In the December issue of LIWANAG, the AMORE Program's newsletter, the program shares its strategies on sustainability of its work in the areas of rural renewable energy electrification, safe water access and multimedia-based distance education.

1. December 2012
March 2012 Volume 1 Issue 4
Volume 1 Issue 2
LIWANAG
*
*Brightness or luminosity
An AMORE Program Newsletter
Redefining
SUSTAINABILITY:
The community as giver-receiver
of light, water and improved education

2. The Alliance for Mindanao and
Multi-Regional Renewable/Rural
Energy Development or AMORE
Program is a collaboration
among the Department of
Energy, United States Agency
for International Development,
SunPower Foundation and
Winrock International toward
electrification of remote,
off-grid rural communities using
renewable energy sources such
as solar and micro-hydro.
2 LIWANAG on AMORE Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 4

3. From the
COP’s
Desk
The end of the year, when there’s only a few days left before turning a new leaf, is usually the best
time to reflect on the closing year’s successes and accomplishments, weaknesses and challenges. We at
the AMORE Program will take this opportunity to share with you the product of this constant process of
reflection and re-thinking of strategies and approaches on how to effect sustainable, lasting impact in the
social and industry spaces where we work.
The illustration for the cover of this issue of LIWANAG captures quite neatly our fundamental tenet on
sustainability: community empowerment. The days of community members as mere recipients of grants and
assistance are long gone. Now, the receiver is the rightful owner (not only of project benefits but of the
accompanying responsibilities), project manager and primary stakeholder to the development program, and
it is on his shoulders, more than anyone else’s, that the sustenance and growth of the project lie.
In the succeeding pages we will share with you how we tried to the best of our ability to prepare local
communities for this task. You will find out how the transformation to renewable energy entrepreneurs
of some community associations is coming along, and how we worked hard to get the support of key
government agencies like the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the Department
of Education to mainstream and institutionalize the program interventions, for example, the new technical-
vocational courses on solar photovoltaic technology.
More than the gifts of light, safe water and modern education technology, the real gift that we will leave to
the communities is the power and ability to better their condition through their own creative efforts.
Have a meaningful holiday season!
Laurie B. Navarro
Chief of Party
3

