12.05.2024

The role of sustainable Enterprises in. sdg2 webinar organized by the doctor of. sustainability program of. fmds so the let's talk it over our ltio. seminar series is a regular event of. fmds and is under our faculty's. community inclusivity digital. transformation and acceleration towards. sustainability or C this program which. merges the instruction research and. public service Trust of fmds we are. currently live via Zoom the upou. Network's Facebook. the upo Network's website and the upo. YouTube channel so we have a few. reminders before we start you may. already begin preparing your questions. while listening to the presentations you. can also ask your question during the. open forum for questions kindly state. your name first and affiliation or you. may leave your questions in the comment. section or chat box of your streaming.

Platform now to start this afternoon's. event let us all welcome the dean of. fmds up open University Dr Joan VIs Rano. joining us via Zoom to share with us the. significance of today's event. Dean thank. youin um I would like to thank our um. discussants or our panelists or actually. very fortunate to have with us um the. doctor students uh the students from our. doctor and sustainability program who. will serve as our steam panelist uh so. let me just mention them um Benjamin. Gonzalez uh Mario zun rapada Clarinda. Reyes and Norv Salonga and they will be. sharing about the role of sustainable. Enterprises in sdg uh specifically um. sdg2 um so this particular lpo is very. important because um we all know that. you know we have been lagging when it. comes to addressing many of our sdgs. including sdg2 so uh just for the.

Interest of everyone when we talk of. sdg2 it's about um creating a world free. of hunger and it's an Ideal World um. especially for us uh coming from a you. know a developing country and we have. been seeing a lot of people who are. really affected by severe food. insecurity and so this is actually a. very timely um conversation. um for us to discuss uh how can we help. specifically the topic today is on the. role of sustainable. Enterprises uh when it comes to. sg2 and um of course it's very important. to um realize that everyone should be. involved and everyone should really care. um and when we talk about achieving f um. zero hunger um it's really a very. multidimensional approach and um it. involves a lot of um organizations. people working together and one of them. are sustainable Enterprises and when we. talk of sustainable Enterprises um these.

Are organizations that can um actually. anticipate and meet the needs of present. and future Generations uh by um creating. and innovating um various business. strategies and activities that would. promote and um serveice catalyst uh. towards positive social change so this. is what will be our uh distinguished. panelist will be sharing today so I. would like to thank everyone for. attending and welcoming you to this. let's talk it over thank you. nin thank you Dean Joan So now let's. move on to the highlight of our event. this afternoon so we have four. presenters all from the desus program of. fmds upou so our presenters have 15. minutes to present and we will open a. Q&A session after all the presentations. so now let me start with our first. presenter Benjamin Gonzalez an assistant. professor at the University of the.

Philippines D lean teaches undergraduate. and graduate food science courses in the. department of Food Science and nutrition. College of human economics for over a. decade he's guided students in. documenting and enhancing various ethnic. foods to he cofounded and co-host the. future plate Spotify podcast and YouTube. channel a the traing awareness about. sustainable Food Systems previously he. served as a Pioneer for food safety team. assistant leader and quality assurance. staff at magnol Magnolia ice cream and. as a research and training staff at the. foundation for the advancement of Food. Science and Technology so assistant. professor bench holds a BS andms degrees. in food technology and food science from. up diliman currently pursuing dis. program of upou he received the 2 22 to. 2024 one up faculty Grant award in food.

Engineering for outstanding teaching and. public service so presenting zero hunger. invest in Harvest helping small hold. their Farmers through crowdfunding and. risk reduction assistant professor. Benjamin. Gonzalez all right um good afternoon. everyone so as always I'd like to check. if my audio is clear can I get a thumbs. up. sir it's clear but okay thank you all. right so let me just um prepare um. sharing the. presentation okay so this slide should. be. visible and. there all right. so okay so again my name is um bench. Gonzalez and in the next few minutes I'd. like to share a case of how a social. Enterprise or sustainable Enterprise can. address a specific facet of zero hunger. as well as encourage the average. individual to contribute to the sdg with. the added benefit of earning some profit. so to achieve zero hunger we must.

Address problems across the system one. oft neglected aspect of the food system. is food production or specifically. involving the people producing our. food so one of the goals of zero hunger. involves doubling the agricultural. productivity and incomes of smallscale. food producers including women. indigenous family farmers and the like. and giving them access to financial. services so let's see how this relates. to the Filipino farmer and our case. social. Enterprise so poor aging and. undereducated you may think that these. are unlikely descriptors for hardworking. individuals who take the risk of growing. the food that we eat yet around the. world this is a reality in the. Philippines we just for agriculture are. lower than for nonagriculture jobs with. their average basic pay being less than. half of the current Metro Manila minimum.

Wage which is 610 pesos ironically this. results in a third of those responsible. for our food or growing our food not. being able to afford food and other. basic necessities among all the sectors. Farmers have the highest poverty. incidence the average poverty incidence. in the country is. 18% the average age of 56 means that. many farmers are still working beyond. their retirement age and that less and. less young people are engaging and. farming in terms of Education the. average farmer has likely not even. finished high school education and on. top of that most of us in urban areas. are oblivious to the plight of these. Farmers on a daily basis we are. disconnected to those who produce our. food according to the farmer empowerment. nonprofit Phil seed in. 2023 some challenges faced by farmers. include access to Capital lack of post.

Harvest. facilities and um climate change Market. access and lack of innovation for access. to Capital only 6% of bank loans go to. the agricultural sector those who don't. have access to to Banking and microf. financing organizations sometimes end up. borrowing from predatory informal. lenders who charge as much as 10%. monthly interest that's way bigger than. your credit card interest and the. infamous 56 loan charts who charge 20%. interest for a fixed period of time. sometimes as short as a few weeks. Farmers also suffer from post Harvest. losses mostly because of the lack of. post Harvest uh facilities for Trans and. storage this is also being aggravated by. climate change changes in climate and. weather patterns such as increased. frequency and intensity of storms. resulted in bigger damages to crops and. farmlands a single typhoon in 2021 cost.

