Economic Resource Center for Overseas Filipinos

International Conference on Identifying Effective Economic Linkages between Overseas Filipinos (OF) and the Rural Communities in the Philippines
April 10-12, 2002
Marco Polo Hotel, Davao City, Philippines

INTRODUCTION

The Economic Resource Center for Overseas Filipinos (ERCOF), in coordination with the Mindanao Land Foundation (MLF), conducted the International Conference on Identifying Effective Economic Linkages between Overseas Filipinos (OF) and the Rural Communities in the Philippines on April 10-12, 2002 at the Marco Polo Hotel, Davao City, Philippines.

The Economic Resource Center for Overseas Filipinos (ERCOF) is a non-profit association based in Geneva, Switzerland, that works together or aims to form partnerships with organizations and Filipino individuals all over the world united by a common aim of advancing Philippine progress by advocating the sustainable development of rural economies. ERCOF seeks to achieve this goal by providing services that will facilitate the access of Overseas Filipinos (OFs) to the various means designed to maximize their economic resources to benefit their families and gear them towards more productive use in their own communities. ERCOF advocates harnessing the development potential of migration, by providing services designed to foster the economic empowerment of Overseas Filipinos and enable them to contribute to the sustainable development of their own communities in the Philippines.

Mindanao Land Foundation (MLF) is a Davao based NGO that has pioneered on social housing since 1988. Given that property acquisition counts as one of the most important and common use for migrants remittances, particularly migrants originating from rural poor communities, MLF, with its extensive experience in integrating livelihood, enterprise development and the application of an in-house Community-Based Monitoring system ® for health and nutrition to their urban poor housing program, becomes an important partner of ERCOF in the wholistic approach to the delivery of migrant services and especially in coming up with Mindanao specific models. MLF has been specially chosen by the convenors because it is perceived that their expertise will complement the organizing and technical work on the substantive workshop issues being undertaken by ERCOF.

(Please click on the links below)

• Introduction
• Schedule
• Participants
• Summary of Proceedings
• Evaluation Results
• Media Related Activities
• Other Workshop Related Activities
• The Meeting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
• Linkage Between the ERCOF/MLF Workshop and the National Conference on Reintegration