PVO (private voluntary organizations) support

The project, which will be implemented by a U.S. PVO, will also strengthen the capacities of Rwandan PVOs to deliver business and financial services and entrepreneurial training to small and medium enterprises, associations, and cooperatives. The project will include two types of grants. (1) 5-7 Development Assistance Grants (DAGs) for enterprise assistance projects will be made to U.S. and/or Rwandan PVOs (or, in at least 2 cases, to U.S./Rwandan collaborative efforts). DAGs will be from 2-4 years in length and from $100,000 to $1 million in amount; all PVO recipients will match A.I.D. funds at a 25% level. (2) 14-16 Rwandan PVOs that do not yet meet A.I.D. registration criteria will receive Institutional Development Grants (IDGs), which will provide training, TA, and other support to the recipients. IDGs will be from 1-2 years in length and up to $150,000 in amount; recipients will match at a 12% level or more. IDGs may include modest funding for pilot activities which could later be expanded through other funding sources. TA and training for Rwandan PVOs will be provided either through the implementing U.S. PVO (a.k.a., the "Umbrella Management Unit", or UMU) and/or through provisions made in subgrants. The UMU will: provide one-on-one TA to PVOs in proposal development and subproject management; develop training materials in more generic areas of management development; and provide training to PVOs through workshops and seminars. Additional TA and training will be provided via U.S./indigenous PVO collaborative efforts under DAGs, while IDGs by their very nature are geared to TA and training for recipient PVOs. Through its training efforts, the UMU may also reach out to PVOs that are not grant recipients, and may strengthen local training institutions. Finally, the UMU will also collect up-to-date information on the PVO community in Rwanda, developing a data base which will be available to future projects and other donors. By the project end, 75-100 private enterprises, cooperatives, or associations will have received business and financial services and/or entrepreneurial training from the grantee PVOs; in addition, the rate of new non-farm business formation is expected to increase by 25%. Up to 25 PVOs will be providing business services to medium and small enterprises; some of these will also be providing financial services, including credit.