PRODEL

USAID’s Ecuador Local Economic Development program—or “Programa de Desarrollo Economico Local” (PRODEL), as it is known locally in Ecuador—was launched in November 2007 to identify and address major opportunities and constraints to growth in the market system, while ensuring sustainable impact at the household level. Awarded through the FIELD-Support LWA and led by ACDI/VOCA, PRODEL builds on the important role both private and public sector actors play in overcoming obstacles to sustained growth, such as producers’ physical isolation, their limited knowledge of end-market requirements, difficulty in accessing financing for working capital or investments, or challenges attaining economies of scale for profitable participation in value chains.

Working with lead or anchor firms in a value chain can help multiply results and significantly increase incomes for low-income populations. In this FIELD Brief, we explore how PRODEL is leveraging these anchor firms in order to increase the economic potential and outputs of low-income farming communities in Ecuador’s vulnerable geographic areas.

The neighborhood of Yamalaca in Olmedo, in Ecuador’s southern-most province of Loja, is historically known for its high quality coffee production. However, a range of factors, including aging plantations, soil erosion, strong winds, pests and diseases, low coffee prices, and limited technological renewal, have left the coffee farmers unmotivated when faced with the prospect of maintaining an unproductive coffee farm. As a result, many of the local farmers have abandoned coffee farming over the years. In 2010, USAID’s PRODEL program began working there and has supported a shifting of the tides and the Yamalaca community is motivated to reclaim their historical standing as high quality coffee growers.

Download the PDF to find out how a public private partnership is bringing small coffee producers in Southern Ecuador to the world stage.

In an ancient tradition, indigenous Amazonian families drink guayusa from gourds around a communal fire and to share dreams, music and myths. Indigenous farmers say this tradition is essential to what makes them “Runa”—fully living human beings. In 2009, three students teamed up with communities of indigenous farmers from Ecuador’s Northern Amazon Region to share the guayusa (why-you-suh) drink and ritual with the rest of the world.

The resulting enterprise, RunaTarpuna or Runa, was established as a business that respects cultural traditions, supports small farmers, and helps the Amazon rainforest thrive. In 2010, Runa partnered with USAID’s PRODEL program in Ecuador to expand its production, improve product quality, and reinforce its entrance into the world market.

Download the PDF to read more.

The Ecuador Local Business Development program, known locally as PRODEL, is an associate award under the FIELD-Support LWA. PRODEL and its follow-on PRODEL II, seek to improve livelihoods for families in the northern and southern border regions of Ecuador by supporting the expansion of private enterprises that have the potential to rapidly generate income and employment.

PRODEL uses a value chain approach, identifying and addressing major opportunities and constraints to growth while ensuring sustainable impact at the household level. Specifically, the program targets interventions at lead firms (or anchor firms) and the linkages within that anchor firm’s business system, reaching ultimately to microenterprises and their families. Program interventions address constraints to the anchor firm’s ability to grow while facilitating the growth of its suppliers and buyers, hence impacting the whole value chain.