Helping Build Local Economies: A Framework for Microfinance Practitioners

Copyright © 2002 by Andres G. Panganiban

275 pages, 228mm x 150mm

Helping Build Local Economies: A Framework for Microfinance Practitioners, by and large, is a continuation of Andres G. Panganiban's first book, Barefoot Banking: Microfinance in the Philippines. Helping Build Local Economies is about ideals, dedication, commitment and the realities confronting the idealist. What makes this book significant is that Panganiban has presented a clear, living [proof that idealism and pragmatism are not worlds apart. They are but two shades of one color - varying only in its intensity.

The book uses the experience of the New Rural Bank of San Leonardo (NRBSL) and hopes to achieve a blueprint on how rural banks, through microfinance, can be the best intermediaries of change to spur development in the countryside. As aptly stated in the book: "In this country, the bottom starts with the rural communities where the majority of the poor are, and where hunger and poverty are at its worst. When hunger stalks the countryside, production is at a standstill and development is stalled as well".

Helping Build Local Economies is an inspiration, a guide and a must reading to anyone who professes a heart for the poor and a mind determined to make a difference.

Jerry B. Coloma, Jr.
President
Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines

Helping Build Local Economies: A Framework for Microfinance Practitioners shows the impact of microfinance not only at the individual, family or household level, but also at the level of local economies.

The book is a collection of articles from speeches and papers delivered by the Author on the subject and includes those written by experts in banking, industry and trade, and community development. Microfinance is viewed with new insights and approaches, especially as it relates to the pillars of local economies, namely, the micro-entrepreneurs and the agricultural sector, rural banks, remittances of overseas Filipinos, local governance and civil society.

The book draws richly from the experiences of the Author as a barefoot banker for the last eight years. It is also a sequel to his first book, Barefoot Banking: Microfinance in the Philippines.

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Barefoot Banking: Microfinance in the Philippines

Copyright © 1998 by Andres G. Panganiban

119 pages, 236mm x 160mm

This book is a concrete and rare case of a real Microfinance Banking Operation with clear outreach capabilities to serve the entrepreneurial poor in a sustainable manner.

               Alex V. Buenaventura
               Executive Director, Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines
               President, Network Rural Bank of Southern Philippines, Inc.

Any student of microfinance will find Barefoot Banking inspiring and enlightening. The book tells the story of the 5-year old New Rural Bank of San Leonardo, and how it is successfully reaching an increasing circle of enterprising poor while satisfying profit. In a style that flows, the author bares what makes the New Rural Bank of San Leonardo tick. Other microfinance institutions would profit from the abundant tips and lessons that the author, Andres G. Panganiban, shares unselfishly. May his tribe increase.

Meliza Hidalgo-Agabin
A student of Microfinance

The most important things always have a way of being told in the simplest ways. Barefoot Bankingis so, Barefoot Banking does so.

Barefoot Banking tells the story of the building of the New Rural Bank of San Leonardo, a modest experiment that has produces immodest results. With little to bank on by way of precedent, the New Rural Bank of San Leonardo opened its doors to the poorest of the poor, convinced that, contrary to popular wisdom - and practice - this sector was the most, rather than the least, reliable of clients. Time, and the tripling of its original capital, have proven it right.

It is an important story, and one Barefoot Banking tells in a truly important way, which is as a story. Eschewing turgid arguments and presentations, Barefoot Banking takes an intimate and personal tone, talking instead about the fears and dreams, the grief and joys that went into the making of the bank. Banking has never been this riveting, banking has never been this adventurous, banking has never been this fun.

Banking has never gone this far.

Whether you are a banker or NGO worker, a professor or farmer, this book is for you. You won't just learn a great deal about banks, you will learn a great deal about life.

Conrado de Quiros
Columnist, Phil. Daily Inquirer