June 7, 2006

ACDI/VOCA Board Visits Serbia

Vern McGinnis, the chairman of ACDI/VOCA’s board of directors and Bruce Johnson, a member of the board, traveled to Serbia to meet with staff, officials and project participants. The five-day trip represented the first time in recent history the board has visited overseas operations.

“We chose well when we selected Serbia for this groundbreaking trip,” said McGinnis of Bloomington, Ill., who is vice president for strategic planning and corporate services for GROWMARK Inc. “The Community Revitalization through Democratic Action program in Serbia is one of ACDI/VOCA’s flagship projects, and it was extremely gratifying to receive the commendations of the USAID mission director, a mayor, an agency director, a senior researcher at a prestigious ag research institute the heads of numerous co-ops and community boards and so many others. The impact of the project was everywhere.”

Johnson, of West Point, Va., represents Southern States Cooperative. He and McGinnis were accompanied by ACDI/VOCA president Carl Leonard and chief of party Gene Neill on various stops in Belgrade and in and around Kragujevac in central Serbia where the project is concentrated.

ACDI/VOCA’s portion of CRDA is a five-year $40 million USAID-funded initiative that promotes democratic community involvement in identifying and addressing economic and social needs. Under the project 77 community boards in 22 municipalities determine priorities through town hall meetings and other democratic methods and take concerted, effective action. The communities also contribute as a matching share 25 percent of the funding.

As Neill put it, “The spirited involvement and commitment of the communities are almost more important than project accomplishments.”

The board representatives witnessed a variety of activities conducted under the project including a distribution of purebred heifers to co-op members, the controlled atmosphere storage of apples, the operation of a youth employment handicraft center and a thriving open-air food market.

Infrastructure, while an early CRDA priority, has been supplanted by job creation. The municipality of Kragujevac, a solid project partner in 150 activities, has even contributed $80,000 from a tight city budget to fuel entrepreneurship after seeing the effectiveness of the project’s mini-grant employment activity.

Reflecting on the project, Kragujevac's mayor Veroljub Stevanovic told the board members, “We expected a lot. We got a lot.” He also said that in his town Serbian impressions of the U.S. are changing, and added that it was largely due to the efforts of ACDI/VOCA. He said, “This is not flattery—it is fact.” His impressions are born out by the findings of a Gallup poll conducted in the region by the U.S. State Department.

ACDI/VOCA has so far completed over 1,000 activities. They all share the goal of improving lives through self-engagement and cooperation. Further, they emphasize gender and ethnic diversity. Over 1,000 new businesses have been created so far, only a couple of which have failed.

At a dedication ceremony for a new regional development agency facility which has received project funding and advice, McGinnis reported on his impressions to a government minister, ambassadors from the Czech Republic and the European Commission, the head of the Operation Center of the European Agency for Reconstruction and approximately 75 other dignitaries and guests. He said, “One person, one family, one business at a time, ACDI/VOCA’s work is improving Serbian quality of life, instilling democratic values and boosting productivity. I will take back to the U.S. the message that our investment is working, and it is worth it.”

Since 1963 ACDI/VOCA has worked in 145 countries in enterprise development, agribusiness systems, community development and financial services. It currently operates in 40 countries implementing approximately 90 projects funded by USAID, USDA, the World Bank, regional development banks, UNDP and other sources.