Fighting poverty in South America

SNV is expanding its geographical reach by undertaking a new project that extends across six South American countries and involves analysing the effectiveness of a programme aimed at improving the conditions of low-income communities.

SNV is evaluating the impact of PorAmerica's programme Strengthening Grassroots Organisations to Fight Poverty - a programme that focuses on 70 initiatives in 6 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru) and aims to improve the economic conditions of communities living in poverty. The projects are part of various sectors such as agribusiness, fishing, recycling, construction and handicrafts.

The programme’s main goal is to consolidate a model for grassroots development, strengthen local businesses and generate income through partnerships between community-based organisations and the private sector. The evaluation of the PorAmerica programme is managed from the SNV Peru office.

SNV is now measuring the programme’s performance by analysing its effectiveness in bolstering economic standards and combating poverty. We are looking at how these initiatives have improved the lives of low-income families, and we will make recommendations for future initiatives of this kind based on our findings.

Karime Pavez, SNV Project Manager, is excited about the project but is realistic about the challenges: “The scale of this project poses the greatest challenge. We have to conduct our analyses across six countries, evaluating a significant number of initiatives in a limited period of time. However, it represents an important opportunity for SNV to open markets in other countries.”

About the programme

The Strengthening Grassroots Organisations to Fight Poverty programme is an initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and is implemented by Corporación Consorcio para el Desarrollo Comunitario (Consortium for Community Development Corporation).

This programme aims to transfer resources directly to grassroots organisation, who must self-manage rather than just receive the final products or services. The role of the private sector is to support the effective and efficient management of those resources.