Western Union Canada

UNDP and Philippines national and local government collaborate to lead project

MANILA, Philippines, April 5, 2011 - The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Government of the Philippines today launched a US$250,000 major project wholly funded by the Western Union Foundation to harness the power of remittances from migrant workers to drive sustainable economic development in the Philippines.

The Overseas Filipinos Remittances for Development: Building a Future Back Home (OFs-RED) Project aims to launch a pilot program to pool funds from migrant workers and channel them into projects that lead to economic development and community-based enterprises in the workers' home communities.

The two-year project is made possible by a US$250,000 grant from Western Union's philanthropic arm The Western Union Foundation.

Renaud Meyer, UNDP country director in the Philippines, said: "The Western Union Foundation funded OFs-RED project will contribute to efforts in the Philippines to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the target to halve poverty by 2015, by supporting the creation of an enabling environment for overseas Filipinos and their families to use remittances for development."

The project will test a mechanism to facilitate and direct overseas remittances towards savings and investment in livelihood improvement and entrepreneurship for the poor and vulnerable, and ultimately create jobs and reduce poverty. The Philippines is the world's fourth largest recipient of overseas remittances after India, China and Mexico with US$18.76 billion sent home in 2010, or about 14% of GDP, Mr. Meyer said.

Patricia Riingen, Senior Vice President, Pacific and Indochina, said: "At Western Union, we believe that leaving home to work overseas should be a choice, not a necessity borne of lack of options. We share the dream that, some day, people in the Philippines and in developing countries everywhere will have the option to stay with their families, that jobs and opportunities at home will provide a choice and that going overseas will be but one way to make a better life. That is why we are so wholeheartedly committed to the OFs-RED project."

Western Union's commitment towards this project commenced in 2008, when the company funded an Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) report to test the interest of pooling remittance. The report found there was willingness to offer and use pooled or collective remittances to fund development, but there was no efficient mechanism to do so.

In 2009 Western Union facilitated a dialogue with multiple stakeholders from government, civil society, business and academia.

Luella Chavez D'Angelo, President of the Western Union Foundation added, "We are delighted that what commenced as a concept was tested in a dialogue and now we are turning the concept into action, collaboratively with development and government experts. This represents a breakthrough in Western Union's corporate social responsibility program here in the Philippines."

"Western Union transfers much more than money. We at the Western Union Foundation have decided to honor that by committing USD250,000 to the UNDP to develop the OFs-RED Project, which will be rolled out over in six stages over two years."

The program intends to efficiently and accountably link hard monies from overseas to create sustainable small businesses that generate jobs and economic opportunity back home in the Philippines. Upon success, the model will be replicated in different parts of the world," she said. The project will jointly be led by UNDP, the Philippines Government's National Economic and Development Authority, The Commission on Filipinos Overseas, Local Government Units and Western Union.

The six phase project will involve facilitating Governmental support for public policy inclusion of collective remittances; building awareness for the concept; getting people living and working overseas organized to pool funds; giving people at home the skills and capabilities to identify and carry out projects; promotion of the concept and mobilizing funds, including public and private fund matching and implementing a pilot between two send countries and Ilocos Norte and Taguig City in the Philippines.

Rolando G. Tugpalan, Deputy Director-General of the Philippines' National Economic and Development Authority, echoed the need for all stakeholders to work closely together. He said: "Consistent with the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, the OFs-RED Project aims to develop policies and field-test models to harness remittances for community-based enterprise development. It encourages multistakeholder collaboration to expand livelihood opportunities and create more jobs."

"We are encouraged by Western Union's commitment and hope there would be many other corporations that would follow this example," he said.

Secretary Imelda Nicolas, Chair of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, said: "The objective of harnessing remittances for development is the next frontier for development banking.

"On behalf of OFWs we applaud Western Union's leadership and hope that the banking and financial sectors will create the same enabling and creative environment as they did in microfinance," she said. She challenged finance sector leaders to take up the challenge of working with overseas Filipinos and their families, all levels of government and civil society in creating a new model for development.

These contributions represent a portion of a US$1.1 million grant from the Western Union Foundation to support the efforts of three United Nations agencies to advance the Millennium Development Goals - a set of eight internationally-agreed goals designed to reduce poverty, hunger, disease, and maternal and child deaths by 2015.