AID cooperative agreement no. OTR-0192-A-00-9143-00 with Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (VOCA) to accelerate the institutional development of its beneficiary organizations so that they will become stronger service providers for their members as well as to strengthen VOCA"s ability to carry out an expanded program presenting new facets and challenges

The grant will support the direct placement of 170 volunteers under VOCA"s Cooperative Development Program. In addition, it will support training of VOCA headquarters and field staff to strengthen VOCA"s institutional capacity to implement the program. To increase the development impact of all its activities, VOCA has identified the following strategic objectives: (1) to enhance the linkages between the Farmer-to- Farmer and Cooperative Development Programs, both managed by VOCA; (2) to focus its resources on a limited number of countries that encourage private cooperative ownership; (3) to increase its range of funding sources and diversity of programs, including implementation of a targeted 5 USAID Mission-funded programs with 375 VOCA volunteers; and (4) to initiate a sponsored volunteer component, whereby U.S. cooperatives will cover the direct costs of fielding a targeted 53 volunteers (including executives) in a given cooperative"s specialization.