Over 10 billion pesos or $215 Million. worth of damage to. Agriculture and lastly the overall. agricultural productivity is only 1.7%. and is not keeping in step with our. population growth rate couple that with. a decreasing proportion of land used for. agricultural activities and we have a. case of farming in the Philippines which. has indeed become a challenging. profession so uh just a disclaimer I am. not affiliated with gropal although we. were able to interview their founder in. 2022 also recently I was was able to try. out their investing platform although I. am yet to complete a round of. Investments so I'm yet to see the. returns so to speak on the investment I. made so crital is a port manau of the. words crop and capital they are social. Enterprise that focus on funding small. holder Farmers the company was founded.

By roel Amparo in 2015 at the young age. of 22 he has actually recently been. awarded as one of the outstanding young. men or to ym for 2023 by the junior. chamber International and apparently is. also the CEO of another Agri Tech social. Enterprise Agri lever which we cannot. cover today so crital is a crowdfunding. platform if you're familiar with u crowd. funding that is where you um get funds. from multiple individuals for a certain. purpose usually through online. means and they help small holder Farmers. gain access to skill able and. sustainable. financing the they have raised so far. over 100 million. pesos in crowd funds and have supported. over 1,600 Farmers across 10 provinces. in the Philippines in a nutshell they. allow investors with as little as 5,000. pesos to spare to support farmers who. are looking for low interest financing.

While also helping them in farmer in. other farming related aspects as we will. discuss discuss later uh crital is also. globally recognized and supported by. institutions in the USA the Netherlands. Malaysia and the. Philippines so how does it work um you. you go to their website and then you. create an account then you can view the. selection of farms you can Fund in. increments of 5,000 pesos or $88 us and. once a farm is fully funded you will be. sent a memorandum of agreement. cital then manages the funds for the. farmer to make sure they are used as. intended and after the produce have been. harvested and sold the capital and. profit will be credited to the. Investor's virtual warant at the rate of. 3 to 30%. Roi within 4 to 6 months so for example. if that's um 30% in four months then. that's 90% in a year but of course.

Uh that's more like the exception rather. than the norm in my case I got a. 3.5% um. Roi in my. contract okay so if you click the farmer. display profile it shows the details. about the farmer uh what they plan their. location and um it also shows what the. money will be used for usually this is. for seed fertilizer and labor and as you. can see um. there's also a section about how your. investment could. help um improve their lives or become a. better alternative for them and you can. also see that most Farmers have other. jobs whether parttime or full-time such. as employee fisherman Carpenter vendor. business owner and the like and this. just goes to show that fulltime farming. is not a good option for most of the. farmers at this. point they also show the potential in. impact of indirectly supporting other. individuals benefiting from the farmer.

Being supported so in this case there. are 13 other jobs in the community that. can be generated by supporting that. single. farmer in other cases it's a size around. 25 and um as for the risk management. part A number of steps have been taken. to minimize investment risks farmers are. verified and selected with lgu. assistance to get um to avoid. unscrupulous individuals and they also. have developed an assessment tool or. algorithm based on past information and. the help of experts inputs to help in. predicting farmer credibility as well as. gauge how Big Al loone a certain farmer. can take on crop insurance Al is also. provided through the Philippine um crop. Insurance Corporation and cropal assists. the farmers with paperwork and also. require their affiliate Farmers to be. insured they also have um loan Insurance.

In case something happens to the. borrower during the loan period farmers. are also given access to agriculturist. for Pest Management and prevention best. practices Capital also links them to. various individuals and groups to help. them in other areas of farming such as. in marketing their produce market risks. are also reduced through the. diversification of crops and the. clustering of farmers to distribute the. risk and then investor risks are also. reduced by cing the amount that a single. investor can invest on one farm so so to. speak they're forcing you to not put. your eggs in one basket and encourage. diversification so allow me to share. with you some of my realizations from. these first social Enterprises can be. made to help very specific sectors in. this case they focused on small farmers. looking for.

Alternative um funding loan sources. second just like any business. you must have a demographic in mind for. your customer base in this case it's. those with a little money to spare for. short to mediumterm Investments like. the same people who would invest in. digital Banks unit investment trust. funds or stocks and crypto currency. platforms next the social Enterprise. took advantage of emerging technology. such as crowdfunding to disrupt the. traditional and predatory loan. sectors next um one major difference. between their approach and traditional. micr financing nono government. organizations is that they pitch an. investment product rather than ask for. donations this helps against donor. fatigue and can even divert money. earmarked for investment towards a. social cost lastly based on our. interviews with them social Enterprises.

Are new and those engaging in them. should be willing to learn as they go or. blazing the trail things will not go. smoothly there aren't many business. models or templates when you are. innovating and as you interact with them. beneficiaries you get to refine the. system and process to be more aligned. with their mission and vision and then. although their primary objective is to. finance Farmers there's also the. opportunity to help them transition into. more sustainable farming methods. hopefully without compromising their. ability to provide for their. needs so if you're interested to learn. more or invest you may visit their. website at cal.com or you may want to. check out the twopart interview we did. with them in our podcast so I'll um post. these links on the chat box for easier. clicking uh it's about 30 minutes each.

And these are the references I use for. the farming issues and statistics and. that will be all thank you for. listening thank you uh sir bench so for. everyone uh sir bench will be entering. the Spotify links on the zoom chat box. so you may want to uh follow him and. then listen to the uh uh two podcasts. that he shared this afternoon so that's. a very good intro to the number of. presentations we have this afternoon I. hope you have a few questions ready for. uh sir bench. so now we're moving on to our next. presenter introducing Miss Maria Zuna Li. rapada a seasoned educator and. researcher with a decade long dedication. to transforming the education industry. at the lasal University her scholarly. Journey has been a multifaceted. exploration at the intersection of. Behavioral economics industry studies. and sustainability so beyond Academia.

Her commitment to social engagement is. exemplified through active involvement. in Social Enterprises and sustainable. initiatives where she leverages her. expertise to bridge educational. disparities and explore ways to localize. the UN sustainable development goals her. holistic approach combines innovation. sustainab ility and behavioral economics. to drive positive change fostering. inclusive and Echo conscious learning. environments that Empower future. Generations so she accomplished her. master's and bachelor's degree in. applied economics both earned from the. same University so here to present about. promoting planetary Health diet in the. Philippines opportunities for social. Enterprises let us all welcome Miss Nali. rapada. let me just share my. screen can everyone see my screen yes. ma'am you may want to switch to present.

