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Developing Business with the Rural Poor Programme
Cao Bang and Ben Tre Province
The goal of the Programme is to contribute to sustainable and equitable reduction in rural poverty, whereas the purpose of the Programme is to empower rural poor households to benefit from profitable, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable business opportunities.
Project components
Component 1: Improving the Business and Investment Environment
The objective of this Component shall be the adoption and enforcement of provincial policies, strategies and procedures, strengthening private sector participation in a more efficient, competitive and pro-poor market environment through the following Sub-components and activities:
Ben Tre:
(a) Raising Provincial Competitiveness. Preparation and implementation of a strategy and action plan to raise provincial competitiveness, with special emphasis on promoting rural business enterprises that directly benefit the rural poor.
(b) Strengthening Business Facilitation Agencies. Capacity building of agencies to facilitate business through registration, supervision, supply of investment, business information and promotion of BT, its products and opportunities.
(c) Pilot Public/Private Partnerships. Assessment and potential investment in public/private partnerships (PPP) in environmental management, with special relevance for poorer rural people.
Cao Bang:
(a) Raising Provincial Competitiveness. Support for the development of a competitiveness policy with a specific pro-poor focus.
(b) Improving Efficiency and Impact of Equitised Enterprises. Improving the technical, financial management and marketing of formerly state-owned enterprises.15
(c) Environment Planning. Preparation of an environment management plan focusing on:
(d) the impact of current and potential activity on the resource base of the rural poor, and practical enforcement measures.
Component 2: Rural Business Development Services
In order to develop value chains responding to consumer demand and providing sustainable competitive advantage to enterprises, the Programme shall support the following Sub-components and activities:
a) Value Chain Development Services, through:
(i) Strategic analysis of key opportunities and assessment of value chains and surveys of the markets for business development services;
(ii) capacity building of existing and new entrepreneurs in the preparation of business plans, business management, design of services for links in value chains and technical matters to relate with rural producers;
(iii) integration with the agricultural market information systems being developed by MARD;
(iv) provision of basic communications equipment to CIGs for access to market information;
(v) collection and exchange of labour market information from both demand and supply sides; and
(vi) introduction of food safety standards to ensure public health and to increase marketability of crop and livestock products beyond the Programme Provinces.
(b) Farm Productivity Improvement, through:
(i) Strengthening of extension services and mass organisations to provide advice tailored to farmers’ needs and based on value chain analyses;
(ii) upgrading an agricultural technology transfer centre to carry out applied and adaptive research in response to requests from farmers, CIGs and mass organisations (BT only); an
(iii) support for contractual linkages between farmers and enterprises in response to requests from CIGs, mass organisations and other rural groups.
(c) Rural Finance, through:
(i) Establishment of a line of credit in each Programme Province through VBARD Provincial Branch; and
(ii) contributions to loan assurance funds made available in each Programme Province;
Component 3: Expanding Market Access for the Rural Poor
In order to enhance participation of the rural poor in integrated and profitable markets, the Programme shall support the following:
(a) Enhancing Common Interest Groups (CIGs), by:
(i) Training of CIGs on formation and management of groups, value chain approaches, marketing matters and savings and credit (especially for women);
(ii) increasing awareness of small-scale farmers on contract farming;
(iii) on-site trainings and field visits for CIG members to investigate market opportunities; and
(iv) formation and operation of savings and credit groups (Cao Bang only).
(b) Participatory Investment Prioritisation and Implementation, through:
(i) Planning exercise in each village of the selected communes to identify the highest priorities for investment and business linkages; and
(ii) preparation and implementation of participatory market oriented Commune development plans.
(c) Commune Investments, through investments in infrastructure, production and marketing facilities, services or capacity building, to be financed by the CIF.
Component 4: Programme Management
In order to achieve efficient management and to increase the capacity of the Programme Provinces’ institutions for future Project and Programme management, the following activities shall be supported:
(a) Establishment of the Provincial Project Steering Committee (PPSC), Provincial Project Management Units (PPMUs), District Project Management Offices (DPMOs) in each of the Project Districts and Commune Development Boards (CDBs) and Community Supervision Boards (CSBs) in each of the Communes of the Programme Area; and (b) involvement of other key line agencies and existing administrative units in the implementation of the Programme.
Component 5: Programme Quality
The Component shall finance the following activities: (a) Capacity Building of, among others, MPI, MOF, Office of the Government, MARD and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Borrower to plan, manage and monitor development performance of Fund-supported rural poverty reduction projects/programmes;
Programme Quality Management Facility: to mobilise technical assistance from institutes, consultation companies, NGOs to conduct issue-oriented or problem-solving assessment for making managerial decisions in cooperation with the Fund; and
Competitive Facility for Policy Development: to document and broadcast experiences and lessons learned from the Fund-supported projects and programmes in the Borrower’s territory for policy development.
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