinance programs and perhaps institute monitoring systems to determine, in real time, if beneficiaries are, indeed, getting financial help to support their business activities.

At the same time, the Batangas senator on Friday urged a complete overhaul of the financial programs utilizing non-government organizations (NGOs) as conduits for grassroots lending.

We have to determine which NGOs are functioning best as microfinance conduits and those that are lagging behind. Then, of course, the ones that are taking the money and running all the way to the bank must be hailed to court, he stressed.

Recto explained that Grameen banking has been effective in Bangladesh because it targets women and the poorest of the poor who have been imbued with commitment and a sense of duty.

If the poor people of Bangladesh can hack, so can our women, he explained.

Our NGOs could replicate the feat of these Bengali women, all of whom repay their loans promptly. For decades, there have been attempts to institutionalize financial programs exclusively for women but some of these firms have gone to pasture. We must know why, Recto stressed.

The high repayment rate and the increased incomes of Bengali women, mostly Muslim, show to all and sundry that financial programs for women could be viable in the short-term and in the long haul, he added.

Filipino women who have shown they have more than talent and business can be exemplars in the campaign to promote lending to women in poor communities, Recto noted.

Recto, who is married to very successful actress and Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos, believes that women empowerment would gain much headway if the countrys finance officials could undertake a thorough survey and craft the schemes that would viably provide microfinance to millions of poor Filipino women.

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