Viiew I. think okay so good afternoon everyone so. I am really grateful to be here so just. a background story I'll just let you. know about my why and why I entered this. program so um I've always believed that. sustainability is a communication issue. it's a communication problem with. everyone it's not just about building or. inventing technology that would solve. this um problems but it's about. communicating it to everyone and I. commend FBS for this initiative so for. today um we are going talk about sdg2 in. the main theme I'm going to talk about a. certain aspect of um diets when it comes. to um moting and addressing uh sdg2 so a. while ago we were talking about the the. welfare of farmers now let's talk about. a certain type of diet that will really. help you know eliminate or um reduce. climate change so first things first.

First why do we need to change our food. systems so I'll give you five Global. answers for today I'm sorry if I'm going. to bombard you with Statistics but um. let me just explain why we really need. to change our food systems so first. things first the first limitation. globally is that malnutrition and. obesity are really Global problems so in. the Philippines. one in every three Filipino children. below five years old are suffering from. stunting. so that's that came from the world bank. and then malnutrition kills 95 Filipino. children every day and statistics tells. us that 27 out of 1,000 do not get past. their. fifth so on the other hand when it comes. to statistics uh when it comes to. obesity uh a lot of people age 20 to 59. are suffering from obesity so they have. high probabilities of. obesity the next.

Limitation. is. our globally is to rich in fat sugar. salt and. me so how. can so what is the result of it so first. is it is a there's an increase in. greenhouse gas emissions and at the same. time higher risk of heart. disease so let me just show you another. Statistics so when you talk about global. green gas greenhouse gas emissions. around the world um 24 studies show 10. years ago that 24% of it came from. agriculture forestry and other land use. on the other hand when we look. at the leading cause of death in the. Philippines you will see that it is. heart. diseases so it's really alarming for us. the third limitation when it comes to. our food system our food is actually. less diverse um I think this was a study. in University of California wherein they. showed that the top five foods around. the world came from five plants already.

Top three is wheat rice and. corn and when you look at the animal. species that we consume there are only. five in the study and the top three are. cattle pigs. and. chicken the fourth limitation is. that 1/3 of the. food or our. waste so in the Philippines. 1,717 metric ton stons of food are. wasted every. day so that's really alarming and the. fifth limitation of our Global Food. system system is that our natural. resources are really under pressured so. if you look at Water scarcity around the. world so this are the top. um uh the. top how do I say it the top the top uh. local the top location here in the. around the gro globe and you can see. that in 2014 this is how much water. spent on agriculture so most of our. water resources are really um consumed. by the agricultural sector and on the. other hand if you look at soil.

Fertility in the. Philippines one to uh 11 to 13 million. hectares of soil are considered degraded. already and at least 2.2 million. hectares suffered from insufficient. levels of soil fertility so that's the. latest data from the Department of. Agriculture to top it off so it's. estimated that we are just 7.2 billion. right. now but it is estimated that we will. grow around 9.8 billion by 2050 so if. you think about it are we going to be. able to continue eating the same. way so definitely the answer is. no so in 20 2019 a group of I think 37. scientists came and debated and they. actually produ uh introduce this type of. diet it's called the planetary Health. diet so you can Google it what is it and. how did it came up but a lot of. scientists have been studying on this. and they were promoting this type of. diet now what are the goals of this.

Planetary Health diet so the first one. is actually to feed a world of. population the world population of 10. billion by 2050 so that's the first goal. of the planetary Health. diet number two is that to greatly. reduce the worldwide number of deaths. caused by. for number three to be environmentally. sustainable as to prevent the collapse. of the natural. growth so what does this planetary diet. Health look. like so this is what they call a healthy. plate so here 50% is actually fruits and. vegetables uh next is sweet um like. potatoes uh sweet potatoes and then. plant protein is also important uh the. least is actually sugars different types. of sugars and be. so what is the difference of this uh. compared to other diets so it this one. actually considers the food system and. also the tradeoff when you eat a certain.

Type of food so for example another. study in the University of uh California. tells us that this is the number of. grams that we really need to eat so you. can Google this um this is is the actual. uh number of grams that you need to eat. it's actually per gram and you you. consider the calories as well so. generally the planetary Health diet will. tell you just to consume. 2,500 calories daily so that's their. Benchmark so as mentioned I told a while. ago that I shared a while ago that um. planet Health diet considers train on so. I'll give you an example so this is. another study in the University of. California um they actually studied the. emissions. between the agricultural the. agricultural. um agricultural sector versus the. emissions of all of the uh. Transportation sector around the world. so uh with the United St uh the United.

Nations they were able to say that 10. years ago that the total human cost. greenhouse gas emissions is actually. they are just the same it's at 14% so. imagine Emissions on Transportation it's. just the same with the agricultural. sector imagine those types of trade off. so why why is it that agriculture is. really a number one polluter so first is. the grain that they eat the livestock. that you raise so cattles and so on uh. instead of feeding people we're feeding. them number two cattles are really. gaseous animal so they're methane it's. really uh very potent compared to carbon. dioxide and then the fertilizers so. that's why agriculture is really one of. those biggest um factors to climate. change next is I want to show you. another study so it actually. um considers the tradeoffs so here when. you look at when you eat a piece of meat.

Let's say 9 oun of meat they say you are. you consume uh 330 gr of carbon. emissions. Sol it's the same as three miles of. driving a car so it's really very. important to consider when when we talk. about planetary Health diet it's really. very important to consider the. tradeoff between what you eat so for. example if you. eat this is your carbon emissions when. you eat meat versus this is the carbon. emissions when you eat fish. fish and at the same time this this is. the carbon emissions when you eat meat. this is the carbon emissions when you. eat. chicken and at the same time this is. meat this is the carbon emissions when. you eat. vegetables and let's. say this is what you eat when you eat. when this is what you consume when you. eat meat and this is your carbon. emission when you eat. lentils so another study will always.

Also tell you if you just follow the. Mediterranean diet I'm not really sure. if you're following a certain diet but. if we follow we we all follow the. Mediterranean diet we can reduce global. warming to 15% but sadly that's not. going to happen uh because of our meat. preferences so the doctors will just. tell us to eat three to four ounces of. milk so I'm not advocating for uh pure. vegetable s but proper intake of meat is. really very crucial so that's exactly. the your palm size so you should you. just need to consume that much of meat. when we talk about the planetary Health. diet so what do we need to do to be able. to achieve or to be able to uh get. everyone into that planetary Health diet. so first when you talk about food. transformation you need Partnerships. coll collaborative efforts among. multiple.