4. BRINGING MODERN
ENERGY SERVICES
TO RURAL HOUSEHOLDS
Over the years, the Alliance for Mindanao and Multi-regional
Renewable/Rural Energy Development (AMORE) program has slowly
built and beefed up the elements constituting sustainable rural
electrification. From national, regional and provincial institutions down
to the community level, the program has set in motion innovative
approaches and put in place mechanisms to help ensure that the
benefits of renewable energy lighting not only be sustained for years
to come by AMORE-energized communities, but also be extended to
more off-grid rural households in the Mindanao region and beyond.
Community Association:
the pivotal force that drives rural PV electrification
At the core of AMORE’s rural electrification efforts is the local community
organizations. Started as mere recipients of development assistance,
members of village associations called the Barangay Renewable Energy and
Community Development Association or BRECDA have gone beyond passive
acceptance of grants and donations to being the primary drivers of rural PV Community
electrification. With members’ technical, organizational, financial systems and Association
entrepreneurial skills beefed up through appropriate trainings and capacity-
building activities, the BRECDA is the force that is well-positioned to spread
the benefits of renewable energy lighting to off-grid rural villages in Mindanao.
Of the 474 BRECDAs organized by AMORE since 2002, 50 had been assessed
to be still functioning as an organization by 2010. Sixteen (16) of these showed
tremendous potential to be entrepreneurs, and they were aptly guided by the
program for their new role in rural electrification.
Women in the communities were given special attention by the program,
and were looked upon as another group that is in a special position to drive
electrification efforts in rural areas. In cooperation with activity partners, Asian
Development Bank and Copper Alliance-Southeast Asia, AMORE launched TESDA
a series of all-women training workshops on PV installation and servicing
where a total of 66 women from 50 villages across 18 municipalities in Davao,
Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Zamboanga Peninsula, participated.
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority:
institutionalizing solar photovoltaic technology education
Along with the growth of the solar PV market in Mindanao comes the challenge of providing after-sales services and necessary manpower
support for PV industry development on the areas of PV installation, servicing and design. For four years, the program worked to mainstream PV
education into the national technical-vocational education system, and in 2011, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), with help from AMORE, conducted a training course designed to prepare would-be trainers and
assessors in conducting the newly promulgated three National PV Training Certification courses on PV systems installation, servicing and design. An
initial batch of 21 trainers and assessors have graduated under these programmes and now train other would-be PV technicians all over the region,
helping build a sufficient pool of PV experts that will adequately support the growing PV market.
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5. Microfinance Institutions
and Renewable Energy
Suppliers:
the link to affordable PV technology
Rolled out in December 2011, AMORE’s Business Development Assistance
(BDA) scheme delivered 2,500 units of various capacities of solar PV products
to 26 communities across Mindanao. Sourced from renewable energy
suppliers, the PV products did not only mean start-up capital inventory for the
BRECDAs, but also translated to business for the PV companies. More than
6 renewable energy companies – both those operating nationally and with
provincial/regional focus – participated in AMORE activities – e.g. product
Microfinance Institution & exhibitions – that aim to promote renewable energy technology as a viable
energy option for rural areas.
Renewable Energy Supplier
Solar PV business is catching on so that microfinance institutions (MFIs) have
also ventured into it. With 600,000 pesos total accumulated revenue between
the Bantol and Magsaysay BRECDAs in the Marilog District of Davao City,
the two BRECDAs were able to get the Center for Agriculture and Rural
Development-Business Development Services Foundation, Inc. (CARD-BDFSI)
to do business with them. The MFI loaned out to each BRECDA an initial
50,000-peso worth of solar PV products (payable in six months), which the
BRECDAs in turn leased out to members of their villages. And owing to a high
collection performance by the two BRECDAs, CARD has recently upgraded
their credit limit to 150,000 pesos.
And just recently CARD has now expanded its solar operations to Maguindanao,
Zamboanga Peninsula and Tawi-Tawi. Beside the cash sales that the MFI has
made to the Maguindanao BRECDAs, the same has already started lending
to 2 BRECDAs due to the latter’s credit worthiness. In Tawi-Tawi, CARD is
finalizing the business transactions with the province’s BRECDAs for further
household lighting expansion and intensification. Sulu and Basilan PTAs likewise
are keenly reaching out to expand the solar units that they have received
from AMORE. And CARD is the lead institution that all of these BRECDAs are
looking forward to for their service expansion to members.
AMORE has linked the BRECDAs to financing and technology sources so that the
n communities’ solar PV business may expand beyond AMORE’s program life.
Motolite & Philippine Recyclers, Inc.
Motolite and Philippine Recyclers, Inc.:
keeping clean energy technology truly clean
To systematize the disposal of junk batteries in AMORE-assisted barangays where solar PV equipment are used, the program facilitated the
forging of tripartite partnership agreements among the BRECDA, battery distributor, Oriental Motolite Marketing Corporation, and the recycling
organization Philippine Recyclers, Inc. (PRI), for the collection and recycling of used lead-acid batteries or ULAB. Under the agreement, the BRECDA
collects ULABs from the households in the village and then contacts Motolite, which then buys the ULABs from the BRECDA and transports them
for recycling to PRI. Residents of the village have been trained on proper battery handling, and are aware of the toxic elements in a battery and its
potential harmful effects to human health and the environment. Appropriate information materials, in the form of handouts, posters and tarpaulins,
have been disseminated to the BRECDAs, schools and other local partners, to provide these organizations with the procedure and system to handle,
manage and dispose these toxic materials.
5

