Women's Economic Empowerment
Origination and Development of the Soy bean small holder farmers in Egypt”
This 46 page final evaluation on CARE Egypt, with the support of Cargill Inc. and Cargill Egypt, implementation of the “Origination and Development of the Soy bean small holder farmers” project in the governorates of Minia, Benisuef and Beheira. The purpose of the 3-year project was to support the communities through increasing agricultural linkages by working to improve socioeconomic conditions for rural communities by increasing local production of Soy beans to reach 6000 metric tons of Soy beans throughout the project life. The project cooperated with the government through Extension Officers, farmers through their cooperatives and professional think tanks through the Agricultural Research Centers. Read More...
PNG Coffee Industry Support Project Mid-term Evaluation Report
The Coffee Industry Support Project (CISP) is funded by the Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women) program and implemented by CARE International in Papua New Guinea (CARE). It supports coffee industry stakeholders in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea to mainstream gender equity in their policies, practices and approaches. CISP increases women’s access to training and extension services. It improves family business management practices so smallholder coffee farming families can work together more effectively. This enables the whole family to benefit from coffee production and income. This evaluation was a mid-term review of Phase 2, focusing on the period mid-2015 to early 2017. The evaluation assessed if the Project model was good value for money; the extent to which it was meeting its objectives; and to provide advice to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) on whether to fund the continuation of this phase [48 pages] Read More...
Improving Access to Safe Employment For Migrant Women in Myanmar
CARE International in Myanmar (CIM) implemented “Improving Access to Safe Employment for Migrant Women in urban Myanmar” (hereinafter referred to as “The Project”) between July 2013 and 30 June 2017, with funding from CARE Australia (CAUST), under the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) Australian NGO Cooperation Agreement Partnership (ANCP), with a total AU$2.5 million. [43 pages] Read More...
A-Card Progress and Prospects
A-card (A stands for Agriculture) is a brand new micro-credit mechanism, the only example in Bangladesh aimed at providing smallholder farmers financing to a digital purchase of farm inputs at a low cost (10%) through the formal financial system linked to a debit card and ICT-enabled platforms.
Addressing the problem of smallholder farmers' lack of access to finance required a consultation among different stakeholders particularly in finding an effective solution. It eventually led to the idea and design of the A-card model. In this regard, the USAID Agricultural Extension Support Activity (AESA) project's interventions effectively engaged with different stakeholders, including small-holder farmers, microfinance institutions (MFIs), formal lenders (i.e. banks) and rural agricultural inputs retailers. The aim of this collaboration was to work for a common goal with differentiated responsibilities. [14 pages] Read More...
Addressing the problem of smallholder farmers' lack of access to finance required a consultation among different stakeholders particularly in finding an effective solution. It eventually led to the idea and design of the A-card model. In this regard, the USAID Agricultural Extension Support Activity (AESA) project's interventions effectively engaged with different stakeholders, including small-holder farmers, microfinance institutions (MFIs), formal lenders (i.e. banks) and rural agricultural inputs retailers. The aim of this collaboration was to work for a common goal with differentiated responsibilities. [14 pages] Read More...
A-Card Pilot Initiative Impact Assessment
mSTAR/Bangladesh, working with the Agriculture Extension Support Activity (AESA) led by Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), conducted pre- and postassessments in Faridpur district to understand the impact that a micro-credit product (called A-Card) delivered to smallholder farmers through Bank Asia’s agent banking had on participating farmers, associated ag-input retailers, and other relevant stakeholders, as well as to understand what further action can be taken to improve uptake of these services.
This report includes findings from the pre- and post-assessment surveys, beginning with farmers and retailers’ demographic information, including age, sex and education; as well as their mobile phone ownership, access and usage patterns. It also examines the knowledge and perceptions that stakeholders have of digital financial services (DFS), in addition to their perceived benefits from A-Card, associated challenges, and opportunities to scale up. In addition, this report includes some findings from a separate survey conducted solely by AESA. It concludes with recommendations based on the findings and feedback from stakeholders. [28 pages] Read More...
