Design and implementation of rural outreach strategies for financial institutions in Zimbabwe under the LFSP-APN programme
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is making a public call for expression of interest to the following two types of entities: (i) all financial institutions currently operating in Zimbabwe and (ii) technical assistance providers specialized in the promotion of rural and agricultural financial services, in order to participate in the Zimbabwe Livelihoods and Food Security Programme - Agriculture Productivity and Nutrition component (LFSP-APN).
FAO is responsible for the overall management of the LFSP-APN in Zimbabwe, which has a four-year duration, a total budget of GBP 30 million, and is funded by The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). The programme will contribute to poverty reduction through increased incomes and improved food security and nutrition among vulnerable smallholder families in eight target districts: Mutare, Makoni, Mutasa (Manicaland); Kwekwe, Gokwe South, Shurugwi (Midlands); Guruve, and Mt Darwin (Mashonaland Central).
The LFSP-APN aims to achieve its development goals through two subcomponents: (1) Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) and (2) Rural Finance (RF). The first subcomponent, EAS, will introduce and mainstream client-oriented, participatory and gender-balanced strategies for extension and advisory services that reach beyond the confines of agronomic advice to include topics such as nutrition, business development and market linkages, strengthening of farmer organizations and access to community-based microfinance services. The EAS will actively address the specific constraints that smallholder families, particularly women, face in raising the productivity of their farms, participating in more profitable markets and making their enterprises feasible and resilient.
As a critical complement, the RF subcomponent aims to promote further outreach and depth of rural financial markets in target districts, thereby enabling access to a wide set of financial services that respond to the needs of target households. This is to be done by facilitating a process whereby financial institutions (FIs) such as banks and microfinance institutions operating in the country receive technical assistance to service the agricultural and non-agricultural financial needs of smallholder families and their market partners in a client-responsive, cost-effective and sustainable way.
FAO would like to invite financial institutions (FIs) in Zimbabwe and local or international technical assistance (TA) providers to express interest in participating in the RF subcomponent by sending general information as specified in Appendix I (for FIs) and Appendix II (for TA providers). Minimum requirements for participation are mentioned in these appendices. The deadline for submission is November 17th 2014, 16:00PM (Harare time, GMT+2).