6. Kaya matibay ang walis, Mag-impok para sa tag-ulan.
palibhasa’y nabibigkis. (Save for a rainy day.)
(Strong is the broom whose As the solar photovoltaic system saves
sticks are bound.) energy onto the batteries for use
beyond daytime, including rainy days,
At the center of AMORE’s efforts on the schools and communities that host
sustainability is the participation from them are also enjoined to save up for
and cooperation among all stakeholders when technical troubles in the system
– parents, teachers, students, and occurred.
education institutions. At the very
beginning of the project, members of Through policies and mechanisms
the local community are encouraged to crafted by the schools and communities
take ownership of the project, and are themselves, an operation and
equipped with the necessary technical maintenance fund is regularly filled,
and organizational know-how to make the and this will ensure availability of funds
most out of the solar-powered educational for the purchase of new batteries (at
television, as well as ICT (Information and least PHP22,500 or USD550) which can
Communication Technology), equipment, run out in three years. The Parents-
and for the longest possible time. Teachers Association (PTA) handles the
annual collection of fees from parents
A major achievement for the program and safekeeps the money in a bank
is getting recognition from the account registered under name of the
Department of Education for the PTA.
impacts that distance education
technologies cause to the students’ Recently, AMORE performed an O&M fund
education. This recognition has made collection monitoring, and results indicate
the government agency commit to an average 60 percent collection rate.
oversee the use and maintenance of Schools where the solar PV systems and
the facility in concerned rural schools. educational equipment were consistently
Coordinators have been assigned from used by the teachers posted good collection
the schools division up to the regional rate, while schools where some technical
levels to regularly monitor the use and problems (e.g. busted electric outlet,
effectiveness of the renewable energy- defective regulator, etc.) had occurred
powered educational television. failed to reach 50 percent collection.
Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan.
(Our children are the hope of our future.)
The AMORE program believes in this popular line no less than Jose Rizal himself did, and that is why the program has invested in modern technology
to help in the education of young students in rural areas, particularly, in Mindanao.
Solar photovoltaic modules power up televisions and computers – all too common in urban areas but still a rarity in these parts of the country –
to give students, who, until then had relied on hand drawn visuals, a better and clearer picture of the lessons of the modern world.
While AMORE’s school electrification projects are all about modernizing education methods, in this issue of LIWANAG, we look towards old adages
for the wisdom that we will be wise to remember if the benefits of modern technology in these rural areas are to be sustained.
6 LIWANAG on AMORE Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 4

7. PUMPING UP HEALTHIER LIVES
THROUGH ACCESS TO SAFE WATER
AMORE went back to the schools and communities that have
been using a safe water system for six months or longer, and
these are what we found out:
1
F Residents, especially women and children, spend less
time fetching water. Rural villagers used to spend as
much as an hour and twenty minutes fetching water,
and with a new source for potable water, fetching time 2
F Villagers now have more water at their disposal. From
now ranges between five and twelve minutes, giving as little as 5 liters per person per day, the volume of
residents an opportunity to devote more time for more water a person uses has gone up up to 60 liters, making
productive activities. rural residents able to go about their daily tasks more
easily. Prior to the construction of the water systems,
residents limited their water use to drinking and
cooking owing to the distance of water sources and
the significant cost of buying water from far sources.
With a more convenient source of water and a more
3
F Households and schools spend less money for water. abundant supply, villagers now use water for cleaning,
To have water transported to them from neighboring doing laundry, gardening, and most important, to
villages, or sometimes, across bodies of water, maintain good hygiene.
households and schools spend from 2,000 to 3,000
pesos a month. Fees collected by the BAWASAs and
PCTAs (Parents-Community-Teachers Association) for
the use of the water system, meanwhile, would only
range from 100 to 450 pesos monthly.
To keep the water and benefits continuously flowing from the potable water systems constructed by AMORE and its
partners in rural schools and communities, the program once again looks to the very people the safe water projects serve.
To date the program has facilitated the formation of twelve (12) Barangay Water Associations or BAWASAs that will take
care of the water systems’ operation and maintenance. Of the twelve BAWASAs, ten have been registered with the
Department of Labor and Employment as people’s organizations.
Beyond managing the water projects, BAWASAs have all undergone organizational capacity building trainings to prepare
them for their role as catalysts for development in their respective communities.
7

