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Blooming
Entrepreneurship
ACDI/VOCA
volunteer Patty Carpenter reports: "I have great news to report
and would love to share it. In November, ComArt, the cooperative
that I have been working with, thru ACDI/VOCA, delivered 400
hand-woven alpaca throws under my company name, Continuum Home,
Inc., to Bloomingdale's! We are very proud of this achievement."
Carpenter, a 25-year veteran fashion and accessory designer and
merchandiser, has made three visits since 2000 to strengthen ComArt’s product lines and corporate image.
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"Can You Hear the Price Now?"
 The
BBC recently covered ACDI/VOCA’s innovative use of cell phone Short
Message Service (SMS) technology that gives Ugandan farmers access to
commodity prices (see Global Connections-May 2003 for more information).
Coupled with a new mobile phone network, as well as radio and newspaper
coverage, this system helps farmers determine when and where to sell
their crops and gives them negotiating power or at least the means to
avoid middlemen. ACDI/VOCA’s success in organizing cooperatives,
providing value-added processing and training farmers in business skills
means that Ugandan farmers are better prepared than ever to take
advantage of accurate price information. The same technology is part of
an ACDI/VOCA maize development project in Kenya.
(back to top).
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 Train of Wheat Six Miles Long
Over
20 years ago ACDI/VOCA began monetizing donated food commodities to
generate development funds and now conducts food security programs in
eight nations worldwide. Recognized as a worldwide leader in commodity
management, ACDI/VOCA manage commodity for NGOs such as CARE, Catholic
Relief Services and World Vision. In fact, the wheat that ACDI/VOCA has
monetized in Uganda since 1997 would fill a train six miles long!
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Volunteer Featured in Tulsa World
The newspaper’s December 28 edition had a story on the “ambassadors
of compassion” who venture overseas under the administration’s
Volunteers for Prosperity program. The article praised the “skilled
American professionals who are volunteering their time to bring hope
and prosperity to many corners of the globe.” It said: “Financial
advisers and computer specialists, doctors and nurses, and teachers
and engineers...spend a few weeks or months helping people in
developing countries through Volunteers for Prosperity…Many
organizations, such as ACDI/VOCA, support volunteers to help farmers
in poor nations. A farmer from Nebraska might be asked to help a
farmer in Bangladesh to improve his harvest production or to teach a
new technology. One volunteer, Jack Moulton, said, ‘I found that no
matter where I have been on ACDI/VOCA assignments, all farmers in
the world speak the same unspoken language, and you don't need a
translator to understand that language.... We can help supply hope
for their future and the future of their families.’"
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 Partnership with ChevronTexaco
In December ACDI/VOCA signed a contract
with ChevronTexaco to develop the local agricultural market in the
Cabinda province of Angola and at the same time provide a better diet
for the many oil workers living in the vicinity of a large ChevronTexaco
terminal complex. ACDI/VOCA plans to refurbish poultry feeding houses to
create hydroponic greenhouses which will allow for production during the
rainy season (Nov.-April) and help to meet the demand for fresh produce.
The project is being conducted under the Global Development Alliance,
USAID’s effort to encourage public-private development partnerships, and
will be jointly funded by AID and the oil giant.
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 ACDI/VOCA
Co-Sponsors Capitol Hill Forum on HIV/AIDS and International Agricultural
Development
OOn January 27,
representatives from Congress, government agencies and numerous NGOs and
private sector groups gathered on Capitol Hill to discuss the role of
agricultural development in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Organized by the
Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development (AIARD)
and co-sponsored by ACDI/VOCA and several other groups, the forum
focused on the relationship between agricultural development,
undernutrition and HIV/AIDS. Among the speakers were U.S. Representative
Doug Bereuter and USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios. Berueuter, a
longtime supporter of international agricultural development, asserted,
“We must look beyond our borders when we make agricultural policy” and
recognize the effect HIV/AIDS has had on agriculture worldwide, not only
in “taking those who plow the land but also their know-how.”
Administrator Natsios urged all participants to take up the president’s
challenge to fight HIV/AIDS. ACDI/VOCA is currently implementing several
programs that address the overlap between HIV/AIDS, nutrition and
agriculture.
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Democracy
Produces Better Management and Utility Savings
Assisted by a grant from an ACDI/VOCA program, the
Eldana housing association in Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan, has brokered a
process whereby over 400 apartment owners have signed democratic
contracts with their management board. These contracts, which define
mutual rights and responsibilities in housing management and
maintenance, represent an unprecedented participation of residents in
housing management in Kazakhstan. As participants in ACDI/VOCA’s Community Action Investment Program, funded by USAID, the association
identified priorities for the seven apartment buildings in the complex
and arranged for heating meters to be installed to control costs and
save energy. CAIP will provide funds 70 percent of the cost and the
community will contribute the rest, which works out to about $10 per
household. The CAIP grant was complemented by the technical expertise of
a local consumer rights group, also supported by USAID, which conducted
a one-day workshop on heat-saving technologies.
