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A major focus of ACDI/VOCA’s work over four decades has been to help cooperatives adopt strategies that make them commercially successful and sustainable. Through programs funded by the Cooperative Development Program grant at USAID, cooperatives are assisted in implementing, monitoring and evaluating these new strategies. The comparative methodology that examines cooperatives of various types, sizes and locations in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, and Paraguay is used to tailor technical assistance that will ultimately help these co-ops achieve salience and compete in the global economy.

Bolivia

ACDI/VOCA has managed Farmer-to-Farmer activities continuously over the last 15 years, recruiting thousands of volunteers to provide direct assistance to farmers, agribusinesses, associations, and credit institutions around the world. Currently, our Worldwide Farmer-to-Farmer program operates in the Greater Horn of Africa, Ethiopia and Bolivia, and we have recently been awarded a new grant for Farmer-to-Farmer activities in Russia, the Caucasus region, and Central Asia.

With resources from USAID/Bolivia's Alternative Development program, ACDI/VOCA is managing the YCADF, a grants fund which is investing in productive and social infrastructure, and developing the capacity of regional and local groups. The YCADF is benefiting a total population of 139,984 in four Yungas provinces in the department of La Paz, and incorporating eight participating municipal governments. The ultimate objective of the YCADF is to increase the licit household income in a region of Bolivia where legal and illegal coca production exists.

NRECA has been providing a series of technical and institutional assistance services to an electric cooperative in the departmental capital of the Beni region of Bolivia, including a distribution system overhaul to reduce losses and improve service quality; power supply strengthening including design, financing and construction of small power facilities including a 1 MW biomass plant fueled with Brazil nut shells; and more recently, power-plant operations under contract.

Under the Government's policy of conditioning development assistance on the signing of coca reduction or containment agreements in the Yungas region, USAID has just signed an agreement with NRECA to implement a rural electrification project to benefit the communities in the Yungas Valley. The primary purpose of the project will be to implement electrification projects in support of the ADP goals, in line with the GOB's policies. The electrification projects will contribute to economic diversification and increasing productivity in traditional agriculture in the Yungas Valley.

WOCCU Bolivia is a $2.2 million project (12/02 - 12/06) funded by USAID Bolivia. This program strengthens operations and improves savings and credit services to microentrepreneurs and low-income members. WOCCU Bolivia works with 14 participant credit unions.

Working together, USAID and WOCCU have transformed the credit union sector in Bolivia
Building on the success of previous projects, the current WOCCU Bolivia project is extending financial services to an increased number of rural clients by working with credit unions to open branches and remote areas and by forming a credit union network that will enable credit unions to provide transaction services throughout the country. Technical assistance to the credit unions is focused on three key areas: finance and administration, savings mobilization and credit services.

The Rural Electrification Cooperative, Ltd. (CRE) is the largest electric cooperative in the Western Hemisphere. CRE and NRECA have had a close working relationship since CRE's establishment in 1963 with USAID support. In the past several year, CRE has funded a series of training and technical assistance project implemented by NRECA.

From the time of the Incas, coca has been a cultural staple in parts of Bolivia. Indigenous Bolivians chew the leaves to alleviate altitude sickness, to conserve body heat, and to stave off fatigue and hunger; it is also used for indigenous religious ceremonies. Still, global controversy over coca production and its use in producing cocaine have led to violent struggles between forces intent on eradication of illegal production and the coca growers’ syndicates, which control local politics and cultivation. Caught in the middle are poor farmers who struggle to create a peaceful, secure and stable environment for their families, but who have few alternatives to coca production.

With assistance from USAID, CHFBolivia has undertaken an integrated development approach in Chapare, interconnecting communities that resist coca eradication with alternative development program efforts. Alongside aid for basic needs such as education, water sanitation and health, CHF provides resources to strengthen community collaboration, economic stimulation, increased social infrastructure and environmental protection.

In Chapare, CHF has selected the most marginalized communities that have traditionally rejected alternative development programs and in the past participated in the illegal production of coca. A recent agreement between the government and coca producers has provided temporary peace and stability, allowing CHF easier access to these communities.

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Brazil

This four-country (Brazil, Mozambique, Paraguay, Ukraine,) program aims to improve the economic well-being of farmers by strengthening democratic member-owned cooperatives so that they become sustainable, group-based businesses. Its purpose is to accelerate the growth and enhance the viability of cooperatives through three components: rural finance, capacity building, and partnerships.

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Colombia

This five-year activity, under USAID's Alternative Development Strategic Objective, will work at the producer level to improve the socio-economic situation of small coffee producers in terms of quality of life and income and increase the production of exportable specialty coffees. By so doing, the program will provide incentives for small producers to avoid illicit activity. The Program includes the following components: 1) Renovation of Coffee Plantations; 2) Improvement of Production and Processing Infrastructure; 3) Household Food Security; 4) Quality Improvement; and 5) Marketing Promotion and Exports.

In the last decade, more than three million Colombians have been internally displaced due to armed conflict. Farmers from the rural areas have arrived in large cities, ill-equipped to provide for their family's basic needs. Most have had to abandon their property and seek refuge in informal settlements, in structures built from cardboard and brush, which are poor shelter against the varied climates of Colombia.