8. The Magsaysay BRECDA is all too happy to supply the
village’s lighting needs. In fact, residents from neighboring
How BRECDAs get to play villages and from other districts have started to purchase
solar PV products from the BRECDA.
their CARD right Improving lives (and earning from it!)
Gina Anunciado, the 36-year old mother of five, and the eight-
year treasurer of the Barangay Magsaysay Renewable Energy and their monthly energy expenditures and willingness and ability to pay
Community Development Association (BRECDA), gets away from her for a solar PV product, the program reached the conclusion that the
duties at her sari-sari (variety) store momentarily to attend to two poorest of the poor rural households – the very households that
men who had travelled from the North Cotabato side of Mt. Sinaka constitute AMORE-energized barangays – spent for lighting as low as
across the border to Davao City’s Marilog District, to take a look at 30 pesos up to 150 pesos a month, and that portability and reliability
“solar” items they had recently seen at their neighbors’ homes. A few are especially important among those that use light for livelihood
of their neighbors in the village of Salasang had bought solar lamps activities, for example, for fishing and farming.
from Brgy. Magsaysay, which they now use for their lighting needs
instead of kerosene. This knowledge guided the program in crafting the Business
Development Assistance scheme through which select BRECDAs –
Organized by the Alliance for Mindanao and Multi-Regional Renewable/ one of which is the Magsaysay BRECDA – that showed organizational
Rural Energy Development or AMORE Program in 2004, the Magsaysay integrity and a huge potential for entrepreneurship were slowly guided
BRECDA has recently transformed itself into an enterprising association to lead the way away from grant-dependent, and on to a commercial,
involved in the solar photovoltaic (PV) business. From a start-up capital sustainable renewable energy rural electrification.
inventory of 73 units of solar lanterns of various capacities provided
by AMORE in early 2012, the BRECDA has since added to their list of
sold merchandise 75 units more of solar PV products, eight of which
Business partnership with
are solar home systems (six units of 40-watt peak SHS and two units a microfinance institution
of 25-watt peak SHS). “People here like ‘solar’ very much. It’s very
convenient,” Gina says. Five months after the Magsaysay BRECDA’s initial capital inventory
got distributed among households on a lease-to-own scheme,
And it is that desirability of the technology among community microfinance institution Center for Agriculture and Rural Development
members that Gina and her association are all too happy to capitalize or CARD entered the picture with its own solar PV loan portfolio.
on. Ranging from full-on solar home systems that can power up lights, CARD had previously ventured into the solar PV business some six
an FM radio and a small black-and-white television to 5-watt-peak years ago in the island of Mindoro, and was enticed to do the same
four-lamp solar lanterns to portable, low-capacity desk lamp-type – albeit following a different business model – in Mindanao following
lanterns, the BRECDA’s array of solar PV products correspond to every discussions with AMORE.
household’s lighting needs, and most important, capacity to pay.
CARD Business Development Services Operations Director Julius Alip
Earning capacity is in fact the AMORE program’s primary consideration says that the strength of the BRECDA as CARD’s business partner lies
in choosing the type of solar PV product that will be commercially in the fact that they are a sufficiently able enterprising organization
attractive and viable among the rural household market. After that lives right at the community, right within the market that CARD
conducting a survey among AMORE-energized villages that determined hopes to reach with its solar PV business. The retail model which
8 LIWANAG on AMORE Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 4

