Project ID: 1333 Empowerment of Rural Poor Organizations and Harmonization of Investments ( Paraguay Rural ) Project The project will essentially: (a) support the strengthening and creation of social capital through training for beneficiaries and their organizations; (b) harmonize ongoing poverty-reduction investments financed by other organizations - using a demand-driven approach based on direct participation and selection of initiatives by beneficiary organizations; and (c) establish a forum for policy dialogue between the Government and the donor community for supporting rural development and poverty reduction processes and coordinating activities. The project's main outcome would be to ‘graduate' poor smallholders' organizations through the accumulation of social capital so that they can participate in project activities and access the services of other investment projects (mainly those funded by the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank). The direct project beneficiaries will be 19 000 rural poor families representing approximately 120 000 individuals. The group will include: (a) small-scale producers whose production units have been affected by 10 years of declining success of traditional cotton production models and who lack the financial or technical capacity to adopt new technologies or diversify production activities; and (b) small-scale farmers whose production units have very low productivity and limited potential. These two subgroups will account for 60% of all direct project beneficiaries. The rest of the target group will be made up of indigenous groups, rural women who are heads of household and rural workers. The project will strongly support vulnerable groups, including indigenous people and rural youth. The prospective project beneficiaries are generally organized in cooperatives, producer associations, committees and neighbourhood groups or associations. The project will directly address the needs of organizations of rural peasants and their families. Beneficiaries will participate directly through their organizations in a demand-generation process that includes self-diagnosis and formulating a vision for the future. To do so, beneficiary organizations will be assisted by other farmers who have already been trained and who are members of the same beneficiary organization. Beneficiaries will be involved directly since they will be responsible for identifying possible new business ventures. They will develop their own business plans in order to access project funds; the project will provide them with the necessary technical assistance and training for this task. Beneficiaries will not only identify possible business ventures but their representatives will sit on the selection committees that will evaluate proposals and decide on funding for initiatives in a competitive manner. When possible, the project will provide funds directly to the organizations in order to implement proposed business ventures. Beneficiaries will also sit on the project's steering committee and attend meetings of the policy dialogue forum. Many features of the project design are based on the successful results of the IFAD-funded Management of Natural Resources in the Southern Highlands Project in Peru. Loan Amount SDR 7.85 million (equivalent to approximately USD 12.0 million) Total project cost:USD 14.4 million Cooperating Institution: United Nations Office for Project Services
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