To meet the urgent needs of the internally displaced population (IDPs), CHF International is working to provide basic humanitarian needs (food, hygiene products, household supplies) as well as shelter and psychological assistance to those persons fleeing from violence and instability. We are also working to improve the long-term economic conditions of the IDPs and their communities through support of microenterprise, vocational training and job placement.

To discourage continued displacement and restore quality of life, we are working with the municipalities to identify and prioritize the reconstructions projects to be completed under CHF International's supervision. Since the program began, we have delivered humanitarian kits to more than 110,000 individuals in a program. We have built more than 5,000 temporary shelters in 40 municipalities of Colombia, as well as and 215 classrooms and kitchens. In many locations, we are providing start-up school kits that include the basic school supplies needed by children to prepare for classes. We added this component after witnessing displaced children carefully erasing their homework so that they could use the same piece of paper over and over again.

WOCCU works together with ACCION International to expand market outreach, downreach and the range of savings and credit services offered to low-income microentrepreneurs in Colombia. WOCCU's component of the program is $1.25 million for the period of 10/03-9/06.

The innovative technical approach employed by WOCCU and ACCION address key issues in microfinance, assisting credit unions to achieve scale and depth in lending to low-income households and other types of microfinance institutions to achieve scale in savings mobilization. The partners provide direct technical assistance to five credit unions and ACCION-affiliate FINAMERICA.

The challenges addressed by this project is two-fold: to help the cooperative insurance companies in the country extend their service to a greater number of low-income people who have no access to insurance products that both meet their needs and are affordable; and, to have it be a good business decision that will help the companies achieve scale and salience.

Other activities under this project include dissemination of best practices and lessons learned with the AAC/MIS membership, strengthening organizational culture development through training with the Instituto Desarrollo Humano of Puerto Rico, and collabrative activites with other development organizations to strengthen the legal and regulatory enabling environment of cooperatives.

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Ecuador

AAC/MIS offers technical assistance and training opportunities to new and emerging member societies. The association responds to requests from cooperatives, credit unions and trade union movements throughout the hemisphere that ask for assistance in forming their own insurance agency, department or company.

A second major program is to foster the exchange of information and viewpoints among member societies. Meetings and training is carried out in Central, South America and the Caribbean present topics of general interest to large and small member organizations. These meetings also provide opportunities for executives and managers of member societies to exchange views and to develop supportive professional relationships. Past topics have covered subjects such as meeting changing capital requirements, investment practices, strategic alliances, fraud, and claims and techniques.

WOCCU received $3.1 million from USAID Ecuador to implement a four-year program (9/02 - 9/06) to provide increased access to microfinance services through credit unions.

WOCCU Ecuador/USAID provides technical assistance to nine unsupervised credit unions in Ecuador to help them to attain the structure, financial management standards and policies required to be supervised by the Superintendency of Banks. The program also works with supervised credit unions to form a credit union network that will enable the institutions to provide a wider range of financial services such as shared branching, remittances and card services to members at lower cost.

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Guatemala

The Integral Community Development Program (PRODECI) in Guatemala improved rural family incomes, food security, micro-enterprise and dairy quality. PRODECI’s strategy organized farmers into cooperatives in order to save farmers’ costs and time, improve quality, and facilitate training and technical assistance to farmers. As a group, the farmers could share equipment essential to maintaining raw milk quality during collection and to processing their milk into value-added products. Training and technical assistance encompassed business management, dairy production and processing, and marketing.

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Honduras

The Dairy Enterprise Initiative for Honduras and Central America increases the competitiveness and diversity of rural agribusinesses involved in the dairy industry by assisting the businesses with:

• achieving national and international export standards,

• accessing new markets and market information, and

• organizing farmers to produce quality raw milk.

Honduras is well-positioned in Central America to produce and export dairy, yet the industry suffers from inadequate processing facilities and market information as well as poor quality raw milk. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funds the program, which is built upon a previous program developed with USAID Hurricane Mitch reconstruction funding. Land O’Lakes has been working on improving the dairy industry in Honduras since September 2000.

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Paraguay

This four-country (Brazil, Mozambique, Paraguay, Ukraine,) program aims to improve the economic well-being of farmers by strengthening democratic member-owned cooperatives so that they become sustainable, group-based businesses. Its purpose is to accelerate the growth and enhance the viability of cooperatives through three components: rural finance, capacity building, and partnerships.

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Peru

CHF International is working to improve living conditions in the mining town of Cajamarca, in the Peruvian Andes. The high unemployment has created a social imbalance and a housing shortage in the area. In response, CHF International has developed a progressive home improvement and starter home loan program. The program also encourages entrepreneurs to provide goods and services to builders and construction companies.

CHF International is working with the Yanacocha Newmont mining company, which is committed to pursuing sustainable mining practices and a progressive community development program.

The company’s community development program assists the urban development of the city and helps its poor. Yanacocha Newmont and CHF International completed a housing and microenterprise affordability study in the city of Cajamarca and implemented a pilot housing microfinance project.

 

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