9. Solar PV products of various capacities meet each
household’s lighting needs and capacity to pay.
they had piloted in the island of Mindoro years back had an inherent
structural weakness which was bound to render the business too
costly, and therefore, unviable in remote, dispersed rural villages.
Their Mindoro experience taught them to add other items to their
solar PV products offerings too: from selling only high-capacity solar
home systems, they eventually added to their portfolio solar lanterns
of various capacities that the “bottom of the pyramid” – what the
poorest of the poor in the consumer market is called – could afford.
With 360,000 pesos cash on hand, the Magsaysay BRECDA had
enough confidence – not to mention cash – to expand the business.
Testing the neophyte entrepreneurs’ credit-worthiness, CARD initially
loaned out 50,000-peso worth of solar PV products to the BRECDA,
which the BRECDA then loaned out among village residents under a
lease-to-own scheme that allowed the residents to pay the remaining
balance – after paying a small downpayment – within a year. After
paying a down payment amounting to 20 percent of the total loan
value, the BRECDA was to pay the remaining balance to the MFI within
six months.
The Magsaysay BRECDA had less than a month to go in their six-month
agreement to pay for the remaining balance to CARD when they
BRECDAs and CARD blaze the trail towards
placed new orders for solar products. In October 2012, they placed sustainable rural household electrification.
new orders for 61 units of lighting products. Solar PV products were
selling like the ubiquitous eggplants in the village, and the orders did Because of the growing demand for solar products, the Magsaysay
not only come from within the community; residents from neighboring BRECDA thought of supplying as well components such as lamps,
villages, including at the North Cotabato border, and villagers from even batteries. They have started construction of what would be the
as far away as Toril District, some 40 kilometers from Magsaysay, all village’s hardware store which will double as the BRECDA office. While
come to cash in on the revolutionary lighting technology. fees collection has never really been a problem (the longest delay
in payment by a customer that she has experienced as treasurer
is two months), according to Gina, regular meetings are important
to constantly remind BRECDA members of their commitment and
responsibilities, and a permanent BRECDA office will host those
meetings.
The BRECDA’s customers pay 120 pesos (USD3), 160 pesos (USD4)
and 200 pesos (USD5) monthly for a low-, medium, and high-capacity
solar lantern, respectively, and 250 pesos (USD6.25) for a 20-watt
peak solar home system. “People pay,” Gina says, “because they
appreciate the value of the equipment to their lives. They – we – use
it in all aspects of our lives – our livelihood, our children’s education,
our everyday life.”
Indeed, it is this social benefit that Magsaysay’s partner MFI CARD
has identified as the MFI’s primary motivation for getting into the solar
PV business. Solar PV lending constitutes less than 1 percent of the
more than 6 billion-peso portfolio of CARD, yet they are most proud of
what the around 7,000 units - including those sold to the Magsaysay
BRECDA and two other BRECDAs in Marilog District (Bantol and
Marilog) – of solar PV units that they had sold since 2011 have meant:
light for those who purchased the PV systems, and business and
livelihood for their partners – the women and community associations
that serve as their connection to the rural household.
As of this writing, CARD has sold 110 units of different solar PV models
to BRECDAs in Maguindanao, and is poised to expand operations
through partnerships with BRECDAs Zamboanga Peninsula, Sulu,
Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.
A resident from a village at the North Cotabato border
inspects the solar PV product that he plans to buy from the
Magsaysay BRECDA for selling in his own village. 9

10. Head Office
Unit 68 6/F Landco Corporate Center
J.P. Laurel Avenue, Ba jada, Davao City 8000
T/F: (63 82)2822517
Satellite Office
2401 Jollibee Plaza Bldg., F. Ortigas, Jr. Road
Ortigas Center, Pasig City 1600
T: (63 2)6879283/6321233 F: (63 2)6312809
www.amore.org.ph
This publication is made possible by the support
of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development.
The contents are the responsibility of Winrock International
and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
10 LIWANAG on AMORE Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 4