COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION THROUGH DEMOCRATIC ACTION – ECONOMY PROGRAM FINAL REPORT JULY 15, 2001 – JULY 15, 2007 AGREEMENT NUMBER: 169-A-00-01-00124-00 Submitted to USAID/Serbia By America's Development Foundation October 2007 America’s Development Foundation 101 North Union Street, Suite 200 Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Tel. (703) 836-2717 www.adfusa.org List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ADF America’s Development Foundation AoR Area of Responsibility ASB Arbeiter Samariter Bund Deutschland BSRC Business Service Resource Center CBC Cross Border Cooperation CDA Community Development Association CDC Community Development Center CE "Conformité Européene" CHF Cooperative Housing Federation CRDA Community Revitalization through Democratic Action CRDA-E Community Revitalization through Democratic Action – Economy EAR European Agency for Reconstruction EU European Union FI Flag International FPRH Family Planning and Reproductive Health HACCP Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points IESC International Executive Service Corps IFC International Finance Corporation IR Intermediate Result LED Local Economic Development MAFWM Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management MEGA Municipal Economic Growth Activity MZ Mesna Zajednica PRS Project Reporting System SIEPA Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency SO Strategic Objective SWG Sectoral Working Group T&TA Training and Technical Assistance TOT Training of Trainers USDA US Department of Agriculture WB World Bank I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 II. PROGRAM OVERVIEW 6 II.1. Background 6 II.2. Methodology 6 II.2.1. The ADF Team 6 II.2.2. Program Design 7 II.2.3. Selection of Municipalities and Communities / Geographical Coverage 7 II.2.4. Community Mobilization 8 Clustering as an approach 12 Program change – CRDA becomes CRDA-E 12 II.2.5. Public outreach and education 13 II.2.6. Monitoring and Evaluation 14 III. PROGRAM PROGRESS AND ACHIEVEMENTS 15 III.1. Agriculture Sector Development 15 III.1.1. Organization of Farmer Associations and Cooperatives to Improve Rural Livelihoods 16 III.1.2. Organization of Marketing Federations 20 III.1.3. Agricultural Assistance by Sector 22 III.1.4. Training and Technical Assistance and Other Activities 31 III.2. Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Development 35 III.2.1. Access to Capital 36 III.2.2. Institutional Capacity Building and Access to Business Advisory Services 38 III.2.3. Access to Technology and Markets 42 III.3. Trade and Market Access 45 III.3.1. HACCP and ISO Certification Programs 46 III.3.2. Best of Vojvodina Branding and Certification Program 47 III.3.3. Study Tours 48 III.3.4. Fairs and Other Promotional Activities 49 III.3.5. Other Cross Border Business Activities 50 III.4. Tourism 51 III.4.1. Festivals 52 III.4.2. Regional Tourism Strategies 55 III.4.3. Tourism infrastructure and related projects 56 III.4.4. Promotional campaigns 58 III.5. Economic Environment and Infrastructure 59 III.5.1. Local Economic Development Planning Process 60 III.5.2. Citizens Assistance Centers 64 III.5.3. Other Economic and Social Infrastructure Projects 66 III.5.4. Community Development Associations 83 III.5.5. Community Development Centers 86 III.6. Special Initiatives 88 III.6.1. Family Planning and Reproductive Health 88 III.6.2. Earth-Day and Other Environmental Awareness Activities 92 III.6.3. Flood Relief 95 IV. Results Reporting 96 IV.1. S.O. 2.1. Increased, Better Informed Citizens’ Participation in Political and Economic Decision-Making 96 IV.2. I.R. 2.1.1 Citizens improve their living conditions through participation in community development committees 97 IV.3. I.R. 2.1.4 Broadened minority participation in the political process and decision-making 101 V. Coordination with Partner Implementing Organizations 104 V.1. Work with Other CRDA Partners 104 V.2. Linkages with Other U.S. Government Programs 105 V.3. Leveraging of Funds and Linkages with Other Donors 106 V.3.1. International Donor Organizations 106 V.3.2. National and Provincial Ministries 107 V.3.3. Local Governments, Private Sector and Others 108 VI. Environmental Compliance 110 VII. Program Expenditures 111 VIII. ADF CRDA-E Staff 112 IX. USAID/Serbia 113 Annexes ADF CRDA Area of Responsibility with Demographics of the Area A-1 ADF’s CRDA Program Flowchart A-5 Market Chain Model A-8 List of Bank Fairs and Participating Organizations A-10 Percent of Population in CRDA Communities that Participate A-11 in Civil Society Activities (Strategic Objective 2.1 Indicator) Percent of Population in CRDA Communities Benefiting from A-13 Committee Activities (Intermediate Result 2.1.1 Indicator 2) Number of committees where membership is at least 30 percent A-15 women and minorities (Intermediate Result 2.1.4 Indicator 1) FPRH Earmarked Projects A-27 ADF CRDA/CRDA-E List of Projects A-28 CRDA-E F INAL R EPORT (JULY 2001 – J ULY 2007) I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Community Revitalization through Democratic Action (CRDA) Program is a civil society program