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What's Inside:
News from HQ: ACDI/VOCA board meeting
ACDI/VOCA strengthens value chain approach

CredAgro lends $10 million

Success of Ethiopian coffee cooperative documented
ACDI/VOCA staff share technical expertise
Harvard recognizes USAID Global Development Alliance

Tawi-Tawi medical mission outfitted by ACDI/VOCA
Retreat focuses on technical specialties

ACDI/VOCA COO testifies before Congress on the value of food aid

CRDA Serbia staffer praised by USAID
Recruitment Spotlight

Success of Ethiopian coffee cooperative documented

ACDI/VOCA's work with Ethiopia's Oromiya Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU) was cited in a London School of Economics dissertation on the cooperative, which has enabled small and medium-sized Ethiopian farmers to organize, upgrade production and market globally. The study, conducted by Alisha Myers, stated, "Capacity-building support from the Regional Cooperative Bureau, NGOs such as ACDI/VOCA and Oxfam, and changes in government policy are important ingredients of their success." Myers found that in 2003 ACDI/VOCA's guidance in training and strategizing helped OCFCU distribute over $4 million in total dividends to 23 primary cooperatives and in 2004 increase its credit line to $1.2 million due to a 100 percent loan repayment rate. In 2003 alone, the OCFCU sold almost 2,300 MT of coffee valued at over $5.5 million.


 Harvard recognizes USAID Global Development Alliance

USAID's Global Development Alliance (GDA) was selected as one of the top 18 finalists for a creative government initiative award by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. In three years, GDA formed almost 300 alliances and invested $1 billion of USAID funding, with matching private sector funds of $3 billion. ACDI/VOCA is a participant in GDA efforts to join public and private sectors to improve lives in Indonesia. ACDI/VOCA implemented the SUCCESS Alliance there with Masterfoods (formerly M&M Mars) and the World Cocoa Foundation to help smallholder cocoa farmers improve their crop and protect it against the infestation of the cocoa pod borer, which had destroyed up to 40 percent of the lucrative Sulawesi island crop. In 2002, the SUCCESS Alliance was awarded a USAID-GDA grant as a follow-up to ACDI/VOCA's USDA-funded cocoa activities, which included farmer training and research to improve farmer practices and reduce environmental degradation. 37,000 SUCCESS-trained farmers have increased their incomes by an average of $541 per year, an 80 percent increase over the per capital GDP in Indonesia. Crop losses have also dropped by nearly 30 percent. Ensuring a market for the smallholder farmers and a high-quality supply of cocoa beans for chocolate companies, Hershey's, ADM and Masterfoods have agreed to purchase at least $10 million per year in cocoa beans from Sulawesi.


 Retreat focuses on technical specialties

An April offsite meeting brought together 30 ACDI/VOCA staff members, some from overseas, to map ways to consolidate the company’s technical expertise in enterprise development, agribusiness systems, financial services and community development. Participants included two chiefs of party, senior management, and a range of project and support staff. A facilitator led the group through a process of analyzing current proficiencies based on a recent staff survey, tapping key donor officials for their perspectives and setting priorities to enable ACDI/VOCA to ratchet up the scale and impact of its technical interventions. Results of the retreat included a more detailed competitiveness assessment, decisions on staffing and a commitment to restructure the proposal process.


 CRDA Serbia staffer praised by USAID

Jelena Colic, an ACDI/VOCA environmental officer, recently received kudos from USAID/Serbia for her work on a USAID-led biodiversity assessment. USAID General Development Officer Mark Pickett wrote to ACDI/VOCA: "She was an extremely valuable member of the team, and [others] have expressed to me repeatedly how much they value her insights and technical expertise, as well as her professionalism, commitment and delightful good humor." Ordinarily Colic serves on the staff of ACDI/VOCA's Community Revitalization through Democratic Action program, a five-year, $40 million USAID-funded initiative to develop democratic mechanisms that promote community involvement in identifying and addressing economic and social needs in central Serbia. Pickett concluded, "If there is anything any of us can do to return the favor to her or to ACDI/VOCA please don’t hesitate to ask." Colic was also recently invited by the European Union to present a paper at a conference in Istanbul.


 
News from HQ: ACDI/VOCA board meeting


ACDI/VOCA Board Elects McGinnis Chairman and Names Leonard President

At its June 10 meeting in Washington the ACDI/VOCA Board of Directors unanimously elected Vern McGinnis of Bloomington, IL, as its new Chair. Mr. McGinnis, Vice President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Services for GROWMARK, Inc., has served on the Board many years and recently has chaired its Audit Committee. Outgoing ACDI/VOCA Chair Jean-Mari Peltier, President of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, was praised for her more than two years of assertive and wise stewardship. Former Congressman Tim Penny was re-elected as Vice-Chair.

