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Microenterprise Development
How We Work with Our Partners
USAID works with a variety of strategic and implementing partners to
accomplish its strategic objectives in microenterprise development.
CONTRACTS AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS
- Financial Integration, Economic Leveraging, Broad-Based Dissemination
and Support Program (FIELD-Support): USAID is developing
a Leader with Associates (LWA) program to strengthen the economic status
and security
of poor households; promote economic growth that benefits
poorer households and communities by supporting the access of micro
and small enterprises
(MSEs) to market opportunities; promote the development
of financial systems that are accessible to all and meet the diverse
needs of MSEs and poor
households; and improve the national, regional, or
local enabling environment to boost the productivity, earnings, and
competitiveness of MSEs.
- Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project (AMAP): AMAP is an indefinite quantity contract mechanism designed to help
USAID Missions
and Bureaus apply good practice to their microenterprise
development activities, whether those activities are stand-alone
or components of larger programs
in economic growth, poverty reduction, agriculture, natural
resources management, etc. AMAP is relevant for all situations affecting
the economic
activities of the very poor, including projects addressing
HIV/AIDS, cross-cutting issues, and post-conflict situations. Through
a consortium of more than
50 NGOs, universities, and contractors, AMAP supports an
extensive and innovative knowledge generation program. Knowledge
generation products
include applied field research, desk studies, conferences,
seminars, technical services, and other activities. AMAP consortium
members are continually
developing state-of-the-art tools, approaches and best
practices in their technical areas.
- Microenterprise Best Practices Project (MBP): The MBP
project worked to increase the knowledge base of microenterprise
practices through research and publications, a grant
facility, and information sharing. The project documented
best practices in the field of microenterprise development
and disseminated them through case studies, review papers,
seminars, and the Microenterprise Innovation Project
(MIP) website. MBP was implemented through a group of
in-country and U.S. based partner organizations.
- Assessing the Impact of Microenterprise Services (AIMS): The
AIMS project reported on mission technical assistance; explored salient
microenterprise-related issues in the form of desk studies; discussed
the development and testing of cost-effective practical tools that can
be used to track and assess the impact of practitioners’ microenterprise
programs (Partner Agency Impact Assessment Reports); presented
the findings of methodologically rigorous core impact assessments; highlighted
the
activities of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
(CGAP); and contributed to the World Development Report.
- MicroServe
Project: The MicroServe Project was designed to increase
the capacity of USAID missions and USAID personnel by
providing access to short-term technical assistance in microenterprise
development.
MicroServe Publications provided a space for the exchange
of the research
and knowledge
garnered during the project.
- Growth and Equity through Microenterprise
Investments and Institutions (GEMINI): The GEMINI Project
was a six-year applied research, development,
and services project of the Bureau for Private Enterprise,
USAID from 1989 to 1995. GEMINI offered technical assistance,
training, economic
research, and information to USAID missions and bureaus,
implementing organizations, host-country governments, and
other organizations involved
with microenterprise development.
The project’s core activities were organized into three applied
research programs focusing on growth and dynamics of microenterprise,
frontiers of financing microenterprise development, and the frontiers
of non-financial assistance for microenterprises. The key issues addressed
by the project include firm-level, subsector and sector-wide dynamics,
poverty lending, growth and dynamics of microenterprise programs and institutions,
integration of programs with financial markets, policy and regulatory
reform, and leveraged microenterprise development.
GRANTS
- Emerging Markets Development Advisors Program (EMDAP): EMDAP
supports placements of multiple U.S. graduate degree
candidates for 10-month work assignments in a range of
worldwide non-governmental organizations
that deliver microfinance and business development
services.
- Implementation Grant Program (IGP): The IGP serves as the
key mechanism for supporting international and local providers of
microfinance
and business development services.
- IGP Learning Network: The Learning Network is a participatory
learning group of BDS grantees that encourages technical
exchanges, discussion, and learning on different approaches
and tools used in the programs.
- Practitioner Learning Program (PLP): The PLP engages microenterprise
practitioners in a collaborative learning process to
document and share findings on the challenges facing the microenterprise
field and to help
identify effective and replicable microenterprise practices
and innovations.
- Program for Innovation in Microenterprise (PRIME): PRIME
is an activity that co-finances initiatives to support microenterprise
development
at the Mission level and provides necessary technical
guidance and assistance.
- Grants Under Contract (GUC): USAID will regularly offer grant
funding to non-profit organizations through a Grants Under Contract (GUC)
mechanism. The purpose of GUC is to advance the Agency’s microenterprise
learning agenda by taking advantage of targets of opportunity
that lead to improvements in the design and implementation of USAID-supported
microenterprise
programs.
Through GUC, USAID will offer funding to a broad range of practitioners
in support of the research themes identified by AMAP’s Financial
Services, Business Development Services and Enabling Environment task
orders. Grants will be for up to three years in duration for budgets ranging
between $25,000 and $250,000. The application and administrative processes
of GUC grants will be administered by PACT International in collaboration
with Weidemann Associates.
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