Stakeholders so it is important to shape. shared narratives rooted in scientific. evidence and presented in ways that. resonate with people's aspiration and. thereby encouraging the adoption of. alternative di dietary. choices so where does social Enterprise. enter so first things first let's see. the nature of social Enterprise Rises so. I can summarize that into two so first. so social Enterprise They strive to. balance the pursuit of a social Mission. aimed at fostering sustainable social. impact with the establishment of. financially viable Ventures so they. really balance Mission and the business. side of it number two um social. entrepreneurs they are naturally draw. they draw ideas from diverse field and. at the same time they operate within. tight resource. constraint that has driven them to. innovate and develop economical.

Solutions their focus lies on creating. efficient affordable and coste effective. solutions for. the so those are the two important key. characteristics of why social. Enterprises can really help us. adopt to that planetary diet so in the. Philippines this was a study by the. British Council at 7. 2017 statistic tells us that social. Enterprises engage in the agricultural. sector that that's their biggest inment. that's 19% out of all the sectors that. that that was included in the survey and. also if you look at their study um their. major stakeholders one one of them are. farmers and the local. community so social Enterprises really. play a big role uh in this and when it. comes to their social Mission or social. objectives you can see that they are. also supporting small producers in the. agricultural value chains and at the.

Same time addressing food security and. and Agricultural. Development. so I've always always believe that when. when you really talk about development. you have to think Global and act local. so I'll just show you two examples in. the global space so this is one. Innovative social Enterprise because. here in the Philippines we address the. surpluses in agriculture but in other. countries what they really do such as a. social Enterprise like tayor food they. build Coalition among local entrepreneur. Farmers industrial manufacturers and. other institutions to bring food to. people living into poverty so that's the. difference instead of us instead of. consumers buying it they deliver it to. those poor people so that's how their. their social Enterprise work and at the. same time in India there's another. social Enterprise there in which they.

Partner up with mothers and talk about. nutrition so to be able to address. nutrition so they partner up with. mothers they educate the mothers to be. able to do. that so what are the existing. opportunities in the social Enterprise. state so um this is a program by the. National Academy of Science and. Technology it's called feeding Metro. Manila by. 2015 so it add it actually it's it was. designed to really help people ad. planetary Health. diet so there's a movement right now um. using uh bya this group of people to be. able to help and they are pushing. actually for social Enterprises and new. business models to be able to address. the planetary. health so another key consideration if. you look at the statistics that I show. you a while ago a lot of people are. obese with this age rate age. rain so you can say that a lot and if.

You look at compared the British Council. stud you can also see that a lot of. social Enterprises involve a lot of. young people so in this case you know. that there is an opportunity to be able. to discover new collaborations. especially with the young ones and. especially that they are the ones who. are in this. problem. so um I think right now now in uplb. there's another department that's that. has been um addressing this this issue. and um around the world they are also. developing apps in which you can see the. food choices and also uh the grams you. can monitor the grams and also uh the. type of food that you need so again this. is this another opportunity for those. young people who really want to. contribute to climate change so so here. I'm still waiting for a social. Enterprise that would create something.

Like this so um if you think you are. helpless in combating um climate change. I will request you to think again first. things first you are what you eat and at. the same time food can fix climate. change so thank you for. listening thank you very much Miss Nali. so let's remember that we are what we. eat and. then the last for uh okay so thank you. very much for your presentation so for. our participants keep your questions as. I already have a few in hand so we still. have two more presenters now let me call. on our third speaker Miss Clarinda G. Reyes a supervising science research. specialist leading Warrior I emerging or. Frontier areas of research at dop sh she. has been with the institution for almost. 14 years so miss re interest and. experience in project management are on. biodiversity conservation coastal zone.

Management science technology and. Innovation so she obtained her master's. degree in environment and natural. resources management and bachelor's. degree in biology from the up open. University and up Las Banas respectively. Miss Rees has played various roles in. fostering Partnerships between. government agencies research in. institutions and local communities. facilitating the exchange of knowledge. and the implementation of Sustainable. Solutions through research and. development so here to present through a. video recording role of social. Enterprise in sdg2 through women Le. entrepreneurship let's welcome Miss. Clarinda. Reyes afternoon I'm happy to be here at. upou let's talk it over the role of. sustainable Enterprises in sdg2 come. join me as we explore the role of social. Enterprise in sdg2 or zero hunger.

Through women Le. entrepreneurship according to the. National Economic Development Authority. hunger is the living cause of death in. the world our planet has provided us. with tremendous resources but unequal. access and inefficient handling leaves. uh millions of people malnourished so if. we promote sustainable agriculture with. modern Technologies and fair. Distribution Systems uh we can sustain. the world's food. needs food systems basic to sdg2 are. essential for sustainable development. and are connected to all our other sdgs. they all share some overlap underscore. ing the relevance of the sustainable. development agenda for food system. transformation food systems are a. foundation of human and planetary. wellbeing and Central to achieving. sustainable development goals yet they. also uh contribute to ill health.

Inequity environmental degradation and. greenhouse gas emissions these. challenges demand urgent Food Systems. transformation. and such transformation requires. understanding of the status of Food. Systems across uh their diverse. functions so this illustration shows the. food system themes and indicator. groups the outer shapes refer to cross. cutting themes such as governance and. resilience while the interior circles. refer to longterm outcomes including. one diet nutrition and health two. environment natural resources and. production and three livelihoods poverty. and. Equity according to the food and. agriculture organization orau 2024. forest and Family Farms are part of an. integrated productive system together. they deliver ecosystem services and. benefits for livelihoods and. wellbeing the infographics illustrates.

The relationships and highlights the. advantages of forest and farm producer. getting organized in order to improve. the access to Market and income this is. to amplify their voice in decision. making and to ensure tenure rights and. human. wellbeing one of the many outcomes of. sustainable Forest uh an agriculture. include food. security uh and nutrition livelihood. biodiversity and sustainable management. among. others so let me introduce to you the. women helping women Innovative social. Enterprises or wh wise program of the. Philippine Council for industry energy. and emerging technology research and. development of the Department of Science. and. Technology it showcases the exceptional. talent and innovation of women Le social. Enterprises from across the Philippines. the program recognized and supported. social Enterprises uh led by women that.