On June 28 the board announced the appointment of Carl H. Leonard as president and CEO of the organization. Chair McGinnis said, “On the basis of Carl's stalwart service since December as interim president and CEO, which has resulted in systemic improvements and a significantly improved operating position for the organization, he has amply demonstrated his qualifications for the job.” Leonard has 30 years of experience directing economic assistance programs in Latin America and the Caribbean with the U.S. Agency for International Development, serving as mission director in three countries and acting assistant administrator for the agency. He came to ACDI/VOCA in 2001 and was serving as Senior Vice President for Global Programs and the Latin America division before being tapped as interim executive.

The following resolution on the year's performance was approved by the Board at the June 10 meeting:

"RESOLVED: The ACDI/VOCA Board of Directors commends the management team and staff for the excellent results produced over the past year. We appreciate your commitment to the future of ACDI/VOCA and its role in international development. We share that commitment and support the future efforts of ACDI/VOCA as an independent organization. We look forward to working together with management and staff to further position ACDI/VOCA to continue its record of excellence in fulfilling the vision and mission of the organization."
 


ACDI/VOCA COO testifies before Congress on the value of food aid

At a Capitol Hill hearing on June 16, Chief Operating Officer Jim Phippard called for increased 2006 appropriations for food aid to insure that emergencies are met and that developmental programs are not disrupted. He stated: "We can not predict individual emergencies, but we can predict that there will be emergencies, and we should be prepared for them." Phippard, who testified along with representatives from USDA, USAID, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision and various commodity producer groups, informed the Subcommittee on Specialty Crops and Foreign Agriculture Programs of the House Committee on Agriculture of ACDI/VOCA's record of using food aid to develop broader entrepreneurial trading regimes in developing countries using monetization, and using monetization proceeds to increase food security and spur economic growth.

ACDI/VOCA is the sixth leading PVO implementer of food aid according to tonnage, but is an industry leader in using food aid to create economic development. Phippard said that ACDI/VOCA's multifaceted, interactive development approaches, long experience at commodity management and sensitivity to the local environment exemplify the advantages of PVO administration of food aid programs.

Phippard also asserted that PVO developmental food aid programs were under attack by other food exporting countries in the Doha Round of trade negotiations, and it was important to bring the recipient developing countries into the negotiations. He noted that U.S. PVO programs are carefully designed to preclude market distortions.
 

ACDI/VOCA strengthens value chain approach

ACDI/VOCA VP Olaf Kula, recently shared his expertise on value-chain tools and approaches at two training sessions held by USAID’s office of Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade Services. Soon he'll take his show on the road, conducting training in global agricultural value-chain approaches at the Springfield Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, in July. Kula anticipates drawing from ACDI/VOCA's experience with cocoa in Indonesia, coffee in Colombia, horticulture and oilseeds in Mozambique, among others. The value chain approach involves identifying growth opportunities and alleviating growth constraints along a value chain—from input supply and production to processing and delivery into final markets in order to increase firms' incomes quickly and sustainably. In related developments, Action for Enterprise and IDS have pledged to support ACDI/VOCA by developing value-chain training materials, which will help spread the state-of-the art approach, and the ACDI/VOCA AMAP Consortium has published the following technical papers on USAID's MicroLINKS website:

Making Local Economic Development for Small Firms-Evaluation of Participatory Appraisal for Competitive Advantage in Serbia (Hatch, Kenman, 2005)

Mozambique Rural Financial Services Study (Kula, Farmer, 2004)

Value Chain Assessment: Indonesia Cocoa (Panlibuton, Meyer, 2004)

Value Chains and Their Significance for Addressing the Rural Finance Challenge (Fries, Akin, 2005)

Assessing the Impact of the Kenya BDS and the Horticulture Development Center Projects in the Treefruit Subsector of Kenya (Sebstad, Snodgrass, 2004)
 

CredAgro lends $10 million

Through CredAgro, ACDI/VOCA has distributed over $10 million in loans to entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan.

U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish recently celebrated with ACDI/VOCA its success in disbursing $10 million in loans through CredAgro. ACDI/VOCA is working to help CredAgro complete the transition from private bank to sustainable NGO. At the CredAgro branch in Zaqatala, Harnish said, "I'm totally happy and impressed that...farmers have used the credits to expand their business, to employ new people, to make new wealth for Azerbaijan. It's a very, very uplifting and wonderful experience." In 2004, CredAgro, funded by USAID, reached almost 100 percent financial sustainability (assuming 7 percent cost of capital), created a five-year strategic plan for future development and completed its first international audit. The CredAgro Supervisory Board was further developed, and new members from the local community were recruited. A newly integrated MIS system for loan tracking and accounting was instituted to help lay the groundwork for CredAgro's anticipated rapid growth in the coming years.

