Maximizing the Gains and Minimizing the Social Cost of Overseas Migration in the Philippines

Objective (1) will be achieved through capacity building and public awareness activities targeting Filipino migrant leaders and hometown associations. Special attention will be paid to the gender dimension, given that the majority of Filipinos in Italy are women employed as domestic workers. Training will be provided to 30 leaders on: financial literacy; organization, leadership and networking; project formulation and management; peer counselling; social costs, rights and welfare issues. The migrant leaders are then expected to replicate the activities to 180 association members, and to spearhead fundraising campaigns (within 5 hometown associations) for development projects in the Philippines. Public awareness activities are planned to link the community with existing Italian social services and with development NGOs, associations and other stakeholders involved on migration and development (360 direct beneficiaries).

For Objective (2), the project will train 120 stakeholders (migrant families as well as government, NGOs and schools) in addressing the social cost of migration, crafting gender sensitive interventions, and directing migrants' remittances to sustainable development projects that would benefit migrants and their communities (through linkages with agricultural-based cooperatives, social enterprises and rural banks in their communities, at least 3 projects will be implemented). Similarly, in the Philippines, trainers' training will be conducted first, followed by monitoring of the newly-qualified trainers, who will in turn reach out to 360 families.