AID cooperative agreement no. FAO-0158-A-00-3051-00 to Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in support of its proposal to extend the benefits of credit and microenterprise development to the destitute, particularly women, through the strengthening of people"s development organizations and NGOs [non-governmental organizations] as self-sustainable credit intermediaries

Overall objectives of the program are to: (1) strengthen methods and systems for poverty lending and popular economic education; (2) develop CRS"s methods for building sustainable local institutions at the community, PVO, and apex levels; (3) form three subregional poverty lending groups around six pilot programs to test CRS"s system for TA; and (4) form an agency-wide CRS information and small enterprise development monitoring system. Efforts will include provision of capital assistance; continuous refinement of poverty lending with respect to community savings and credit methods and management systems; formation of viable economic groups; nonformal training for small-scale investments; and management for sustainable credit programs. More specifically, CRS will implement pilot anchor programs in six countries (Indonesia, Benin, Senegal, El Salvador, Philippines, and Guatemala) to serve as learning laboratories for CRS staff and counterparts in their respective regional clusters. It is expected that these programs will reach a scale benefitting 35,000 micro-producers (75% of them women) annually by the fifth year, and strengthen 1,200 grassroots organizations and 40 local NGOs.