15,000 Attend Agricultural Fair in Northern Afghanistan

Fifteen thousand people—three times more than expected—attended an ACDI/VOCA-organized first-ever agricultural fair held in the northern part of Afghanistan October 29-30. Working with a PADCO-led team, ACDI/VOCA mounted the fair as part of the four-year, $59.9 million Alternative Livelihoods Program. More than 500 cooperative farmers took part in the fair, which was hosted by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock and funded by USAID. The "AgFair" was an opportunity for farmers to connect with agroentrepreneurs, learn modern commercial farming techniques, and enjoy good food and entertainment. Exhibitors included producers of tthan cloth, women-run food-processing businesses, fruit-drying enterprises, NGOs offering veterinary and agricultural advice, and vendors of a diverse array of products ranging from fertilizer to farm equipment to solar cells. More.

Jim Phippard Retiring

On November 30 ACDI/VOCA President Carl Leonard announced that Senior VP for Special Projects Jim Phippard would be retiring effective January 15, 2008. His retirement will end a career with ACDI/VOCA that began in 1991 and included a stint as chief operating officer during a period of rapid organizational change and growth, before he stepped down to a part-time position. Phippard, who has lived and worked in West Africa, North Africa and Egypt, joined ACDI as its first VP for Central and Eastern Europe and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union (CEE/NIS). In Poland, he designed and won ACDI’s first major enterprise development project, as well as a large project privatizing state-owned banks. He also won a large World Bank banking project in Albania. He ultimately expanded the CEE/NIS portfolio to be larger than the whole of ACDI at the time of his hiring. While running the Food for Development division, he became a leading proponent of monetization as a development instrument. Leonard said, “This holiday season we’ll be saying goodbye to a Wise Man. Few people have meant as much to ACDI/VOCA as Jim Phippard, and few could have operated with his combination of business acumen and team spirit.” More.

Alliance for Food Aid Conducts Workshop

The Alliance for Food Aid (AFA) brought together 80 participants for its first workshop, titled “International Food Aid: Where Are We Headed?” on December 5 in Washington, D.C. ACDI/VOCA lead the organization of the event to examine food aid’s effectiveness. AFA comprises 14 private voluntary organizations and cooperatives that support the effective use of food aid in humanitarian and development programs overseas. Panelists represented the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry; the U.S. House Subcommittee on Specialty Crops, Rural Development & Foreign Agriculture; USDA; USAID; the International Food Policy Research Institute; the Embassy of the Republic of Mozambique; and the U.N. World Food Programme. Avram “Buzz” Guroff, ACDI/VOCA’s senior vice president for Food Security & Specialty Crops, spoke about ACDI/VOCA’s past and present PL 480 Title II programs in Rwanda. Guroff oversees ACDI/VOCA’s other food aid-based development programs in Ecuador, the Philippines, Indonesia, Liberia, Vietnam, Cape Verde, Uganda, West Bank and Rwanda, among other countries. More.

AMFA Receives SEEP’s 2007 Network of the Year Award

The Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network recognized the Azerbaijan Microfinance Association (AMFA) for its exceptional accomplishments in 2007 at the SEEP Annual Conference held in Washington, D.C., Oct. 22-26. SEEP, the leading international network and promoter of best practices in enterprise development and financial services, presented AMFA with the 2007 Network of the Year Award for excellence in improving demand-driven services, topping a group of 36 microfinance networks from around the world. AMFA’s internship program for young professionals, which is helping to address the scarcity of qualified personnel in the microfinance and banking sectors in Azerbaijan, was noted in particular. SEEP also awarded AMFA the Best Panelist award for a workshop the association sponsored at the conference. AMFA receives funding and technical assistance under ACDI/VOCA’s $6.4 million Azerbaijan SME Support through Financial Sector Development project, which has supported AMFA since 2005 and will continue to assist AMFA through 2008. More.

Under its $10 million Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project–Business Development Services (AMAP BDS) Knowledge and Practice II task order, the ACDI/VOCA Consortium has developed and published a value chain training curriculum on USAID's microLINKS website. The three- to five-day curriculum trains practitioners and USAID mission staff in value chain approaches and applications. ACDI/VOCA has used this training curriculum in many countries, including Kenya, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Colombia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the United Kingdom. It illustrates how the value chain approach can be used as a tool for understanding trends in global markets and conditions under which micro and small enterprises can contribute to and benefit from the increased competitiveness that globalization brings. More.