Are driving economic growth and. sustainable development in their. communities so through this kind of. intervention we strive to Foster wealth. creation protect our natural resources. ensure wellbe and promote. sustainability so today we will feature. seven of. them e Rachel padwa recognized the untp. potential of cordelier uh kaca and. revolutionary the Region's chocolate. industry serving as the chair of the 300. caca Growers and processors of Benet. bagu found Federation she leads efforts. in proper Farm uh maintenance and post. harvesting uh practices so she shares. her expertise in standardizing processes. suitable for bats environment so through. her leadership and dedication she was. able to uh Empower local grow and uh. processors uh to thrive in the. industry meet willma alvester a proud. farmer and owner of the El fs and.

Panciteria in tabuk Kalinga she notied. that casava a resilient crop in the. region requires minimal inputs and. Thrive abundantly in ragged terrain so. despite its uh prevailance there was. little demand for it in the market so. Wilma saw it as an opportunity to help. her community by turning uh casava into. FL and other nutritional food as chair. of the mangawa farmers environmental. Development Association she led 259. Farmers um 70% of whom are indigenous. women in adopting CP rotation practices. for sustainable farming. in 2016 Miss November Kan so Yao a bodon. and organic Gardener wondered why the. country imported cinnamon when it had. its own it led her to search for the. Philippine cinnamon starting with her. province in Negros ocidental where she. discovered kingag a locally and. naturally growing tree with only 50.

Cinamon mother trees left she developed. a business model that revived the. Cinnamon's value chain through. conservation propagation and product. development thus the birth of. Plantsville Health a social Enterprise. that helps provide livelihood to small. farmers and. resellers Miss Maria wiena Anora or wiv. is the cofounder and lead of ATO an. meaning our Harvest a startup social. Enterprise that Advocates the use of. natural and sustainable farming. practices they developed the atani ey. crop a tool that provides. recommendations to Farmers on the type. and amount of crop they should plant. based on the demand from the orders of. customers and today it has 29 partner. Farmers spread out in 11 farming. communities in SIU and. Bol next is wima Isola who founded the. Mel's house of mushrooms in DAV Del. Norte it focuses on waste utilization.

And mushroom strain stability research. so it provides livelihood trainings to. locals on mushroom production and. processing as well as food. Innovation second to the last is Miss. nanita mtan founder of best friend. goodies in region 10 the social. Enterprise manufacturers ready to eat um. food products and enhanced nutrient food. with the help of its local. community lastly is eloa IGA of the. celera administrative region who. established the northern rout session. groceries they've developed the the. session groceries Farm totable app that. connects local farmers and consumers to. support a member or a number of local. Agri businesses it promotes a. sustainable lifestyle and educates the. local community on the benefits of. eating fresh and locally grown. food so what can we learn from women Le. social Enterprises towards achieving.

Sdg2 or zero. hunger so gender equality is a. fundamental aspect of. sustainability it prioritize uh. Community engagement and. participation Empower Farmers or. producers by providing access to. resources training and Market. opportunities facilitate networking. collaboration sharing of best practices. it contributes to Community Development. by creating jobs generating income and. fostering local. Innovation implements nutrition. sensitive interventions like nutrition. education micronutrients supplementation. and support for backyard. farming and of course it prioritizes. people and the environment alongside. profit so this is to acknowledge the. references from the Food Systems. countdown sustainable food and. agriculture women helping. women so with that thank you very much. and back to you thank. you okay thank you Miss Rees so this.

Kind of connects to the what sir bench. mentioned earlier about sdg2 go goal. which is doubling the agricultural. productivity in and incomes of small. scale food producers in particular women. and Indigenous people so by providing. secure and equal access to land other. productive resources and inputs. knowledge Financial Services markets and. opportunities for Value addition and. nonfarm employment more so I like the. part about prioritizing not just profit. but people and their environment as well. so uh the presentation was a recorded. video but I think Miss Rees will be. joining us via Zoom for the Q&A portion. so uh it's unfortunate that uh Dr. Salonga cannot will not be able to join. us this afternoon so uh the organizers. have yes he will join us but you proceed. with the Q&A first and then he'll be. joining us in a while okay so uh I have.

A few questions in hand so maybe I'll. start with this so the question uh the. first question would be for sir bench. Gonzalez okay so let me read the. question sir interesting to know if. there were any communication challenges. with or between the farmers and the. funding. groups all right so um in this case the. the individual. funders crowd Source they do not get to. interact directly with the farmer so. sort of that Capital acts as a mediator. and what capital does to avoid say. headaches with communicating with the. farmers themselves is they course. through the lgus the bangi so that um. they could already filter out maybe the. people that are hard to talk to or the. Farmers that um are maybe unscrupulous. and then they also conduct um background. investigations on the farmers before. having them on board so I think over.

Time there had been minimal um issues. with communication because of these. safeguards and in fact they also enter. into um legal agreements with the. farmers. themselves okay so I uh M Nita I uh did. a pro Bene answer your question so I. have uh two questions uh both for Miss n. so let me read the first one. uh uh interested to know as well if. planetary diet is supported or being. challenged by medical. groups yes it's actually supported by. medical doctor especially um a doctor. from St luks I just forgot his name but. he was spearheading he's part of the um. feeding metr Manila 25. so uh it is promoted by the doctors and. even my brother who is a doctor he is. also uh promoting planetary Health diet. with of course specifically less sugar. and um more fruits and. vegetables okay so both um uh situations. shared by Miss Nali were in support of.

The planetary diet so the question the. next question is again from Miss Nita de. los Santos so uh interested to also know. if planetary diet accommodate or address. the various age groups particularly. children and Adolescence and also those. with medical. conditions so actually that planetary. Health diet is just a general. recommended diet but the doctors those. 37 doctors were so were saying that um. it will also depend on the condition of. the person let's say the age or let's. say um their their diet consumption but. that's just a general Benchmark if you. we really want to address climate. change all right so uh I think if uh we. have more time for the Q&A maybe some of. the D students present in Zoom can raise. their questions you may unmute. yourselves raise your hand so the okay. so I think Mr Ruben GB has a question.

