Grant no. 511-0578-G-00-8223, by the US Agency for International Development to Planning Assistance Inc. to increase the developmental impact of PL-480, Title II resources

(PAI) to increase the development impact of the Food for Peace (FFP) Title II program in Bolivia. PAI will expand the capacity of the three major PVO"s implementing FFP activities -- CRS/CARITAS, Adventist Development Relief Agency(ADRA)/Obra Filantropica y Asistencia Social Adventista, and Food for the Hungry -- to focus FFP interventions on child survival (CS) and agricultural production and income. The project will help the PVO"s incorporate CS interventions into their maternal/child supplementary feeding activities. These interventions will include both primary CS interventions - oral rehydration therapy, immunizations, growth monitoring and related supplementary feeding, and health and nutrition education - and secondary CS interventions - installation of potable water, sanitary waste disposal, and nutrition gardens. The project will also help the PVO"s convert their Food for Work (FFW) activities into true agricultural development (AD) programs, with stress on upgrading rural infrastructure (e.g., farm-to-market roads) and natural resource management through interventions in crop production, animal husbandry, irrigation, and reforestation and soil conservation. To these ends, PAI will provide managerial and technical assistance and training to national- and regional-level PVO staff. Targets are to: (1) train 537 staff in program management (long-term planning, annual planning and budgeting, organization and staffing, commodity control and distribution, financial control, and reporting) and help resolve critical managerial problems; (2) train PVO staff in potential developmental uses of FFP commodities and in the creative incorporation of these uses into project design; (3) provide TA in the design and implementation of CS and AD interventions and train 360 PVO staff in these areas; and (4) produce operations manuals in management areas and technical manuals covering CS and AD interventions. Beneficiaries will total at least 36,000 families (108,000 mothers and children under 6 years of age) for the CS component and 8,090 families for the AD component. Amendment of 9/29/88 funds two subprojects to reduce blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency, the first to be implemented by Project Concern International, the second by Save the Children. See abstract of PD-AAY-458 in the DOCUMENT data base for a fuller description. Amendment of 5/26/92 extends the project 18 months and transforms it into a democratic initiatives project; its revised goal is to increase citizen participation in municipal decisionmaking, and use FFW resources to improve municipal infrastructure and provide short-term employment in poor neighborhoods of 3 cities -- El Alto, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz -- and 9 surrounding towns. The majority of these sites are in the Cochabamba Region. Working with municipal staff, Caritas, and ADRA, PAI will train 1.040 community leaders to directly participate in the selection and implementation of FFW projects in their neighborhoods. A total of 175 projects will be implemented, employing some 13,800 persons each month, and thereby slowing migration to coca-growing areas. PAI will also train 173 municipal, Caritas, and ADRA officials in the promotion of participatory decisionmaking. (PD- ABE-580)