AID grant no. AFR-0020-G-00-0073-00 to AFRICARE to implement the Guinea-Bissau Tombali sustainable rural initiatives project

Africare will work with the Ministry of Rural Development"s Department of Research and Agricultural Extension (DEPA) in providing training, credit, and marketing support to the associations. The project will create a cadre of 12 Association Trainers (AT"s), local Guinea-Bissauans who will receive 9 months of training in business and pedagogical skills and will then be assigned to villages that are interested in organizing an association organized around an economic activity. AT"s will train association members in business planning, bookkeeping, marketing and other business skills. AT"s will remain with their associations for at least 18 months to help ensure the success of the new businesses. In conjunction with the DEPA"s Service for the Support of Small Initiatives (SAPI), Africare will develop a revolving credit fund to enable the associations to purchase equipment and raw materials. The project will also expand the six DEPA warehouses in Tombali, and fund training and TA for the management, extension, and credit personnel stationed at the warehouses. Next, new food processing technologies -- especially for fruits, vegetables, and fish -- will be introduced. Two technicians from the Integrated Project of Caboxanque (PIC) will be trained and stationed at two local centers -- the DEPA Fruticulture Research Station at Coly and the PESCARTE Artisanal Fishing Center at Cacine. Observation tours in the West Africa region will be undertaken to identify processing technologies that are potentially adaptable to Tombali, and these will be tested at the village level. Peace Corps volunteers will assist in both the food processing and the credit components. Also planned is an activity to expand Tombali"s limited market system by restoring the periodic markets, or "lumos," that existed before the disturbances of the anti-colonial wars. A planning study will be conducted, and if the need for such facilities is confirmed, credit will be made available for the purchase of materials for the construction of up to six market structures. The project will also support the development of marketing associations.