Winners of PPIC Round Nine

May 6, 2008    

Habitat for Humanity (HFH) Armenia, Armenia
The project targets poor households in the rural areas of Armenia. Beneficiaries include families currently living in unsafe and substandard housing, and those who received housing loans from HFH but have extremely limited sources of income.

HFH will provide families with long-term affordable loans to improve their housing conditions. This will enable beneficiaries to develop the discipline and credit record required to enter the formal financial system. HFH will also provide seed grants for families to start agricultural income-generation activities such as animal breeding and crop production.

Armenian Tree project will provide beneficiaries with fruit trees, which are a good source of additional income. Animal breeding and farming training will be conducted by Heifer International. Community Housing Foundation will work with eligible youth from beneficiary families to provide them with vocational training in construction skills to help create short- and long-term employment.

Partnerships: Armenian Tree Project, Community Housing Foundation, and Heifer International.

Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC), Southern Sudan
The award will be used to re-establish sustainable livelihoods for previously displaced poor Sudanese returning to Southern Sudan. More than four million people were displaced from this region during a twelve year conflict which resulted in one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 20th century.

Most people returning to the region lack sustenance for daily survival and rely on emergency aid with no strategy for longer term economic livelihood. BRAC will provide capacity building, skills development, and income generation training for 750 poor households. Some of the education programs that will be offered include health awareness training, introduction to savings practices, and human rights and gender equity training.

The program will start by supporting reintegration and resettlement, building knowledge and technical skills, and facilitating restoration of food security and livelihoods. Households will then receive financial literacy training. They will be taught to build savings to be used as financial reserves and to engage in income generation projects. BRAC will provide microfinance services.

Partnerships: Other aid and relief organizations operating in the region, BRAC microfinance program in Sudan, Sudanese government.

Farm Concern International (FCI), Kenya
The award will fund an existing credit line for commercializing and linking to the private-sector villages producing African traditional vegetables. The credit line funds market-related expenses like transport, packaging, etc.

Poor villages operating as subsistence producers are developed into profit making entities and strategically linked to private-sector buyers like supermarkets, hotels, hospitals, schools, and private households. FCI conducts research and streamlines production to ensure market demand is adequately met.

FCI has a relationship with financial service providers in the target regions of operation. Once producers start getting returns, they are linked to the nearest financial service provider to set up a mandatory savings account. This way they become clients of financial institutions, enabling them to build savings and access other financial products. Currently, 2,500 households are participating in this project, and a projected 3,000 more will be added.

Partnerships: MFIs, banks, SACCOS, and other financial service providers in regions of operation.

FINCA, Afghanistan
The project targets vulnerable Afghans, including unemployed/underemployed men and women, orphans, young former combatants, disabled persons, and ethnic minorities. FINCA, which provides financial services, will partner with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which provides support to these vulnerable groups. IRC will work to provide market-oriented skills training, linkages to micro-credit, and business development support services. FINCA will provide appropriate financial services to clients once they are eligible for microfinance.

By using microfinance and vocational education and training as complementary activities, very poor households are given the ability to overcome constraints to sustainable livelihoods.

Partnerships: FINCA and IRC.

Tamweelcom, Jordan
Tamweelcom has partnered with Vocational Training Corporation (VTC) to provide complementary nonfinancial services to Tamweelcom's microfinance clients by offering proper training for vocational professions. The initiative targets poor clients and unemployed youth enrolled at VTC, who want to start microenterprises.

VTC offers training courses in various fields. At the end of the training period, candidates enroll in a business development services course to learn how to manage their own enterprises. VTC then gives candidates recommendations, enabling them to become eligible for microfinance services from Tamweelcom. Tamweelcom loan officers work with these clients to provide them with financial literacy education. They also assess and advise clients on entrepreneurship and financing options, expertise enhancement, and market opportunities, according to economic and competition conditions. The project builds on existing programs in Jordan to bridge a gap in the market between skilled people and lack of finance to fund their potential new projects and businesses.

The project builds on existing programs in Jordan to bridge a gap in the market between skilled people and lack of finance to fund their potential new projects and businesses.

Partnership: Vocational Training Corporation.