Can we unmute him po. okay go ahead sir um for Miss um Nali. rapada um your topic was very. interesting at least it caught my. attention thank you um in the planetary. diet were there also studies in terms of. plant toxicity you know uh because of. oxalates and lectins that uh gener. really causes. inflammation uh in in the physiology of. human beings and the increase of free. radicals you know and this is a health. issue. so I I I wonder and also even high carb. diets which causes. diabetes so um I don't would caution. although I like the idea because it will. help our climate uh crisis. but it won't necessarily help the health. of uh people because High planetary diet. are are are sometimes very to are toxic. to human physiology because of oxalates. and lectins and all the other like. chemicals thank you so I I'm just.

Wondering if they ever considered that. in their. study actually What They are promoting. is that we need to. track where it came from the Food. Systems itself so if it's you know. bombarded with fertilizers then it's not. really. recommendable and we we should and the. doctors were saying we should accept. that there are really unintended. consequences of that but you um that's. the difference between uh the different. diets that is um occurring so it you. need to they they will always suggest. that you need to track where it came. from fertilizers that they use to be. able for that to be really you know. effective when it comes to addressing. climate change so. yes that's really very crucial for it to. work you need to track where it came. from yes which which also reminds me you. know uh how was the carbon print um.

Measured you know from beef to chicken. from beef to plants was it was it the. carbon print is based on our physiology. in terms of digesting or like uh did it. start from the beginning all the way to. when we eat it and when we digest it um. they were saying it's the number of. grams I the number of ons they measure. it in ons like if you consume n n oun of. meat this will be the this is the. estimated so that's not that those are. the the one that I showed a while ago. are estimates around the world since a. lot of people have been really studying. how to do it but um there has been a. general consensus that most of the. studies uh around the world really. follows same you results n so. um that when you eat a specific oun of. let's say meat that's your carbon that. that that. was carbon. emission a lot. to I know there's a lot of you know.

Questions around that but um it's. another way. of. though. yeah want to you know people. let people you know think twice so as an. economist I really like talking about. tradeoffs that's why I showed it that. way okay thank you sir are just and. thank you Miss n so uh I think uh uh Dr. Salonga is already in the zoom so now. let me move on to introduce him as our. last speaker for today so dror norb. Salonga A distinguished Filipino. educator and development practitioner is. the founding director director of Del. lasal University's lalian social. Enterprise for economic development or. El heed Center initially conceived in. 2015 it evolved into an awardwinning. University Hub so Dr Salonga teaches. social entrepreneurship and serves as a. guest lecture at tasat University. Thailand he led impactful International. programs in transportation Education.

Health and Local Economic Development So. currently he holds key positions. including isali professional fellow and. Global coach of Underdog South Korea so. Dr Salonga chairs the National. Association of Social Enterprise. Educators and is a board member of the. Institution Institute for social. entrepreneurship in Asia and is pursuing. a doctorate in sustainability so. discussing business continuity of social. Enterprises the case of food and. agricultural model or supply chain Dr. norb. Salonga thank you very much um so be. sharing more the um application of. social ENT in the context of social. Enterprise B so the title of my. presentation is business continu of. social Enterprise the GS of uh food and. agult mod Supply. CH so as a background as we know during. the pandemic a lot of social. Enterprises in generally speaking micros.

Enterprises had to close down because um. buiness what the was a PR part of their. initial CLS of their. business and the data coming from The. Institute of social. entrepreneurship r that the ones that. actually survived the pandemic both MSM. s are the ones in. agriculture the r the main reason for. this is of course because of the fact. that um this businesses are considered. fast and are considered part of basic. assess but looking at the efforts of. government also national government. agencies particularly Department of. Agriculture and Department of Gan there. are in fact efforts that. basically uh aim at recalibrating some. of the Val chains of some of the basic. sectors particularly drops. OFA to agricultural. valuing um there's also this effort of. the to basically introduce a course. social entrepreneurship to the uh.

Agricultural field so these commitments. of ba um are aimed at helping the value. chain of um value high value props so. that um the the supply chain of these. props will be support the groing demand. Department. um as part of the parallel effort course. of the Department of agran they've. established social infrastructure build. and um which is basically uh aimed at. developing the support system. particularly economic support for. Enterprise development as well as. enhancing the. partnership for against hunger and poty. as we know hunger and poverty issues are. very much. connected the availab. the. access props no and which are considered. part of the bu. Necessities so these efforts of the. government clearly uh present as the. reality that there are issues. withed uh the food value value shange. system that we have with Philippines and.

As we look closely at the current. context particularly on the rice. production um we can always we can say. that um the problem is not entirely. availability or the availability of. Market it goes back the fact that the. farmers uh which is uh considered part. of the basic sectors are now struggling. in terms of. surviving um their sector surviving uh. the needs of their sector in fact the. philippin iscal authority data has. already revealed that farmers and Fisher. folks are considered Ed poorest of the. poor and these realities are the things. that we would look in when we consider. the supply chain the value chain of some. of these high value cops that we. have um the context of business. continuity um closely looks at this. model the connection of value. chains the services that are made. accessible and available some of the.

Basic sectors like Farmers andure folks. and um the support that both the private. sector and the the public sector. actually provide in this basic seor. concept of this is continu is also. having develop a plan that will help uh. these basic sectors. situations um such as pandemic and. natural disasters to be able to cope up. with not just the effect but also to C. up with particularly developing PLS that. would make them prepare uh for these so. that their businesses will be more. sustainable whether as I said whether. it's a business public sector. organization or charity um thiss is. continu the after pandemic has become a. a a a crucial component in developing. business plan in ensuring that the. businesses that we have right now Will. Survive economic shocks about the. pandemic or even natural. disasters um.

In our Center in LSU um we cater to. almost all of the sectors including. Agriculture and food and in the initial. um uh assessment that we recently. conducted particularly the social. Enterprise Pro firing assess 95% social. Enterprises are in fact qualified for. incubation acceleration when we say. incubation acceleration these social. Enterprises are capable of expanding. either their Market or even the. operation of the social enterpris T um. the distribution of their goods um the. the provision of their services as well. as their capability to in fact increase. the volume of their. production and in this particular case. the case of. LC the complete Z retention and pilot. success rates of three. major 100% me to say uh when you start a. program uh especially when when uh that. includes. agriculture you need to develop uh of.