 

 

ACDI/VOCA staff share technical expertise

 

ACDI/VOCA VPs Bob Fries and Olaf Kula were called on for their expertise at recent development seminars. Fries participated as a Value Chain/Financial Services trainer and advisor during a week-long May workshop in Turin, Italy. The workshop launched a USAID-funded, SEEP-managed Practitioner Learning Program, which funds small grants to seven microenterprise institutions around the world. The grants will facilitate strategic alliances designed to promote expanded financial services and market linkages in rural communities. Fries also participated as a trainer in a four-day Rural and Agricultural Finance Course in April to about 30 USAID New Entry Professionals and mission staff in Washington, D.C. Fries designed a module on incorporating value-chain analysis into financial market analysis for the training, which was based on his and Banu Akin's AMAP research paper entitled "Value Chains and Their Significance for Addressing the Rural Finance Challenge." Kula presented in April a talk entitled "Market Governance, Competitiveness, and Limits to Equity: Lessons Learned from Very Small Firms in Global Markets" to the Development Circle, a group of University of Maryland School of Public Affairs students and faculty that discusses sustainable and equitable development. He reported that there are considerable opportunities for small enterprises operated primarily by the poor and lectured on the implications of this approach for the future of global markets. On June 23 Kula addressed a monthly seminar hosted by USAID's Microenterprise Development Office that explores opportunities to promote industry-based approaches to growth and poverty reduction. He spoke about small firm competitiveness in the era of globalization.

 

 Tawi-Tawi medical mission outfitted by ACDI/VOCA

 

More than a thousand mostly indigent Filipino patients received free medical treatment on board the ACDI/VOCA-rehabilitated Tawi-Tawi Floating Clinic on a recent medical mission. The Provincial Health Office and ACDI/VOCA's Enhanced and Rapid Improvement of Community Health (EnRICH) Project initiated the May 3-8 program that visited four island municipalities. The medical team, consisting of the Provincial Health Officer, three other physicians, two nurses, a dentist and a medical technologist, conducted free medical consultations, blood typing tests, malaria screenings, dental treatments and cataract operations. ACDI/VOCA rehabilitated the Tawi-tawi Floating Clinic in 2004 under the USAID-provided EnRICH grant after the aging vessel had been taken out of commission in 2001. The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, through the municipal mayors, provided medicines for the recent mission. EnRICH is critical to meeting health care and family planning needs in this remote, poor and tension-filled province of mostly Muslim Mindanao.

 

Attention Consultants!

New Website Feature: Update your Consultant Record

Now, consultants may update their files on-line. If you have not sent us a resume within the past few months, we encourage you to visit our website to update your contact information, recent consultant assignments, availability, resume and salary requirements at your convenience.

ACDI/VOCA is continually searching for qualified candidates to serve as short-term consultants and to staff upcoming overseas projects. For current openings and to complete an online application, visit www.acdivoca.org.

ACDI/VOCA currently needs volunteer experts for the following assignments:

331568 Russia-Pet Food Production: Volunteer to perform feasibility study for establishing various pet food products and providing recipe ideas, to conduct hands-on training and to assess equipment options. 17 days, as soon as possible.

331587 Russia-Soybean Processing Technology: Expert to increase extraction rate (mechanical methods), improve quality of oil odor removal, conduct direct processing training, expand processes for seed hulling and develop operations management. June 26-July 15, 2005.

409008 Tanzania-Association Capacity Building: Volunteer to use training-of-trainers methodology on capacity building and basic principles of establishing and sustaining producer associations. 3 weeks, July or August 2005.

441040 Uganda-Dairy Processors/Marketing Improvement: Marketing expert to work with Land O'Lakes and Uganda Dairy Processors Association to conduct sales training and improve marketing and distribution of value-added products. 3 weeks, July-August 2005.

418010 Uganda-Human Resources Management: Human Resources expert to advise ACDI/VOCA Food for Development team and partner organizations on HRM best practices and develop training workshops. 4 weeks, start July 2005.

418012 Uganda-Data Reporting Analysis: Analyst to advise research and training consultancy center on improving reporting and evaluation systems. Background in social science or economics/statistics with expertise in quantitative/qualitative data analysis required. 3-4 weeks, September-November 2005.

409006 Tanzania-Mariculture management: Expert to assist smallholder producers in developing skills to manage mariculture enterprises, i.e., prawn farming, lobster harvesting, mud crab fattening and milk fish production. 3 weeks, 2005.

If you or a colleague is interested in these assignments, please email us at: volunteer@acdivoca.org. (back to top).
 
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us at webmaster@acdivoca.org.