Finance for Enterprise Development and Employment Creation Project

The US$ 57.8 million development project aims at stimulating pro-poor growth to increase employment opportunities and reduce poverty. It started in January 2008 and will run until 2014.

FEDEC is designed as a nationwide project with focus on the rural areas. It is implemented and co-financed by the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), a government apex funding agency for NGOs, and its partner non-governmental organizations who are operating in all 64 districts of Bangladesh.

The project focuses on three major activities:

• Microenterprise loan. The project aims at enabling about 117,000 microenterprise borrowers, selected from existing microcredit groups, to expand their businesses and develop new ones.

• Strengthening of value chains. The project  supports the microentrepreneurs to add value to on-farm and off-farm products during the various stages of the market chain, from the purchase of raw materials to the sale of finished products.

• Training. FEDEC trains the beneficiaries to manage their businesses more effectively. It also trains partner organization staff in microenterprise lending and the appraisal of small business
  ventures.

Expected benefits of the project are an increased production from farm and non-farm enterprises, better integration with markets, upgrading of technologies, improved livelihoods for microentrepreneurs and associated employees. Other benefits include improved household food security and nutrition, empowerment of women, access to sustainable financial services for the target group, improved capacity of partner organizations to provide technical services to microentrepreneurs as well as an increase in employment opportunities for rural poor households.
 

Source: IFAD