Economic Development Unit

Objective: To reconcile, mitigate, and avoid conflicts over land resettlement, returnee reclamation, informal occupation, and formal rights by assisting the GoA to create and implement a process for making claim to and establishing the secure formal land rights of returning displaced people, former combatants, and untitled communities and individual smallholders that informally occupy their land.

Economic development objective/component:
Mobilize women and youth for attaining economic resilience to realize and sustain land rights : Create the dynamic for sustained economic growth on the level needed to improve human rights and mobilize targeted people to achieve successful land tenure involves formation of groups around certain economic activities.

Goal is to strengthen cross-sectoral partnership that can help both development and private sector organizations to work for the society in a mainstreamed way such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The main objective is to develop service providers to build capacity who can help both private and development sector organizations in making partnership for business and society.

The purpose of the RLP is to improve the livelihood security of 221,375 poor and vulnerable rural households in Bangladesh.  Focus is placed on drawing lessons to enable DFID Bangladesh, CARE Bangladesh and other development stakeholders to apply these in project design and better targeting of interventions.

PRISM strengthens Benin’s microfinance sector by improving its organizational and financial sustainability and increasing its outreach in rural areas.  CARE’s interventions include:

1) Strengthening the institutional capacity of Consortium Alafia, a group of microfinance institutions (MFIs) operating in Benin, to develop and implement a multi-year strategic plan and a management information system to track and MFIs’ performance, helping the group coordinate training for member MFIs, and improving its advocacy capabilities;
2) Providing technical assistance and support to MFIs operating in rural areas (including new product development targeted at rural poor and improved information exchange to reduce risks and improve client behaviors);
3) Strengthening private microfinance training institutions and consulting firms to improve MFIs’ access to these services while improving the long-term relationships between these organizations; and
4) Improving donor coordination under the Cellule de Microfinance by creating a database on donor programs, and facilitating regular meetings among donors and practitioners.

This project focuses on increasing the production and appropriate preservation, processing, and marketing of agricultural crops that contribute to diversified nutrition and sustainable agro-business. Emphasis is also placed on improving awareness of healthy behaviors related to maternal and child nutrition, increasing access to micro-credit, and basic technical support for agriculture-related income-generation activities.  The project will also strengthen local NGO/CBO capacity to implement integrated activities for agricultural production and nutrition. The goal of this project is to enhance agricultural productivity and appropriate nutrition practices for household livelihood security through an integrated, community-focused project in the Vina, Mbéré, and Lom-et-Djerem departments in Cameroon.

This project aims to improve the economic and social conditions of the inhabitants of the southern border area and to promote border integration.  The four components include social services, strengthening local governments, natural resources management, and income generation.  The income generation component has two main parts:

1. Facilitating the access of micro entrepreneurs to services, and  
2. Facilitating the access of the micro entrepreneurs to AT services and organizational, administrative, and technical training for production and commercialization.

This project is usinga a revolving fund to provide micro-credits to 250 clients in communities affected by Hurricane Stan.

Integrated livestock program that addresses Credit/Water/Feed/Animal Health interventions in Maimine, Debub.

The project is designed to promote an HIV & AIDS livelihoods strategy and build community and household resilience and enhance coping mechanisms, while at the same time strengthening the linkages and collaboration between the public sector and civil society. The project will focus on breaking down barriers to good governance by working with both informal and formal non-governmental and government bodies to improve joint needs-based planning, increase participation, and create opportunities for dialogue and transparency. It will further seek to empower women and OVC, enabling them to better overcome the barriers that prevent them from exercising their rights and ensuring that their livelihood needs are met. The project's efforts will directly address three of the MDGs at local level i.e. the fight against extreme poverty and hunger, promote gender equality and empower women, and combat HIV & AIDS to achieve a direct and lasting improvement to living conditions of the poorest and marginalized people in the world.

The project goal is sustainable improvements in the livelihoods of rural people and the reduction of poverty and conflict potential in highland areas of Georgia.  The SLAR project encompasses all six districts of Samtskhe-Javakheti.  SLAR will be facilitating rehabilitation of village infrastructure, increasing employment opportunities and supporting small-scale business development. Specifically, the project will develop farming and non-farming businesses through providing technical advice, awarding grants and improving access to credit. Training will also be provided to unemployed people to build their capacity to run business. SLAR will support participative regional planning to consolidate livelihoods improvements and promote socio-economic development in the region.  An important purpose of the project is to disseminate good practices and share successful development approaches for replication throughout the country.

Focus is on increasing and diversifying productive on-farm income-generating activities (cash crops and small animal husbandry), along with increasing access to credit and training of small farmers in marketing capacities and skills. 

PROAGI will support the new extension service by providing technical and financial assistance in selected municipalities.  One main objective is to increase availability of food and income for rural families through improved production and marketing.