On November 20, USAID Mission Director Howard Sumka visited beneficiaries in Dar Salah of ACDI/VOCA’s USAID-funded, $5 million West Bank Food Security Program. Under the project, USAID and ACDI/VOCA work with the local NGO, Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ), and Palestinian communities in 14 villages in the Bethlehem and Hebron districts to support basic food production and livelihood strengthening for large populations of poor, marginalized households with high unemployment. Sumka was accompanied by Mike Martin and Taghrid Lahham from USAID’s Private Sector Office. During his visit, Sumka saw how USAID, ACDI/VOCA and ARIJ collaborate to help households overcome food insecurity through household fruit and vegetable cultivation. The project helps beneficiaries create gardens by rehabilitating land, improving agricultural practices and constructing cisterns, greenhouses and gray wastewater treatment units for agricultural reuse. The project guides them in installing drip irrigation networks and trains each household in practical, home-based agricultural production. More.

In Azerbaijan the first of a series of workshops under ACDI/VOCA’s Enterprise Development and Training Program (EDTP) was held at the Enterprise Centre on October 30. EDTP staff laid out the program's goals and described its process to the 18 representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises in attendance. Next ACDI/VOCA will assess local firms’ competitiveness, arrive at plans to develop their capabilities and ascertain the financial commitment required. EDTP was launched in June by BP and its co-venturers in oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan. It is a three-year, multimillion-dollar initiative supporting local business development. The program is part of BP’s efforts to increase the local base of its contracts in Azerbaijan, thereby contributing to the healthy and transparent development of the local economy. BP, on behalf of its co-venturers, conducted a competitive tender process and selected ACDI/VOCA to implement the program. More.

"The Wadi El Taym women's co-op was born to succeed," the cooperative’s Lina Bahmad tells visitors to her business. She adds, “Where there is a will there is always a way.” The Wadi El Taym specialty food cooperative was founded in 2004 by a group of women in a beautiful rural area of Lebanon called Rachaya El Wadi. Before forming the cooperative, the women were selling homemade products or specialty food items individually, and their profits were limited by the high cost of raw materials, inefficiency in production, poor packaging, short shelf life, and lack of technical know-how and financial facilities. These enterprising women soon recognized the need for organization to achieve economies of scale and obtain professional assistance to survive and grow. They got the assistance they needed from ACDI/VOCA's USAID-funded project Action for Sustainable Agro-Industry in Lebanon and other international organizations. More.

In the spring of 2007, ACDI/VOCA conducted a study of the sheep and wool industry in Kurdistan and the feasibility of redeveloping agricultural and wool industries there. Investigators looked at the production and processing components, from raising sheep to making carpets. They found that the agricultural expertise, government policies and support for local producers necessary for the reestablishment of the wool industry are not currently in place. The investigators’ findings and recommendations on creating the conditions needed for a successful return to small ruminant farming and wool processing in the region are detailed in the report, "Opportunities for Agricultural Redevelopment in Kurdistan Regional Government: Sheep and Wool Production,"(PDF 2 MB). It was funded by USAID through the Community Action Program, which ACDI/VOCA implements in Iraq with CHF International, International Relief and Development and MercyCorps. Click here to read the full report (PDF 2 MB). More.

ACDI/VOCA Gives New Life to Rural Bolivian Kindergarten School

Chulumani is an extremely isolated municipality in the center of Bolivia’s traditional, legal coca-growing region in the Yungas. With most of the rural population living in poverty, the municipality was unable to maintain its local kindergarten. Without the funds needed to conduct routine maintenance, the roof of the kindergarten’s building fell into serious disrepair and presented the risk of completely collapsing onto the students. ACDI/VOCA led an initiative to renovate the Chulumani kindergarten as part of its USAID-funded Integrated Community Development Fund project, which targets the Yungas and Chapare regions. ACDI/VOCA’s renovations were extensive and included improvements to three existing classrooms, electrical rewiring, and the installation of a new roof and better flooring. In addition to the structural improvements, ACDI/VOCA restored the degraded playground and equipped the school with desks, chairs and tables. More.

The Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC) recently released a new paper titled “Cooperatives: Pathways to Economic, Democratic and Social Development in the Global Economy.” Dr. Sue Schram, ACDI/VOCA vice president for Outreach and Cooperative Programs, was instrumental in the development of the paper during her tenure as chair of the OCDC Development Committee. The paper highlights how cooperatives have made and continue to make instrumental contributions to transformational international development via three primary pathways:

• economic pathway—alleviating poverty and stimulating economic growth
• democratic pathway—providing a framework for democratic participation
• social pathway—building social capital and trust (including prior to and after conflict); bridging ethnic, religious and political divides; and providing social services (especially addressing HIV/AIDS)

More.

In 2005 with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, ACDI/VOCA helped launch a radio station run entirely by women in northern Iraq. The radio station also received support from German and Spanish NGOs. After just two years the station is enjoying great success. It has also established itself as a credible source and an important outlet for public discourse. The station has also become involved in a number of social movements and community initiatives. From helping the local community action group identify projects for ACDI/VOCA's ICAP II program, to participating in the community of Iraqi radio broadcasters, the radio station’s reach has gone far beyond simple broadcasting. More.

On Friday, October 26, Ambassador Jacques Paul Klein, former U.N. under secretary general and major general USAF, retired, briefed an audience of over 40 ACDI/VOCA staff members on his experiences as leader of the U.N. operation in Liberia from 2003 to 2005. In July 2003 the U.N. and U.S. military were called in to intervene in the Second Liberian Civil War. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan asked Ambassador Klein, who had served as special representative of the secretary general and coordinator of U.N. operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to serve in the same position in Liberia. Ambassador Klein described how the U.N. mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was able to help end hostilities that, since the beginning of the First Liberian Civil War in 1989, had claimed over 270,000 lives and displaced nearly 1 million people. More.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf released the World Development Report 2008 in Washington on Oct. 19. The report calls for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries and warns that the sector must be placed at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized. Highlights:

• While 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas in developing countries, a mere 4 percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, a region heavily reliant on agriculture for overall growth, public spending for farming is also only 4 percent of total government spending and the sector is still taxed at relatively high levels.
• For the poorest people, GDP growth originating in agriculture is about four times more effective in raising incomes of extremely poor people than GDP growth originating outside the sector.

The report can be found here.

We Need You

Long-term Overseas and Consultant Positions: Current positions we're looking to fill include the following:

Francophone West Africa: Chief of Party

Cape Verde: Financial Analyst/Training Specialist

Cape Verde: Microfinance Specialist

Russia: Strategic Planning Specialist

Mali: Short-Term Experts: Organizational Training for Potato, Rice, Mango, Tomato and/or Shallot Producer Organizations

Short-Term Experts in the Oil Industry: Logistics, Business Support Services, Drilling, Operations Support

In addition, we're looking for applicants with expertise in

• conflict-affected regions
• infrastructure development
• horticulture (fruit and vegetables)
• specialty crops (cocoa, coffee, spices)
• cereals
• value chain or subsector analysis and value chain development

Please visit our website for more career opportunities.

Volunteer Positions: We need volunteers on an ongoing basis for short-term (typically 2 to 3 weeks) assignments who have the following:

• horticulture, specifically relating to tomatoes and fruit trees
• dairy production and processing
• veterinary medicine and reproductive health
• strategic planning for ag associations and cooperatives

Current open volunteer positions include the following:

Azerbaijan: Improvement of Cheese Production—technical assistance in cheese production. Two weeks, December 2007.

Azerbaijan: Poultry Broiler Management—technical assistance in improvement of poultry management. Two weeks, January 2008.

Tajikistan: Support of Water User Association—technical assistance in assessing water and irrigation system management. Four weeks, February 2008.

Ethiopia: Financial Management Information Systems—specialist experienced in financial management and computer networking (LAN/WAN) and system design to assess an existing network and design an appropriate system. Three weeks, January 2008.

Russia: STATISTICA Neural Networks—specialist in data analysis software to train local university faculty in updated planning procedures and processing of experimental data (neural networks), milk processing technology and milk analysis methods. Two weeks, January or February 2008.

Rwanda: Food Security Assessment—specialist in food security programs and new program design with familiarity with Title II and USAID requirements. Three weeks, timing flexible.

Please visit our website for more volunteer opportunities and information.