Some sort you need to include business. continuity as part of the initial um. development business plan so that when. these social Enterprises are launched. and are uh pilot Tes or even ined you. have already Safeguard mechanisms that. are put in place to be a to respond on. challenges brought about by different um. econom shots or different scenarios like. pandemic as I said and natural. disasters and looking at the model of of. our program um which is basically. majority Community Based um these social. Enterprises um has already reached. around. 207,000 even 1.8 million asset and these. social Enterprises are only two years. two to three years old no in fact the. one actually reach 1.8 billion is a. social Enterprise working in the. agricultural sector which I'm going to. present now. um so looking at at their model or.

Looking at the model of social. Enterprises particularly the ones uh. working in the agriculture agriculture. and uh food sector it's very important. to note that participation of community. members should not just be part of um. like uh a business continuity plan which. is later which is usually developed the. latter part if you're you are an M. should be part of the planning stage. early on when you even when you start. developing soci rights and with the. models that we have community members. should be part of the management. structure and therefore should hold. management positions which is I think a. critical component of business. particularly in agriculture the sad. context we have right now in the. Philippines is that our farmers are now. working for uh uh for someone else. meaning to say uh they they started.

Selling their LS because because of the. loans that they that they receive. because of the loans God and they can no. longer pay uh the amount of loans that. they've uh obtained from these um uh. businesses and so they have have no. choice but to Ser their lives and so. that needs them in fact I'm just work as. work to just work for somebody else. using the land that they. originally um and that is one critical. component of this the second part is. about how these community members or the. context of farm farming uh from the. perspective of farmers are in fact. organized through. cooperatives um the negotiation part in. terms of the value change of some of the. MJ sh cops that we have right now in. Philippines is usually based on a b2c or. a b2c model where a business actually uh. responds to a need of a customer uh.

Which is kind of problematic in the case. of farming. cooperatives um because of the limited. resources they have they they have uh. they are confronted with challenges pred. their inability to NE negotiate better. rice points when their cops simply. because of the quality of the products. that actually suffer from the production. cycle as well as the amount of inventory. that they have in stocks that prevents. them to actually negotiate better price. points uh when they deal with businesses. or big businesses the third one is. looking at how um these communities or. these farming communities actually. develop projects for their own. communities in the social Enterprises. that we have we always count or we. always look these projects as outcome of. the interventions that we provide which. I think in agricultural sector something.

That's WR because majority of the. farming commes we have are more focused. on sustain the current uh uh business. operation that they have in order to pay. loans or in order to provide um for the. basic necessities of um their. children the fourth and fifth uh point. is have something to do with um the. chain and capacity building as well as. the partnership build of social. Enterprises which I believe is also. crucial when it comes to farming. communities because things will allow. them to grow not only their crops but. also their uh Market when they when they. expand their operation um through. business to business uh. model so let me go straight to the um of. s s sing is a food waste with which. actually transition the of the pmic into. a social Enterprise so basically the. problem is very simple this is what they.

See to liit our Liber Market. Accord. vegetables that that uh uh vendors just. just uh discard off after their uh. operation um usually they um vegetables. are protected at uh at 6 PM the at 6m of. of the day and then these vegetables are. um in fact considered waste by most of. the by by by the vegetable but for sag. NEOS these waste materials are fact or. can be considered as UTS to their. product and so what they do is um they. try to rescue and save dit vegetables so. s NE Ros basically converts these and. sold. Market that I as I said that would. otherwise be considered as way of some. vegetable cers to food products for. Community otherwise known as so the. intention is very simple we want to have. sustainable business that will help both. um the vegetable owners to increase. their in and at the same time provide uh.

An alternative option for the community. members of uh the that as well as. provide additional life employment. opportunities to the people that they. work with or community members that they. work with in their. prod so their goal basically is to uh. decrease no the food the food waste uh. in in the in that particular Market that. increas the. vendor as well as educate people about. um waste and responsible consumption and. as of as of our last visit uh last March. 2024 they're able to keepit all of these. targets and they're able to do break EV. points and these social enterpris fact. de by youth leaders in the. community. um under. the so the mod that they're using is. basically designed really mitigate good. ways so what they do is that they. compute everything the waste materials. that they uh that they have that.

Particular that particular Market they. collect them they work with the vendors. um then they process all of these. vegetables they categorize them um for. those that cannot be uh used for the. cindera they usually do Bashi composting. but for the ones that are still good in. terms of the quality that's how that. these are these are the vegetables that. they uh process not their in current. area for S um so basically that's the. simple model of sag negos social. Enterprise and of course looking at the. bigger picture in terms of their impact. they want to have lesser carbon. footprints in the local market second is. they want to introduce Inspire for. locals in fact the plan of the soag. Negros now is to expand and to really. localize uh the model of sag NE other. other. localities of course as I said earlier. improve the annual profit of the local.

Market so that's Market um if you want. to know more about s negos these are the. contact details so basically that's just. an example of a social Enterprise that. uh works on a circular economy model in. the. agricultural thank you very much and. okay thank you Dr Salonga so that. concludes all the presentations for this. webinar so earlier we could we kicked. off our initial question and answer. portion and we may now continue with the. addition of Dr salonga's presentation. and I believe Miss Rees is also present. via Zoom now so I would like to invite. everyone on Zoom to send in your. questions raise your hands and mute. yourselves and address your questions to. our. speakers so may we ask all our speakers. to turn on their. cameras okay so if anyone has their. questions you can raise your hand so. that the tech team can uh acknowledge.

You. okay so if anyone has no questions yet. let me uh just go back to uh the first. question for sir bench earlier with the. communication issues with the farmers uh. uh asked by Mom Nita so uh you uh. mentioned that um there was a. prescreening process before uh the uh. the the social Enterprises able to. communicate with the farmer so um. I I'm just curious if uh that is in. itself like a limiting. factor maybe you could share something. about. that um okay so from what we were told. before uh yes they they did want to as. much as they wanted to help the farmer. they also looked at the farmers's. ability to handle the finances although. they're handling it. um on the farmers behalf they also had. to look at the the business side of. things wherein of course we had to make. sure that the this is not someone who.