The project will:
1. Promote improved farming techniques to increase traditional crop production and diversification,
2. Promote agroforestry practices, protect water sources and  promote cash crop production and small animal husbandry activities.
3. Improve access to credit for farmers, create credit communities, implement 57 Village Banks serving 1950 families and facilitate access to existing credit programs. 
4. Improve access to markets and commercial competitiveness, providing training in basic marketing skills for individual farmers with cash crops or animals and strengthening existing local producers associations.

The project is working to increase household food production and incomes in Northwest, Haiti, through:
1.E nvironmentally sustainable agricultural and soil conservation practices,
2. Increased access to markets,
3. Small-scale credit and basic management training in income generating activities, with special attention to women. 

Three approaches are being used to improve agricultural productivity and household incomes on a sustainable basis:
1) Development and support of extension services through community-based agricultural field agents;
2) Food for Work to promote community identified and implemented development efforts; and,
3) Support to local financial institutions that in turn provide training and small loans, especially to rural women. 

Insure Lives and Livelihoods Program implemented  to complment the livelihood initiatives of Tsunami response Program. The twin objectives of the program is to lower the entry barriers that prevents the low income households to access risk coping and managing mechanisms and promoting  micro insurance as an effective risk reduction strategy to manage the life threatening risks for low income households.

The program will help 75,000 low income households to access risk reduction mechanisms through micro insurance products besides developing capacities at local level to increase the micro insurance outreach through sensitization and piloting innovations. 

Micro insurance product design, delivery and outreach processes will bundled together and customized by identifying vulnerabilities and analyzing the coping strategies adopted by vulnerable communities.  Large amounts of data and analysis will be generated from the baseline study commissioned at partner/district level.  Products will be specifically aimed at three sectors; fisheries, plantations and agriculture/horticulture. 

CASHE is a poverty-focused project designed to address the fundamental problem of low incomes for poor women and their limited control over that income. The project is designed for rural areas primarily in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. The goal of CASHE is to increase significantly the incomes and economic security of poor women and their households. The purpose of CASHE is to increase the availability of a wider range of microfinance services to the poor and their use of those services.

CARE Malawi through the Central Region Livelihood Security Program has successfully implemented the Village Savings & Loan program in Malawi for the past 5 years.  It enables participants to accumulate savings which in turn allows them to engage in income-earning activities that raise their household income

The project aims to reduce child trafficking and exploitative child labor through improvements in access to and quality of education in five (5) districts in 2 regions of Mali (Segou and Mopti). The project targets all Centers for Development Education (CEDs) as well as 50 percent of the students in target communities and sixth graders in public schools. It also aims to increase overall school enrollment by reaching an additional 14,000 of out-of-school children.

The project objectives are:
1) Improve enrollment in quality non-formal and formal education of children at risk of being trafficked or exploited. CARE aims to strengthen the capacity and functionality of the non-formal CEDs, train at-risk children to make them more employable in the medium to long term, and build bridges between formal and non-formal education programs that allow children a realistic option of transitioning from one to the other;
2) Mobilize two communes per district in the project area to prevent child trafficking and exploitative labor and to adopt re-integration strategies for trafficked or exploited children that model how often communes may address the problem. Under this objective, CARE raises awareness about: the dangers of child trafficking and exploitative labor, lobbying, and other sources of economic opportunities, including microfinance, for the families of at risk children;
3) Improve capacity, collaboration and visibility of key civil society actors in working with the government to combat child trafficking and exploitative labor through education. CARE's role in this component includes engaging in advocacy to ensure that existing laws and safeguards protecting child rights are enforced, providing capacity building to civil society organizations (CSOs) allowing them to protect and defend children's rights, promoting effective collaboration among CSOs and government actors in order to ensure that quality educational opportunities are available to children at risk, and using new technologies for information and communication (NTICs) to improve educational and advocacy services for children at risk.

Five year program composed of three parts:

1) Micro finance and leadership;
2) Social rights;
3) Promotion of peace in households (PPP):

All three parts of the program will be implemented with the ultimate hope of increasing the representation of Nigerien women in all communal and national decisions.

