ACDI/VOCA Reaches Financial Services Milestone:
$1 Billion in Loans Disbursed |
| |
 |
ACDI/VOCA works to provide small loans to individuals and businesses that other microfinance institutions miss, including farmers like Cholpon, who used her loans to expand her farm and increase her annual income of $150 fivefold. |
This month ACDI/VOCA and its partner financial institutions hit a significant milestone: Disbursements topped $1 billion in loans helping to create new economic opportunities for people who cannot access commercial credit—rural residents, small farmers, and owners of microenterprises and small businesses.
"Increasing access to financial services is about helping more people grow their businesses and increase their incomes," says Fred Smith, ACDI/VOCA senior managing director of financial services. Reaching $1 billion total credit extended represents more than 625,000 loans to small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs—nearly 40 percent women, he adds.
Working with farmers and rural communities for more than 45 years, ACDI/VOCA understands from the ground up how important credit is to expanding peoples' economic opportunities. ACDI/VOCA experts like Smith also know firsthand the varied challenges institutions face in delivering financial services to farmers.
"We have helped develop more than 20 financial institutions over the past two decades that help small-scale farmers and enterprises expand their businesses in a variety of ways," Smith says. "Today, nine of these financial institutions we founded serve more than 100,000 customers with combined portfolios of more than $200 million. Now that's a sustainable return on investment." More.
Related Stories:
 |
ACDI/VOCA is All A-Twitter
We're now on Twitter! Follow us to learn about the latest happenings, fun facts, new job opportunities and more. |
|
|
|
|
ACDI/VOCA Observes World Food Day
This year's World Food Day caps off an extraordinary year both for U.S. policy and international developments related to global food security. ACDI/VOCA President Carl Leonard says, "Stimulated by the global food crisis, investments in agriculture and cooperative development are being restored to the high priority that is warranted to ensure that people have enough food to eat and a way to earn a living—cornerstones of global peace and security."
He adds, "We know from 45 years of experience, however, that significant challenges remain. The road between commitment and action, especially when it comes to allocating financial resources, is long and difficult."
Looking ahead to 2050, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization recently reported that food production will need to increase 70 percent to feed the world's growing population. Meeting this demand will necessitate new approaches that consider other factors such as climate change, which threatens land and water resources and biodiversity in many regions. More.
Related Stories:
|
Filipino Victims of Typhoon Ondoy Receive Much-Needed Emergency Help
USAID tapped ACDI/VOCA last month to join other implementers in providing health education to nearly 3,000 typhoon victims temporarily sheltered in Pasig City, Philippines. ACDI/VOCA conducted health education activities that complemented emergency assistance provided by U.S. military health personnel under the Medical Civic Action Program (MEDCAPS). Help included general health and trauma counseling, breastfeeding information, diarrhea management, basic hygiene and sanitation, nutrition/emergency nutrition, and response to respiratory distress.
Materials developed under the the Sustainable Health Improvements through Empowerment and Local Development (SHIELD) program were disseminated at local centers. ACDI/VOCA is a subgrantee to Helen Keller International in the SHIELD program. More.
|
Rice Visits Microfinance Beneficiary in Iraq
 U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and acting U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Robert Ford visited a kebab restaurant owned and run by an Al-Thiqa borrower while on their recent trip to Erbil, Iraq. The borrower has taken two loans from the ACDI/VOCA-affiliated microfinance institution to expand his business, which also includes a pizzeria next door.
ACDI/VOCA Chief of Party Nadia Namken hosted the officials and gave them a brief introduction to ACDI/VOCA and Al-Thiqa's relationship since ACDI/VOCA founded it in 2004. Al-Thiqa is operationally sustainable and has 2,400 active clients in Erbil. More.
|
|
|
Success for Youth in Post-Conflict Settings Demands Questioning What We Know
Investing in youth is crucial to rebuilding societies in conflict and post-conflict settings like Liberia and Iraq, but success depends on aid workers challenging their assumptions about how best to do so, say ACDI/VOCA experts who presented at the fall Making Cents International Global Youth Conference, in Washington, D.C.
