ACDI/VOCA’s sub-award to Action Against Hunger under the USAID-BHA funded Alcances II program is a 22-month, $944,460.65 activity that seeks to help crisis-affected households in both Guatemala and Honduras to restore, expand, and/or diversify their livelihood capacities while leveraging the communities’ links to existing market system strengthening activities to increase their access to economic opportunities. Under the Economic Recovery and Market Systems (ERMS) component, ACDI/VOCA provides context and household-specific technical assistance, facilitates linkages to both skilled and unskilled labor opportunities, vocational training through connected companies providing employment, and improves the capacities of both targeted households and key market actors.
Project Objectives
- Generate 400 employment opportunities in Honduras and 300 in Guatemala
- Identify the entrepreneurial potential of 125 self-employed individuals, carefully selected based on their ability to sustain their families through small businesses across various value chains, such as small stores, animal products, textiles, and other small businesses
- Benefit 150 people in Honduras and 100 in Guatemala, significantly contributing to the well-being and food security of their respective communities
Project Activities
- Provide context and household-specific technical assistance
- Facilitate linkages to both skilled and unskilled labor opportunities
- Provide vocational training and a limited number of cash transfers aimed at supporting livelihoods
- Improve capacities of both targeted households and key food market actors
Anticipated Project Achievements
As of September 2023, the project has documented a total of 59 jobs in the domains of sugarcane, tobacco, and construction activities.
Honduras:
- The sugarcane industry experiences low seasonality of labor from June – September with a return to activity starting in November, generating jobs for 59 individuals.
- 75 entrepreneurs were successfully trained in technical and soft skills, along with working through the creation of business plans; all trainings were conducted in collaboration with government institutions in Honduras.
Guatemala:
- 33 beneficiaries have found employment in the animal forage sector.
- 33 beneficiaries received job training and induction into forage management.
Use of Community DNA Tool:
The categorization of the intersection between available assets at the household and the capacity of Alcances II beneficiaries to take advantage of job opportunities and self-employment expansion has been usually done using qualitative methods. The use of the Community DNA tool is intended to add quantitative methods to better rank farmers based on their asset base, activities, ability, and environmental characteristics to estimate how strong or weak they are in taking advantage of Alcances II facilitated opportunities.
ACDI/VOCA intends to make use of the tool to continue ranking beneficiaries based on their asset base so that training and further opportunities to improve their job skills and self-employment ventures are provided to the most adept beneficiaries scoring above 60 points over 100. For those under the 60-point mark, more careful considerations will be provided to ensure they also improve their ability to support themselves, which can be achieved by customizing training focused on weak areas where possible.
Project Leadership
Project Director: Gelsey Bennett
gbennett@acdivoca.org
Project Specialist: Genesis Contreras
gcontreras@acdivoca.org
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