focusing on community development activities that demonstrates the value of citizen participation. CRDA mobilizes citizens to improve their quality of life and supports grassroots democratic action to bring immediate improvement of living conditions in communities. CRDA was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from July 2001 – 2007. America’s Development Foundation (ADF) was awarded $40 million from USAID for implementing CRDA in Serbia. In 2001, when USAID launched the Community Revitalization through Democratic Action Program, Serbia’s people and government faced numerous social and economic problems inherited from former President Milosevic’s regime and the legacies of socialism. In addition to the new challenges emerging in the process of Serbia’s European integration, assistance was needed to strengthen the still fragile democratic processes, revitalize the ruined economy, stimulate the nascent private sector, and increase public transparency and accountability. CRDA was launched as a civil society development program pursuing three broad goals: • mobilize citizens to engage in improving their quality of life; • promote economic development in local communities; and • build mutual trust between citizens and local government. CRDA was implemented by organizing locally formed community committees responsible for identifying and prioritizing community needs, mobilizing community and other resources, and monitoring the implementation of projects. In 2004, CRDA evolved into CRDA-E (Community Revitalization through Democratic Action - Economy), a predominantly economic development program promoting increased local economic development and job creation to immediately improve people’s living conditions. CRDA and CRDA-E are used interchangebly throughout this report. The CRDA program was implemented under USAID/Serbia’s Strategic Objective 2.1: Increased better informed citizens’ participation in political and economic decision-making. ADF’s Area of Responsibility (AoR) covered 26 municipalities including 14 municipalities in the multi-ethnic, agriculturally fertile region of Vojvodina and a cluster of 12 municipalities in Eastern Serbia. ADF utilized a community outreach approach that included organizing community committees, holding open citizens meetings, and developing community mobilization and capacity building efforts to increase citizen participation, raise public awareness, build citizen networks, identify community priorities, develop local leadership, promote advocacy and increase public transparency and accountability. The ADF CRDA program mobilized communities in over 26 municipalities in Vojvodina and Eastern Serbia. The CRDA Program established linkages with other USG programs and leveraged USAID resources through joint initiatives with other international donors, national and provincial governments, local authorities and the private sector. The matching contributions of the CRDA program implemented by ADF totaled more than $30 million, comprising 60% of A MERICA’ S D EVELOPMENT F OUNDATION PAGE 1 CRDA-E F INAL R EPORT (JULY 2001 – J ULY 2007) total project expenses and maximizing the impact of the CRDA program and the sustainability of its projects. The CRDA/CRDA-E program implemented by ADF completed a total of 1,035 projects as outlined in the following charts. Table 1. Completed projects broken down by CRDA-E and the original four CRDA pillars Pillar # of Projects % USAID Funds % Matching % Total Cost % CRDA-E 225 22 $5,140,762 26 $9,874,666 33% $15,015,428 30% Civic 256 25 $4,420,847 22 $6,614,209 22% $11,035,056 22% Participation Civil Works 255 25 $6,617,585 33 $7,590,797 25% $14,208,382 28% Income 127 12 $2,237,351 11 $4,487,191 15% $6,724,542 13% Generating Environment 172 17 $1,681,551 8 $1,596,829 5% $3,278,380 7% CRDA Pillars Subtotal 810 78 $14,957,332 74 $20,289,027 67% $35,246,360 70% Total 1,035 100 $20,089,094 100 $30,163,693 100% $50,261,787 100% Table 2 . Completed projects broken down by sector / areas of support USAID Total Project Sector # of Projects % % Matching % % Funds Cost Agriculture Sector 152 15 $3,839,192 19 $9,425,864 31 $13,265,056 26 Development Small and Medium 35 3 $947,317 5 $1,459,088 5 $2,406,405 5 Enterprise Development Trade Promotion and 11 1 $388,285 2 $938,873 3 $1,327,158 3 Market Access Tourism Sector 46 4 $936,784 5 $1,577,065 5 $2,513,849 5 Development Economic Environment 591 57 $12,320,753 61 $15,149,687 50 $27,470,440 55 and Infrastructure Special Initiatives 200 19 $1,665,764 8 $1,613,115 5 $3,278,879 7 Total 1,035 100 $20,098,094 100 $30,163,693 100 $50,261,787 100 Agriculture Sector Development Projects Technical assistance was provided to organize farmers into economically self-sustaining cooperatives and achieve competitive advantages to local producers such as decreased production costs, improved sales terms, greater market access, and increased availability of credit. Cooperatives and agricultural associations were strengthened by CRDA through the provision of production and processing equipment such as greenhouses, irrigation systems, harvesters, packing equipment, and cold storages.