Rural Microenterprise Promotion Programme - IOE
Rural Microenterprise Promotion Programme
The Rural Microenterprise Promotion Programme (RuMEPP) in the Republic of the Philippine implemented between 2006 and 2013, sought to address two main areas of impediments to microenterprise development – finance; and knowledge and skills.
One of the programme's notable achievements is its contribution to enhancing the Government’s support, in particular that of the Department of Trade and Industry, to microenterprise development in terms of approach and scale, while also linking up with other opportunities and fostering partnerships with other actors. The programme was effective in mobilizing and organizing business development services, which provided critical support to start-up microenterprises and to upgrading existing microenterprises. A major advancement was made in terms of the systematic integration of marketing-related issues to organized trainings (e.g. packaging and labelling, product design and development), as well as other types of support (e.g. facilitating linkages with market outlets).
A large proportion of the programme funds was allocated for credit lines and was all disbursed through microfinance institutions, reaching numerous microenterprise borrowers. However, there was insufficient attention to how microfinance institutions' services could be strengthened to better cater for different types of clients in addition to or rather than simply injecting liquidity into the financial sector.