Would uh uh maybe trick the the investor. into investing uh so that's where the. community investigation uh comes in and. that's why they enlist the help of the. bangi so in a way we may say that it may. limit but I think um what they assured. us was. that um they used all the tools. available the information from the. experts uh to be able to. predict um which farmers were um okay. with help or I think sometimes they work. with the farmer so you start with a. small loan and then if the farmer shows. that they can handle the smaller loans. then it's possible for them to have. bigger loans so if you look at the. website there's actually a history on. the farmer like how many times they have. borrowed and how much they borrowed um. for each uh round of funding so I guess. that also gives a credibility to the. farmer that they have the sort of track.

Record but again uh that begs the. question how about those who are um. really just starting out so I guess it. has. to um it have to leave it up to them and. um their wisdom uh in screening since. you do have to balance uh those. things thank you very much for that. clarification so any other Zoom. participants who have uh questions for. our. speakers I. have ah sir reben yes po yes uh for for. Dr Salonga I'm I'm very curious about. the uh the uh it's it's it's so amazing. that uh despite that food is so. expensive we are wasting a lot of food. here in the Philippines but I I was just. wondering on the uh wasted vegetables. you know the green stock from Market. areas and you say put them in compost uh. is the end product um of composting it. have turned into something commercial. like potting soil. s and as opposed to just personally.

Putting it on the side as a compost and. then use it as a personal gardening. material but I'm more thinking about is. there any commercial value that you can. gain from it when you recycle it yeah in. fact uh that's another Enterprise so uh. for SOS they're they're looking at that. direction as well of actually. commercializing what they would out of. the B compos but another social. Enterprise again the center it's called. am organic they actually produce um they. actually commercialize the actual uh. product so so what I'm saying is the. entire value chain of food waste uh. production of the food waste problem um. there are several social Enterprises. working on that so example sag neckos. work that particular area of actually. converting uh these into something. that's more uh um into some to something. that's that can be solved um like a food.

Vegetable out um and second is of course. am organic work the commercialized. version of. uh and then another one Enterprise that. were currently developed uh which which. is uh I think that I would would. consider technology driven is uh a group. of students working on converting. uh waste materials biog gas which is uh. which completes the entire value chain. of this particular area so in in our. portfolio we have at least three social. Enterprises working in the the entire. value chain particularly working on the. ISS thank. you so I think we have another question. coming so let. me okay so the question is for Miss CLA. so how does your institution support. this women Le social Enterprises so the. question is from uh Dean. Joan thank you D Joan also the. Philippine Council for industry energy. and emerging technology research and.

Development under the department of uh. Science and Technology um actually. support women uh social Enterprises who. has need to access technology uh early. stage funding and customized gender. uh focused support so we provide uh. grants in Aid uh for them uh especially. if they require specific technical. assistance in uh refining their product. um uh this include uh projects that. provide specific technical expertise in. redesigning the minimum viable product. for the social Enterprise and uh that. assistance shall be uh aimed to improve. product or Services ready for validation. and then second it entails research and. development assistance in improving. their uh prototype into a market ready. product so it includes projects that. provide R&D support um to produce this. uh minimum viable product for the social.

Enterprise. so we also support those in Need for. specific. technology um and capacitate and provide. a support as needed by the women Le. social Enterprises thank you. po okay so anyone else who has questions. by. Zoom okay so maybe uh at this juncture. maybe we can ask our speakers for like. last uh last messages or your closing. messages for our participants this uh. early. evening so maybe we can start with sir. benj some final. words all right so uh you as for me. again when we have social Enterprises we. need to look at the uh problems first. and look at how we can leverage even. technology to help break the status quo. and then of course if you plan to start. a social Enterprise I guess you need to. be brave enough to push through since um. again as I mentioned before it will not. be easy but again I think it will be.

Worth. it okay so next up may we have Miss. n so I'm just gonna repeat my final. words so if you think that you cannot. contribute to climate change well think. again uh you are what you eat and food. can really fix climate. change okay next up we can we have Miss. uh Claren Rees. please uh yes I would like to summarize. that that women Le social Enterprises. play a multifaceted role in advancing. sg2 by empowering me women enhancing. food security improving nutrition and. health outcomes fostering Community. Development and promoting environmental. sustainability so uh annually we provide. the uh wh wise program if there are. uh social Enterprises especially women. uh interested in this you can uh search. for our Facebook and website uh to see. more of the announcements uh we provide. grants up to 5 million um for those I've.

Specified earlier and uh it's usually. the call is usually around June to July. of each year thank you so calls for um. uh applications will be for June or July. this year okay so lastly may we have. final words from Dr norbis. Salonga okay so I I'd like like to quote. from the international for soci. sustainable development that they say. that sustainable development is a. development that keeps the needs of the. present without compromising the future. Generations I think the way we behave as. consumers the. way and from the perspective of. entrepreneurs what the the type how. utilized resources type of bus that. develop things actions matter when it. comes to C I think um food is one of the. the one of the most Subic ways of fact. address signic for development for. sustainable development. happen Okay thank you Dr Salonga so.

Let's give all our presenters a warm. Round of Applause so before we close. today's program let me call on Dr Jes. josa Flores senior lecturer of the. faculty of management and development. studies for a closing. remarks sir thank. you okay first of all I would like to. say congrats to benj n CLA and Dr Norby. they introduced us to how social. entrepreneurship can help us achieve. sdg2 I myself. uh was involved in an agricultural. social Enterprise in the past so your. topics resonated with me I know the. hardships behind it not only do we need. social Enterprises that address sdg2 but. we also need Champions to communicate. these efforts so continue to be. champions of sustainability for our. country when we see social entrepreneurs. in action we become hopeful again. because we all know that entrepreneurs. have the power to shape our world though.

Scientists are often seen at the. Forefront of sustainability efforts. social entps have an equally important. role to play to help us achieve the sdgs. by 2030 so we have to step up and ramp. up our efforts social entrepreneurs can. provide more opportunity to the. community and more room for Innovation. and creativity to help us solve the. climate crisis so as I close let me say. this again which I always say in my uh. previous lectures we have 17 sdgs and. six years to go so let's all do our best. thank you thank you sir Jes for that. message so that concludes our program. for this evening so before we end we are. kindly asking everyone to accomplish the. evaluation for form uh currently flashed. on your SC screen so you may access the. form through the QR code provided or the. link provided through the chat.

okay so thank you for attending today's. event we hope that you could join us in. other events that our department will. organize in the future so mamam. he