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OFFICE OF PRIVATE AND VOLUNTARY COOPERATION

963-001/960-001 Increase capability of PVC's PVO partners to achieve sustainable service delivery.

U.S. Financing Table for 963-001/960-001 (Microsoft Excel Document - 28 kb)

USAID central programs, through the Office of Private and Voluntary Cooperation (BHR/PVC), support activities which increase the capabilities of private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and cooperative development organizations (CDOs) to deliver sustainable development services at the grassroots level in priority areas such as child survival, microenterprise development, women's education, and the environment. A key dimension of these programs is strengthening the organizational capacity and programs of PVOs and CDOs to provide cross-cutting support for USAID's six strategic objectives. Increasingly, USAID is encouraging collaborative partnerships between U.S. PVOs and CDOs and indigenous organizations to promote development at the local level and to enhance program sustainability and impact. Funds are allocated to individual organizations through competitive grants that include a cost-sharing requirement to leverage additional private resources for development. Approved grants are consistent with USAID mission strategic plans. The major central grants programs are the following:

Matching Grants: This competitive program strengthens U.S. PVOs' technical, planning and management capacity to carry out development programs in USAID-assisted countries. U.S. PVOs contribute at least 50% of the total project costs and increasingly implement activities through local organizations and provide them with capacity-building support through technical assistance, training, and information sharing. For example, in India, International Development Enterprises (IDE) promotes the benefits of owning treadle pumps and low-technology irrigation kits for their income-generating potential. Farmers use their own resources to purchase these items in the private market. Under its current grant, IDE has introduced low-cost drip irrigation in India. A typical IDE beneficiary is a widow with five sons who are all marginal farmers. She owns 2.5 acres of land and purchased a low-cost drum irrigation kit for 750 rupees ($17.18 equivalent) with which she can irrigate 500 plants (tomatoes, eggplants). She expects to receive one kilogram of yield per plant, a total of 500 kilograms, the sale of which will yield from 2,000 to 3,000 rupees ($45.82 - $68.73 equivalent.)

For more than 30 years, TechnoServe has been helping entrepreneurial men and women in the developing world to improve their own lives by creating and growing agricultural businesses. These businesses generate jobs and increase family incomes, improving the standard of living in poor communities. With a PVC Matching Grant, TechnoServe in Jinotega, Nicaragua, is assisting five agricultural cooperatives, whose members have united to create a regional produce-trading enterprise. The produce--coffee, vegetables, basic grains and fruits--will be sold directly to buyers, reducing the number of intermediaries in the farm-to-market chain. The enterprise will provide its shareholders with collection, packaging and processing services. Its business plan projects that over five years, income from sales will reach $6.9 million, yielding a net profit for the period of $1.5 million.

Child Survival. The PVO Child Survival (CS) Program is designed to improve the capacity of U.S. based PVOs and their local partners in developing countries to carry out effective child survival initiatives that contribute to the improvement of infant and child health and nutrition, and reduce infant and child mortality. USAID currently supports 79 CS programs in 36 countries through 29 PVOs with a portfolio value of $72.8 million.

These technically rigorous programs focus on immunization, nutrition, breast feeding, diarrheal disease control, pneumonia treatment, maternal and newborn care, malaria control, child-spacing, HIV/AIDS prevention and the integrated management of childhood illnesses. These programs are implemented with an emphasis on improved supervision and training to effect sustained improvements in the health of poor populations. Through the competitive grant process, 21 grants were awarded in 1999. Most new grants are awarded up to $1 million with a requirement to cost share 25% of the total program cost. New grants and mentoring partnerships are four years in length, while entry grants are awarded up to $400,000 for two years with a 25% cost share. PVO programs have been very successful in improving the health status of mothers and children throughout the world.

A child survival grant brought vital maternal and child health services to South Delhi, India. In an area with no public utilities or water or sanitation services, and minimal access to any health facilities, a PVO and its partners opened maternal and child health clinics and prepared community health guides to provide information about prenatal care, safe pregnancy and childbirth. As a result of this activity, 96% of pregnant women in this area now receive prenatal care that is vital to the health of their infants, and the percentage of births attended by a qualified health care provider has increased from 34% to 78%.

