SCF/CDF integrated rural development OPG

SCF/Colombia will implement the project, largely by coordinating CBIRD efforts of local agencies. A multi-faceted training program will be a major project component. This program will include: (1) local workshops, conducted by Government of Colombia (GOC) agencies with SCF/C help, to promote community participation in CBIRD and provide local groups with related planning, technical, and business skills; (2) programs to be developed by a new SCF/C direct hire to promote women"s participation in CBIRD; (3) CBIRD-related training to community resource people (community leaders, local agronomists, PCV"s, teachers, nurses, and health aides), GOC and PVO personnel holding important important posts in the market towns of Sibundoy and Guadalupe (these officials will work as extensionists to Sumapaz), and SCF administrators and regional and national GOC officials; and (4) graduate training for the CDF/SFC-Colombia program director and two GOC counterparts to help institutionalize the CBIRD approach. A construction component will build/renovate: primary and high schools; demonstration farms suitable to the needs of the three municipalities (SFC/C will finance all experiments in agriculture and animal husbandry, activities for which farmers will receive local TA); child care and small health centers in or near primary and high schools; above- and below-ground crop storage structures; a crop drainage system for Sibundoy farm; community potable water systems at Sibundoy and Guadelupe; roads in Guadalupe and Sumpaz and, with the Inter-American Foundation, a model penetration road for Sibundoy; and two one-lane bridges. Much of this construction will be provided by Community Action, a local company, using village labor. The Ministry of Health will expand health delivery services to the three target areas by training health workers in preventative medicine and curative practices at MOH headquarters in Guadalupe and by placing a doctor and/or a nurse in each area. The project will also help form small businesses, commercial cooperatives, and a crop-reserve system.