Board Member Patti Garamendi is greeted by local Cape Verdeans while on the board's trip to Cape Verde and Senegal.

IFC Helps Bai Tushum Transform into Commercial Bank

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement to provide advisory services to the Bai Tushum Financial Foundation, which was founded by ACDI/VOCA in 2000 and is now one of Kyrgyzstan's leading microlending institutions. This support will help the institution transition into a commercial bank and expand its financial services to reach small Kyrgyz entrepreneurs. This agreement follows a $2.2 million IFC financing package provided last year to Bai Tushum. Under the new agreement, IFC will assist with the company's transition as well as wrap up work it began in 2005 to help Bai Tushum develop its leasing operations, policies and procedures. More.

ACDI/VOCA Opens Office in West Africa

ACDI/VOCA has opened a West Africa regional office in Accra, Ghana. Although ACDI/VOCA has periodically provided assistance to agricultural cooperatives in Ghana since 1974, this is the first time we have established an office in the country. It will focus on improving business development, value chain and credit services and on exploring agricultural policy issues, including land use and land rights in West Africa on behalf of various donors and governments. It will be headed by Senior Technical Director for Enterprise Development & Competitiveness Olaf Kula, who has 28 years of experience in micro and small enterprise development, rural competitiveness, agribusiness and financial services. More.

The Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development presented its 2007 Special Service Award to ACDI/VOCA board member Dr. Mortimer Neufville at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on June 4. The award recognizes Neufville's lifelong commitment to international agriculture and the ideals of the association. The award presentation highlighted Neufville's advanced degrees in animal science, his leadership role in several land-grant universities, his current position as executive vice president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and his dedication to ACDI/VOCA and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research/IITA, for which he served as chairman of the board. More.

ACDI/VOCA and the Louis Berger Group published a new paper on microLINKS called "Integrating Micro and Small Enterprises into Value Chains—Evidence from Guatemalan Horticulture and Handicrafts." This study, developed under ACDI/VOCA's $2.5 million Accelerating Microenterprise Advancement Project Business Development Services (AMAP BDS) Knowledge and Practice Task Order, uses in-depth field interviews, a survey of buyers and producers and a bottom-up perspective to investigate the nature, determinants and consequences of micro and small enterprise (MSE) participation in the textile handicrafts and high-value horticulture value chains in Guatemala. More.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is loaning Frontiers LLC, a Kyrgyz wholesale lender founded and owned by ACDI/VOCA, $1 million to support micro and small enterprise development in Central Asia. Frontiers serves microfinance institutions (MFIs) by providing access to loan capital for on-lending. In addition to the loan, EBRD will provide $100,000 of technical cooperation funds to help develop Frontiers's institutional capacity. With the EBRD loan, Frontiers will be able to secure its position as a leading wholesale provider of finance to micro and small enterprises in Central Asia, where demand for finance is still much larger than supply. In addition to lending capital to MFIs, Frontiers also extends capacity- and transparency-building services to its clients which tend to be smaller microfinance institutions and larger credit unions. More.

Calling them "citizens of the world" and praising their enthusiasm for boarding planes destined for places they might not be able to spell, Chairman of the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) David Norman honored volunteers April 19 at USAID headquarters in Washington. ACDI/VOCA’s contingent of volunteers came in for more than their share of honors. Damon Szymanski, of Pulaski, Wisconsin, was the sole recipient of the President's Call to Service Award. While the award required a minimum of 4,000 hours of service over a lifetime, Szymanski has logged 19,059 hours over 77 projects spanning 17 years. Other ACDI/VOCA awardees were Harold Handley and Kendall Mau, who both received Bronze Awards, and Beth Oliver, who received Silver. In addition, Oliver was also among the select group of eight volunteers who received the VEGA Service Impact Award for her outstanding accomplishments in fostering economic growth. "There are many more volunteers who could, and should, have received awards," said ACDI/VOCA Director of Volunteer Programs Diana Roach. "We appreciate the opportunity to properly and publicly thank our volunteers for all they do." More.

On April 16 Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev awarded the Director of the Rural Credit Cooperation Development Foundation (RCCDF) Vladimir Pahomov, with a Stolypin Award for excellence in credit and investment in agriculture. The award recognized the achievements of RCCDF, which partners with ACDI/VOCA in promoting rural credit cooperatives. By tradition, the award is given to an individual, but Pahomov accepted it on behalf of RCCDF as an institution. ACDI/VOCA-Russia Chief of Party Michael Harvey said, "As USAID has provided and continues to provide critical support for cooperative development in Russia, and as USDA provided the initial loan capital that RCCDF administered through the Russian American Lending Program and continues to be active in the life of RCCDF, I am sure that this award is good news for all." More.

ACDI/VOCA Spurs Private Sector Development in Serbia

A recent survey examining the success of its USAID-funded Community Revitalization through Democratic Action (CRDA) project in Serbia found significant impact, with business owners indicating satisfaction with what they have achieved and optimism about further business success. CRDA's grant project, which focused on developing private sector enterprises, targeted marginal groups who traditionally hold unfavorable positions in the labor market—women, refugees, long-term unemployed persons and those unemployed older than 35—in order to help these vulnerable groups develop enterprises. Along with reducing unemployment, the project aimed to transfer businesses from the gray economy to legal operations. More.

Running on the slogan, "Your choice for better health and development," Dr. Moh Shan Abdulwahid, a former ACDI/VOCA employee, was elected vice mayor of Sibutu municipality in May in Tawi-Tawi province of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in southern Philippines. After a four-year tenure as an ACDI/VOCA health advisor and advocate to local government units, Dr. Abdulwahid embraced the opportunity to improve health policies more effectively from within the government. He will now be able to give the objective of building and sustaining healthy families in the region an offiicial imprimatur. More.

