The Institute for Socio-Economic Development Initiatives (ISEDI) is an outreach arm of the Ateneo de Davao University.  It celebrates its 41st year this year, working with subsistence farmers, fisherfolk, and small-scale entrepreneurs to improve their productivity, sharpen their business acumen, strengthen their organizations and increase their incomes.  ISEDI implements short and medium-term projects funded by the national government agencies, local government units and international development organizations. 

ISEDI maintains a lean core staff and is supported by its on-call development practitioners and consultants and selected university professors.  ISEDI is based at the Jacinto campus of Ateneo de Davao University.  It is given autonomy to pursue development projects that fall within the Ateneo principles (i.e. man for others, responsible environmental stewardship, empowerment of vulnerable groups).  It subscribes to the university’s financial procedures and protocols.  All external projects of ISEDI are approved by the University President. 

ISEDI has completed 125 projects since its inception in 1981, in the areas of research, survey, project and organization assessment, training, project monitoring and evaluation, reforestation, strategic planning and area development, enterprise and livelihood development, and fund management. In the BARMM and Conflict Affected Areas, the Institute for Socio-Economic Development Initiatives has provided a number of interventions that includes training and assessments. Under the project “Capability-Building Training for the Bangsamoro Development Agency”, ISEDI, which was sponsored by Japan International Cooperation Agency, has conducted 9 training courses. There were 178 participants who have gained additional knowledge with regard to proposal writing, basic business skills, operations planning, financial planning, and development planning. Similarly, ISEDI has conducted orientation and training, and monitoring and spot checks in Saranggani, Cotabato, and Compostella Valley for the Project Assessment of PPA 3 under the MTF-RDP – Bangsamoro Development Agency. Part of the tasks were to revisit at least 10 of the interviewed project beneficiaries, to prepare status or final report on the accomplishments, and to assist in the secondary data collection and ensure that the documentation of all interviews were complete and edited before they were submitted. Moreover, ISEDI team also gathered the data needed for the project Madrassah Education in the BARMM: Updating the Profile and Assessing the Impact of Beam Support to the Pilot Madaris. Aside from doing the interview, ISEDI composed the recommendation for the future assistance plans.