AID cooperative agreement no. PDC-0280-A-00-6205-00 to Technoserve, Inc. for a program of technical assistance to small and medium sized, privately owned or cooperative enterprises

Technoserve will continue existing country programs in Ghana, Panama, and Costa Rica; complete an experimental program underway in Belize; and initiate two or three new country programs in sub-Saharan Africa and one in Latin America. Technoserve, through its country offices, will provide two fundamental types of assistance. (1) Business advisory services and direct management assistance will be provided to some 200 privately or cooperatively owned, community-based agricultural enterprises (e.g., cooperatives, pre-cooperatives, and farmer associations) each year. (2) Another 500 for-profit and service institutions (banks, cooperatives, agricultural development organizations, parastatals, and savings and credit societies) will receive business advisory services. Technoserve will also promote policy dialogue and information-sharing with host countries on agricultural policy. To strengthen its own capacity to provide these services, Technoserve will conduct specific evaluations and replication process research on its methodologies, and disseminate this information through case studies, "how-to" manuals, seminars, and staff workshops. Technoserve will also further develop its affiliate or "franchise" program, an attempt in Belize to transfer the organization"s complete methodology and approach (e.g., hiring procedures, funding mechanisms, proposal writing approaches) to another entity. This country-specific replication methodology will be tried in at least one more country.