Accelerated
Economic Growth Program Partners
USAID works with many partners to reach its accelerated economic
growth strategic objective. Its main implementing partners are
the following organizations:
Catholic Relief Service (CRS)
http://www.crs.org
Development of Candlenut Enterprises
CRS implements USAID’s project Development of Candlenut
Enterprises in Timor-Leste. The project aims to systematically
improve the competitiveness of the Timor-Leste candlenut by
addressing the weaknesses in every step of the value chain,
from the gathering and drying of candlenut up to the sale and
transport of the finished product.
Land O’Lakes (LOL)
http://www.idd.landolakes.com
Building Agribusiness Capacity
LOL implements USAID’s project Building Agribusiness Capacity
in Timor-Leste. The project focuses on: the development of one-year
post high school certificate program in agribusiness; development
of networked technical resource centers, and strengthening linkages
between communities and schools.
Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI)
http://www.dai.com
Private-Sector Development Program/Small Grants Program
DAI manages USAID's Private-Sector Development Program that
focuses on building the vital market linkages that the small
and medium scale enterprises need to grow. The program supports
the development of a more productive and diversified rural sector,
works to increase access to and use of financial services, and
generally encourages entrepreneurship. DAI also manages USAID's
Small Grants Program (SGP). SGP provides USAID with a responsive
funding mechanism that supports all three of USAID’s areas
of strategic focus. After identifying significant funding and
skills gaps around the country, SGP has worked with local partners
in the schools and training institutions, NGO sector, and government
to provide practical agricultural skills and lay the foundations
for entrepreneurship by improving literacy, numeracy, and financial
management. Youth groups also receive targeted practical skills
trainings. To stimulate small enterprises, microfinance projects
worth $500,000 have expanded access to credit for more than
1,000 poor women and their families across the country.
National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA)
http://www.ncba.coop
NCBA established and continues to support the Union of Coffee
Cooperatives of Timor (UCCT), a federation of Timorese-owned
agricultural and business cooperatives that produces and exports
premium organic coffee to the world's specialty coffee market
and currently provides employment to 20,000 farmers, 3,500 seasonal
processing workers, and 300 full-time staff. Through its Timor
Economic Rehabilitation and Development Project, NCBA also:
helps UCCT introduce and support high-value niche export market
commodities such as vanilla; supports small retail enterprises;
supports UCCT's small business and cooperative training center
and its Timor-Leste Coffee Academy; and helps farmers learn how
to fatten cattle for the domestic and Indonesian markets.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
http://www.undp.org.tl
Through UNDP, USAID has funded expert advisors
to help the government draft practicable economic development
and investment policies and legislation that encourage the expansion
of the financial sector. In the Ministry of Development, USAID
has funded a senior advisor to the Minister to focus on drafting
economic policies and legislation. To assist in Timor-Leste's
efforts to attract international investors, USAID has funded
an advisor to the government's "one-stop" foreign
investment office, Trade/Invest Timor-Leste. USAID has also
funded a senior economic advisor to the government's Secretary
of State for Oecussi, Timor-Leste's exclave district located
wholly within Indonesia's West Timor province.
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