"Success in disrupted environments demands that we question what we think we know about youth and what works for youth,” says Sally Iadarola, managing director of the community development practice area at ACDI/VOCA, “and that includes education and employment."
ACDI/VOCA's programs in disrupted areas, including the Agriculture for Children’s Empowerment program in Liberia and the Community Action Program in Iraq, work with youth to rebuild local economies by helping to reestablish communication and trust, and restoring the commercial relationships and personal and institutional networks that support the local economy. More.
Related Stories:
|
Results of In-depth West Africa Rice Value Chain Analysis Published
Over the past eight months, ACDI/VOCA has led extensive and rigorous research on rice value chains in West Africa. Commissioned by USAID’s Africa Bureau as part of the Global Food Security Response, the study is unusual in its scope and depth. Months of desk research informed five in-country value chain analyses conducted by ACDI/VOCA, DAI and J.E. Austin Associates in Liberia, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and Nigeria. The studies followed a common research protocol developed by ACDI/VOCA to ensure that the key questions of how to improve value chain competitiveness and increase food security would be answered.
This study marks the first systematic attempt by USAID to use the value chain approach to identify interventions aimed at enhancing food security. More.
|
Best Coffee Competition from Alternative Development Projects Held in Colombia
 A recent ACDI/VOCA-launched initiative culminated in a coffee competition at the Expo Especiales Exhibition in Ibague, Colombia. The competition's goal was to recognize smallholder Colombian farmers' efforts to forsake illegal agricultural activities and instead produce high-quality coffees. The competition served to identify the best coffees produced by growers participating in alternative development projects conceived and promoted through the Colombian Presidential Agency Acción Social. ACDI/VOCA and ARD have designed and implemented these USAID–supported programs with the active participation of UNODC (United Nations Office for Drug and Crime). The National Federation of Coffee Growers also played an important role in organizing this competition. Farmers submitted more than 150 samples; 56 made it to the semi-final round and were then narrowed down to just 10 samples. The final samples were cupped by international and national judges, who followed the protocols of the Coffee Quality Institute and SCAA. This competition not only recognized the coffee growers' achievements, but also gave them the opportunity to network with international buyers and exporters. More.
|
 |
New Sweet Potato Variety Helps Haitian Families Weather Hurricane Season
 June to October brings both opportunity and risk to Haitian farmers. It is the country's second agricultural season, but it is also hurricane season, which brings the possibility of strong winds, impassable roads and lost crops. Under such conditions, food reserves can collapse quickly with children bearing the brunt of possible famine.
ACDI/VOCA has worked with the Ministry of Agriculture's National Program for Food Security to identify and introduce a short-term variety of sweet potato in the four southeast communes most affected by last year’s storms. ACDI/VOCA found that sweet potato, since it is grown underground, is less vulnerable to the effects of hurricanes. A short-term variety also can be harvested as early as 2 ½ months after planting, compared to a local variety requiring six months.
As part of Haiti's hurricane-preparedness strategy, ACDI/VOCA and local farmers worked to harvest the new variety of sweet potatoes during the 2009 peak hurricane season. Farmer Paul Solvert was pleased with results, saying, "It has been a while since I have seen potato production in this area. This year, it is true, we have not yet been hit by a cyclone and the rain has become more infrequent. But I was able to get a fair amount from my potato garden, which allows me to feed my family."
During a meeting on environmental awareness and education, Solvert showed off a bag of his freshly harvested potatoes to illustrate his success. To meet demand, ACDI/VOCA will get cuttings from current plots and distribute them to about 750 producers this month. By the end of the 2010 hurricane season, the program expects to expand this distribution to nearly 5,000 growers across seven Southeast communes. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
RSS