ACDI/VOCA's USAID-funded Action for Sustainable Agro-Industry in Lebanon (ASAIL) project launched the country's first cheese festival, as part of the annual hotel, restaurant and catering show, which was attended by more than 15,000 visitors. The effort was part of a larger effort by ASAIL to help cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to expand economic opportunities in the agroindustry sector. The event featured over 30 SMEs and cooperatives that produce cheese and cheese products. As a result of the event, participating small businesses were able to sell products worth $8,000 and network with more than 100 business providers to make promising business networks. More.

ACDI/VOCA has launched an initiative to promote ratings of Azeri nonbank institutions. Ratings provide an objective and well-recognized assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of financial institutions and are a critical tool for promoting operational transparency and attracting foreign investments. As of April 2007 only four banks and six nonbank credit institutions in Azerbaijan have been rated by specialized international rating agencies. ACDI/VOCA's rating fund, an initiative of the USAID-funded $6.4 million Azerbaijan SME Support through Financial Sector Development project, will enable microfinance institutions, rural banks and credit unions to obtain ratings on a cost-share basis. More.

Ethiopian Livestock Markets Inaugurated

On April 13 ACDI/VOCA's Pastoralist Livelihoods Initiative inaugurated its first livestock market facilities. The two new marketplaces in the Borena Zone of the Oromia Region will form an important link in the livestock market value chain by creating a central business forum for pastoralists and offering them the option of holding animals until the next market day to boost bargaining position. ACDI/VOCA-Ethiopia Country Representative Brutawit Dawit Abdi, Commissioner of the Oromia Pastoralist Area Development Commission Habtamu Teka and Deputy Chief of the Business Environment, Agriculture and Trade Office of USAID John Stamm attended the inauguration ceremony along with pastoralist clan elders, livestock traders and local government representatives. More.

AgVANTAGE Joins Georgian Effort to Prevent Avian Flu

ACDI/VOCA's AgVANTAGE project held a conference May 3 to discuss Georgia's avian influenza (AI) preparedness and response program. It was an effort to both review progress and build momentum for the nationwide effort that AgVANTAGE has helped to coordinate. Opening the event, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Aleko Tsintsadze stated, "The avian influenza virus is a major global challenge which threatens the livelihoods of poultry farmers, economic growth and countries' overall sustainable development." The first case of AI in Georgia was reported in February 2006, but prompt measures localized the disease and eradicated the threat, and no human cases were reported. Through the AgVANTAGE project, ACDI/VOCA assists the national government, donor organizations and commercial poultry farms to counter the threat, raise public awareness and prepare for an effective response. More.

Guroff Speaks on Monetization at International Food Aid Conference

As a panelist at the recent International Food Aid Conference, ACDI/VOCA Senior Vice President for Food Security and Specialty Crops Avram "Buzz" Guroff gave a presentation on ACDI/VOCA's Rwanda PL 480 Title II program. About 700 representatives from USAID, USDA, NGOs and farming, shipping and commodity interests attended the three-day conference, held annually in Kansas City, Mo., to address food insecurity which affects 850 million people worldwide daily. Addressing the panel's topic, U.S. capacity for and leadership in innovative capacity-building food aid, Guroff shared the success of ACDI/VOCA's five-year Rwanda program in helping beneficiaries attain food security and increase economic opportunity through funds provided by commodity monetization. Guroff said, "The Rwanda program presents an interesting case of how monetization is used to generate development funds and as a development tool itself." More.

Cambodia Value Chain Workshop Held

ACDI/VOCA, in collaboration with USAID and QED, organized the Mar. 12-6 Cambodia Value Chain Development Workshop in Phnom Penh. The workshop brought together USAID staff and partners to share lessons learned in implementation of value chain projects focusing on economic growth with poverty reduction. Forty participants attended from Cambodia, Bangladesh, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Angola and Madagascar. They discussed key concepts, tools and guidelines for value chain development initiatives, including strategies for addressing bottlenecks, promoting private sector ownership of a competitiveness process and catalyzing improved performance. Olaf Kula and Banu Akin of ACDI/VOCA's Enterprise Development and Competitiveness portfolio presented and facilitated sessions, and introduced a new online community of value chain implementers and researchers: the Global Value Chain Learning Network. The network is a forum for donors, researchers, policymakers and development practitioners committed to understanding how market systems, i.e., value chains and the factors that affect their performance, can accelerate economic growth and poverty reduction. The forum, open to all who would like to participate, will allow practitioners and researches to connect in "real time" in discussions on best practices. More.

We Need You: Industry Technical Persons

For Long-term Overseas and Consultant Positions: As ACDI/VOCA continues to evolve into a provider of technical expertise, the skill sets of our senior technical advisors are increasingly important. They tend to reflect strong experience, often from the private sector, in highly specific areas, e.g., propagation and post-harvest handling of the MD-2 pineapple. Recently the most important areas for us have been:

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

We have a particular need for high-level candidates with agricultural market development experience.

For more information, please visit our website for more career opportunities.

For Short-term Volunteer Positions: In addition to the above, we have additional needs for volunteers with the following skills:

• horticulture, specifically relating to tomatoes and fruit trees
• dairy production and processing
• poultry production and processing
• strategic planning for ag associations and cooperatives

For more information, please visit our website for more volunteer opportunities.