Over the years, cooperatives have played an important role in the growth and development of the Philippine countryside and the need to capacitate them is essential to ensure their sustainability and competitive advantage.
In light of this, the Landbank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) has developed the “Innovative Training and Responsive Approaches for Institutional Nurturing (iTRAIN)” to support the Bank’s desire to promote innovation, establish resiliency, encourage collaboration and cultivate a culture of continuous learning.
Under the iTRAIN, Bank-assisted cooperatives have to undergo an annual operations review (OR) using the’ Cooperative Operations Review Instrument’ (CORI) developed by the Bank. The CORI enables the Bank to identify the type of capability building intervention needed by cooperatives to address their weaknesses. CORI was designed as a risk-based rating document that stimulates the capabilities and training needs of cooperatives under the following key result areas: control environment, risk assessment, control activities, cashiering, bookkeeping and other security measures, business operations, sundries, information and communication and monitoring. For cooperatives that pass the CORI, the schedule of Operations Review (OR) is every 2 years while those that are rated “Acceptable” should at least go through OR in the subsequent year.
Another innovation tied to the OR is the ‘Enhanced Cooperative Accreditation Criteria’ (CAC) which measures the financial and operational readiness in availing the Bank’s financial support. Cooperatives that fall under the less (weak) operationally-matured bracket – Class C and Class D – are prioritized.
Alongside the training of its partner-cooperatives, LANDBANK also hones the skills and competencies of account officers and account assistants tasked to perform activities associated with the categorization and the operations review of cooperatives. Highly-trained lending officers make LANDBANK’s clients feel the value of relevant and responsive customer service delivery.
LANDBANK’s ‘iTRAIN’ program won the ADFIAP Outstanding Development Project Award 2015 under the Human Capital Development Category.