The Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) announced today the approval of a US$4.7 million grant to strengthen grassroots organizations to fight poverty in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru.
The purpose of the project is to consolidate a model for grassroots development, organizational strengthening and income generation through partnerships between grassroots and business organizations.
The program will be carried out in partnership with RedEAmerica, a network of more than 50 foundations and business organizations in various countries in the region focused on leveraging resources to support grassroot development projects. The executing agency will be the Corporación Consorcio para el Desarrollo Comunitario, a nongovernmental organization in Colombia with experience in developing low-income population organizations in different regions and urban and rural areas, with a new vision of community building and social participation.
“The productive potential of producer and microentrepreneur groups at the base of the region’s economic pyramid is limited by the economic and social exclusion in which they live, preventing them from having access to basic financial and business development services,” explained MIF team leader Daniel Shepherd. “Grassroots development is about empowering the collective-action capabilities of organizations sustained through community participation and focused on providing opportunities to disadvantaged groups. With the participation of the RedEAmerica network, this project presents a wonderful opportunity to partner with the leading private company foundations in the region.”
The initiative will improve the economic conditions of thousands of poor families with links to at least 750 grassroots organizations in the seven participating countries. “The institutional strengthening of the organizations in partnership with the company foundations will enable low-income families to have better access to income generating opportunities,” said Shepherd. “Also 80 of the organizations will be selected on a competitive basis to receive financing for small-scale, grassroots economic development projects that help raise the incomes of productive groups living in poverty.”
Local counterpart funds provided by the Consortium and the members of RedEAmerica will total US$3.6 million.
MIF, an autonomous fund administered by the IDB, supports private sector development in Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on microenterprise and small business.