In only three years, a child survival project in Kean Svay, Cambodia has dramatically surpassed its goals despite tremendous obstacles, including a coup, floods, and epidemics. Through support to mobile health teams, this activity has increased the proportion of fully immunized children from 60% to 94% in the project area. Vitamin A coverage among children increased from less than 1% to 61%, and use of oral rehydration therapy for cases of diarrhea increased from 12% to 81%. Ongoing efforts are focused on ensuring that these project activities and benefits will continue well beyond the end of the grant.

The district of Siaya has Kenya's highest rate of child mortality due to high rates of malaria and pneumonia and a decline in the quality of health care services for children. A project in Siaya has attained a 49% decrease in child mortality by using a groundbreaking strategy of working with community health workers to provide case management for common childhood illnesses. Delivering care for childhood illnesses within the community by health workers has resulted in more rapid care seeking, lower cost to families, and improved outcomes of illness.

The Sylhet District is one of the lowest performing areas in Bangladesh in terms of coverage of basic maternal and child health services. A child survival grant-funded PVO strengthened the capacity of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to provide this community with high quality and sustainable maternal and child health services. As a result of this activity, the percentage of completely vaccinated children increased from 16% to 72%, the use of oral rehydration therapy for children with diarrhea increased from 30% to 84%, and the percentage of children receiving high-dose Vitamin A capsules increased from 52% to 74%.

Cooperative Development. USAID's support to U.S. cooperative development organizations (CDOs) enables them to assist cooperative movements in developing and middle-income countries and in new democracies. CDOs provide assistance, training, and investments to local counterpart organizations to serve member and community interests in a broad range of needs, including housing, electrical and telephone services, financial services, and agricultural development. For example, successful credit unions, working with private voluntary organizations in microenterprise development, are expanding membership to include families and women who are independent micro-entrepreneurs. This movement expands and integrates microfinance activities into the financial and legal systems in the host countries. The successful credit union and microfinance programs in Bolivia, El Salvador, the Philippines and Burkina Faso are proven, expanding models that are being studied and duplicated in other developing countries. In Burkina Faso, over 30,000 women in microenterprise activities now have membership in, and services provided by, credit unions. In Bolivia, microfinance activities are fully integrated into the credit and banking systems, and there is competition among them to serve this once-excluded part of the population.

Development Education. USAID's development education program supports U.S. non-profit organizations' activities to educate the U.S. public about developing countries and U.S. development activities abroad, especially as they relate to hunger and poverty. The program has supported curriculum development at the K-12 and post-secondary level, as well as adult education activities targeting farmers, business and labor leaders, teachers, and congregational groups. The strategy requires U.S.-based development organizations to partner with U.S. domestic membership organizations with a shared sectoral focus, e.g., health, hunger, or agriculture, as the starting point for learning about local-global links and development. For example, Indiana University, in partnership with the National Future Farmers of America organization and Purdue University is developing an innovative CD-ROM-based educational technology to be used in educating future leaders in U.S. agriculture and related fields on issues pertaining to international development and the globalization of agriculture. Topics to be covered include: strengthening civil order, developing new investment opportunities for U.S. agribusiness concerns, and how agricultural development assistance contributes to broad-based economic growth.

Ocean Freight. Through the Ocean Freight Reimbursement (OFR) program, USAID reimburses registered PVOs for the costs of shipping equipment and supplies to developing countries in support of development and humanitarian assistance activities in the following areas: agriculture and rural development, health care, education training, disaster assistance and relief, and rehabilitation. In FY 1999, the Agency funded 51 PVOs in the OFR program. These organizations shipped 7,411 tons of commodities valued at $113 million at a cost of $2.6 million to the program. This represents a ratio of 43:1 of the value of commodities shipped to USAID dollars spent.