Overseas Filipinos Remittances for Development (OFs-RED)

The CFO is part of a project called OF-RED which is aimed at leveraging overseas Filipinos' (OFs) remittances for economic development. The main proponent of the project, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), received a grant from the United Nations Development Programme (Project ID # 76817) to carry out the project entitled OF/Diaspora Remittances for Development (OF-RED): Building a Future Back Home.

The overall objectives of the project are (1) to review and develop policies that would facilitate the use of remittances for productive and job-creating investments and address the policy deficiencies that impede the optimum use of remittances for productive activities; and (2) to conduct activities that would lead to the development and refinement of policies to harness OF remittances for investments and capital mobilization.

The pilot study areas are the province of Ilocos Norte and the city of Taguig. So far, 14 focus group discussions among stakeholders in the remittance industry had been conducted. These are commercial dependents of overseas Filipinos, banks, rural banks, money transfer/remittance companies, government banks, government regulatory agencies, civil society organizations, academe and local government units of Ilocos Norte and Taguig.

The preliminary results of the project will be presented in a policy forum in May 2011.