Microcredit and Health Education for HIV /AIDS Affected Women and Children on the Valley of the Widows (NER070) (09/01/2006- 09/30/2008) To counter the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS in Maradi area of Niger, CARE proposes the two-year initiative Support for AIDS-Affected Women and Children in the Valley of the Widows. The goal of the project is to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS and its physical, social and economic consequences for at least 7,200 women and children in the Bouza District by the year 2006. To achieve this goal, CARE will:

1.Create 120 all-female Mata Masu Dubara savings groups, primarily made up of AIDS widows and women affected by HIV/AIDS, in the Bouza District;
2. Improve the economic, health and social status of at least 7,200 women and children in the Bouza District, whose migrant husbands and fathers put them at greater risk of contracting HIV/AIDS;
3. Disseminate CARE HIV/AIDS education and training materials to the 25 participating villages (estimated population of 79,000 people);
4. Encourage positive attitude and behavioral change vis-à-vis HIV/AIDS education in 25 villages within the Bouza District, thereby reducing the stigmatization of women;
5. Develop a network of Mata Masu Dubara groups that will strengthen the collective voice of women in the region to advocate for improved HIV/AIDS services and a better social status;
6.Create a cadre of at least 120 Village Agents, or female leaders, who are responsible for outreach and the formation of additional savings and loan groups with an HIV/AIDS component; and strengthen the long-term sustainability of local HIV/AIDS services by increasing the capacity of local organizations such as ESPOIR.

SEAD is a non-stock, non-profit microfinance NGO (non-governmental organization) that was the spin-off microfinance program of the Cooperative Assistance for Relief Everywhere, Inc. (CARE USA or CARE) in the Philippines. Created by CARE and other stakeholders, SEAD, Inc.’s primary purpose is to support the economic development of poor communities and to transform into a vehicle for poverty reduction in the Philippines with a vision to become an integral part of the formal financial sector in the country. In 2006, CARE and SEAD Inc. stakeholders decided to convert the wholesale lending operations of SEAD Inc. into a for-profit company (FPC) called SEEDFINANCE or Sustainable Economic Empowerment & Development Financing Company.

CARE Sierra Leone's Promoting Linkages for Livelihood Security and Economic Development (LINKS) program intends to facilitate more rapid integration of communities into dynamic rural economies in which inputs flow to communities and products are more easily marketed. The program will focus on 21 Chiefdoms in the Sierra Leone districts of Koinadugu, Kono and Kailhaun and will positively impact 156, 000 direct and indirect beneficiaries over its lifetime. The LINKS program is specifically designed to broaden the range and increase the productivity of livelihood activities at the community level and to link productive communities more integrally into regional and national market systems. Building on the foundation of increased agricultural production that will be established by the Consortium for Rehabilitation and Development (CORAD) Developmental Relief Program (DRP), the LINKS Program which will also be implemented by CORAD will enhance the capacities of farmers to innovate in their agricultural production. The program will also expand the productivity of micro-enterprise at the community level, especially with value-added activities that open up markets for agricultural commodities. Savings and literacy activities at the community level will mobilize small amounts of capital while beginning to address the effects of the disruption of basic education services during the conflict.

The aim of the Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity (IMAGE) study is to assess a structural intervention that combines a MF program with a gender and HIV training curriculum.

The objective of this project is to establish Community Banks (CBs) to provide opportunities for savings and micro finance services to residents of estates.

Objective:
1. Set up 6 local community councils
2. Establish 6 kindergardens & literacy classes
3. Encourage entry of ethnic minorities to enrol in basic education, skills training and income generation / micro enterprises.

CARE’s Rural Microfinance Program targets 48,000 beneficiaries in vulnerable communities in Shurugwi, Mberengwa, Zvishavane, Gutu, Chirumanzu Kwekwe and Gweru. RMFP aims to improve rural livelihood security by facilitating the establishment of peer savings and internal lending system for poor households (who do not otherwise have access to credit or savings facilities); by providing basic training in Selection Planning and Management of Income Generating Activities to households and by building the capacity of other institutions to provide KI services.  Beneficiaries are mostly women micro-entrepreneurs, sometimes semi-literate, operating in either the informal or agricultural sectors.

The project aims to improve the population’s income base, increase household assets and savings, and facilitate continued and easy access to capital for supporting viable household based income-generating activities and improve the household resilience to shocks and disasters. Beneficiary led innovations include asset based savings; supporting orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), micro-insurance and strengthening social support networks through the creation of a 'social fund'. This project is hailed by external appraisers as one of the most successful of its kind in Africa.

The project targets 45,0000 poor households in drought prone areas with high HIV & AIDS prevalence in five districts of Masvingo and one district of Midlands. Many HH qualify for and participate in more than one intervention. The outputs of this project can be summarized as follows:
1) Food security of vulnerable households stabilized
2) Protection systems for vulnerable livelihoods established and/or enhanced including water and sanitation
3) Capacity of partners and communities in livelihoods and coping strategies enhanced
4) HIV and AIDS and gender mainstreamed into all interventions.
5) Agri-inputs and community garden assistance

CARE will provide training, technical expertise, irrigation and fencing supplies, tools and seeds but the community, through an elected Garden Committee, constructs an irrigated garden close to a dam. In addition the project will work with WFP, to provide nearly 100,000 primary school children with a daily meal of nutritious porridge.