This report includes findings from the pre- and post-assessment surveys, beginning with farmers and retailers’ demographic information, including age, sex and education; as well as their mobile phone ownership, access and usage patterns. It also examines the knowledge and perceptions that stakeholders have of digital financial services (DFS), in addition to their perceived benefits from A-Card, associated challenges, and opportunities to scale up. In addition, this report includes some findings from a separate survey conducted solely by AESA. It concludes with recommendations based on the findings and feedback from stakeholders. [28 pages] Read More...
Krishi Utsho 2017 Annual Report
Krishi Utsho has emerged as a transformative social enterprise over the past several years as a way to identify and bring about progressive advancement in the lives of small holder farmers. As a social enterprise Krishi Utsho (KU) is equivalent to a hybrid of social sector intervention and pure business entrepreneurship, a social venture that can address problems of self-sustainability in a social intervention initiative. To succeed, these ventures must adhere to both social goals and financial viability. Typically, this project’s aim is to benefit small holder farmers, in particular women. It aims to permanently transform their lives by altering a prevailing socioeconomic equilibrium that works to their disadvantage. More importantly, the beneficiary group is an economically disadvantaged or marginalized segment of society that doesn’t have the means to transform its social or economic prospects without assistance. To that end, project focuses on the most important yet often neglected, agricultural sector. [47 pages] Read More...
Zimbabwe ‘Cash First’ Humanitarian Response 2015–2017 Evaluation report
This report is an independent evaluation of the DFID-funded Zimbabwe Humanitarian Response 2015–2017, produced by Oxford Policy Management (OPM) in association with Humanitarian Outcomes. The evaluation was commissioned by CARE International in Zimbabwe. The evaluation was led by Andrew Kardan and the qualitative data collection was led by Sarah Bailey. An incountry workshop on the findings was conducted by Paul Harvey and Andrew Kardan. The evaluation’s design and research were also supported by Molly Scott, Marta Favara, Chris Hearle and Helen Morris. The qualitative data collection was conducted with support from Jimat Consulting. Finally Sheila Chikulo provided peer review inputs. [107 page] Read More...
Youth Empowerment Project Baseline Survey Report
In June 2014, Care International embarked on a baseline study for the Sida- funded Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP) in Zimbabwe. The study was done by a team comprising CARE International in Zimbabwe, its partners and an external consultant in nine of the eleven districts covered by YEP. The purpose of the study was to establish comprehensive baseline information that will be used to measure programme outcomes and impacts. The study would also serve as a benchmark for future measurement of the performance of the programme in contributing towards its overall goal of ‘increased economic and social participation of male and female youths in Zimbabwe.’ [90 pages] Read More...
Youth Empowerment Project End of Project Narrative Report
Premised on the unifying framework for poverty eradication and social justice, the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Zimbabwe (EoS) was developed to address individual, household and community level constraints that impact on the ability of youth to move out of poverty. The project was informed by conclusions drawn from the Youth Sector Analysis commissioned by the Embassy of Sweden in 2012 and emerging issues and recommendations from the Kupfuma Ishungu Microfinance Project (KIMFP) final evaluation results/findings. Initially a three year project starting November 2013 YEP was extended by a further three months to end in January 2017. [63 pages] Read More...
LFSP APN Rural Finance Technical Assistance Facility Phase 2
The quarter under review witnessed an exponential growth of MicroPlan’s portfolio under the Rural Finance Project. The total number of clients almost doubled from an annual 2016 cumulative figure of 982 in December 2016 to 1786 clients by March 2017 representing an 81% client growth (804 clients) across the five branches within three months. The total rural finance loan portfolio grew by 55% from annual cumulative total of USD 629, 726 in December 2016 to USD 975,947.75 in March 2017. This growth demonstrates the financial institution’s ability to create business and claim a significant market share in the rural areas and move the rural branches towards sustainability and profitability for long term operation in rural areas. [16 pages] Read More...