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MicroStart Stopped with a Bang
 In
Egypt, ACDI/VOCA’s highly successful three-year MicroStart Project ended
on November 30. The program was a model both for the provision of credit
services to the working poor and for the capacity-building of local
financial institutions. All three target microfinance institutions
achieved 100 percent operational and financial sustainability. They
disbursed loans to more than 5,600 clients—62 percent of them women—with
a 97.9 percent on-time repayment rate. Also in Egypt, the Dairy
Directive Project has now leveraged 4,821 minutes of free TV air time
for its nationwide public awareness campaign, providing a total in-kind
value of $5.9 million. This air time has been donated by all eight local
Egyptian TV channels that broadcast DDP’s TV spots. To date these spots
have been viewed by more than 27 million Egyptians, out of a total
population of 70 million.
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Microfinance Experience Captured
The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group
and the world's largest multilateral source of finance for private
sector projects in developing countries, recently asked ACDI/VOCA’s CAMFA project in Uzbekistan to document its microfinance success. ACDI/VOCA’s
microfinance institutions there finance small-scale entrepreneurs who
are not serviced by the formal banking sector. A non-collateralized,
"peer-group" methodology is used whereby a group of 3-10 people
guarantee each other’s loans. Clients start by taking small loans, and
as they repay their initial loan and move on to the next cycle, they
gain access to larger ones. Capturing ACDI/VOCA’s experience is part of
IFC’s Microfinance Legislation Development project, funded by USAID, an
effort to assess Uzbekistan’s legal environment and draft new
legislation to open doors for the industry to grow and diversify, better
serving the needs of its small-scale entrepreneurs.
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Hoist a Cup (of Coffee)!
During December, the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union sold 180
metric tons of Sidamo Grade 2 washed coffee to Starbucks through the
international broker VolCafe at $.82 per pound, fetching a total of US
$325,399; 36 metric tons of Fair Trade Sidamo Coffee at $1.26 per pound
to OREBI, France, fetching US $100,000; 18 metric tons of Fair Trade
Sidamo coffee to VolCafe at $1.26 per pound fetching US $50,000; and 18
metric tons of Fair Trade Sidamo Coffee to LOBODIS, France, at $1.26 per
pound fetching US $50,000—which totals 252 metric tons bringing in a
total of US $525,399 to the union and smallholder coffee farmers
assisted by the Agricultural Cooperatives in Ethiopia (ACE) project.
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 ACDI/VOCA currently needs
volunteer experts for the following assignments:
331395, Russia:
The Yaroslaval
Broiler Company needs a volunteer for practical recommendations on
improving efficiency in commercial broiler production operations.
Duration: 1.5 weeks with the start date negotiable.
331409, Russia: The Ladoga Poultry Products Company seeks a volunteer
with experience in poultry processing and developing soy-enhanced
poultry feeds. Duration: 2 weeks with the start date negotiable.
331431, Russia: Vpered Horse Raising Company seeks a horse specialist
with experience in year-round herd management, animal care, feed
rations, breeding selection, forage production, disease control and
personnel scheduling. Duration: 1.5 weeks beginning March 14, 2004.
331432, Russia: A Russian agricultural cooperative seeks a specialist
with practical experience in short-term production loans, production
credit organization, lending decisions and loan administration. The
volunteer will develop credit policy and procedures and prepare cash
flow projections. Duration: 16 days beginning March 14, 2004.
332141, Azerbaijan: A volunteer has been requested to assist a wool
processing plant with technical assistance in modern wool processing and
packing, as well as Western management techniques. Duration: 2 weeks in
March 2004.
332134, Georgia: A volunteer is needed to conduct training in fresh
fruit (apples, peaches, plums, apricot, cherries and pears) handling and
storage. The consultant must be familiar with the BREMA International
B.V., or similar refrigeration equipment. Duration: 2 weeks as soon as
can be scheduled.
269021, Eritrea: A volunteer with experience in onion breeding, trial
design and crossing methods is needed to train Eritrean onion
researchers/breeders. Duration: 2 weeks starting March/April.
409003, Tanzania: A volunteer with experience in setting price and
organizing marketing for raw seaweed in either the Philippines or
Indonesia is needed to assist in marketing seaweed (cottonii). Duration:
3 weeks with the start date negotiable.
418007, Uganda: An expert is needed to assist a local NGO in conducting
a pilot project to introduce a warehouse receipts program to smallholder
farmers. The volunteer will develop a model with an operations manual
and provide staff training. Duration: 3-4 weeks starting in March 2004.
If you or a colleague is
interested in these assignments, please contact our recruitment
department at:
volunteer@acdivoca.org.
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