Ecuador Local Business Development (LBD) Program/PRODEL II

In November 2007, USAID issued the Ecuador Local Business Development (LBD) Associate Award, or “Programa del Desarrollo de Empresas Locales,” or PRODEL as it is known locally in Ecuador, and its follow-on, PRODEL II, in 2009. 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, and hence impacting the whole value chain.

PRODEL uses an Economic Development Fund to provide technical and co-financing assistance to the twenty identified anchor firms that is tailored to their specific needs. The assistance packages include a combination of market development, financing, accounting, management assistance and skills training, depending on the specific challenges facing each firm. PRODEL collaborates with banks, finance companies and microfinance institutions to facilitate additional credit to participating anchor firms and producer groups.

Project Updates and Achievements

PRODEL works with anchor firms to identify and analyze policy-related constraints and constructively contribute to municipal- level planning and decision-making to improve the local business climate; provides demand-driven assistance packages, including technical assistance, financing and targeted training, to stimulate and facilitate increased investments; and ensures inclusion of women, trains participating anchor firms to promote socially responsible practices, and makes environmental considerations an integral part of the design and execution of the program. To date, PRODEL’s achievements have included:

• Through the EDF, PRODEL assisted 22 anchor firms to hire a total of 42 field technicians and local staff to strengthen producer groups that supply coffee, cacao, grains, seafood, fruit, and dairy products. The technical assistance focuses on improving productivity and quality.
• PRODEL has trained 12,776 families that are now applying new productivity and quality enhancing techniques on their farms and productive units.
• A total of 11,850 full-time equivalent jobs have been created for families that were dedicated to improving their farms and applying technical recommendations received through PRODEL.
• A total of 92 technical advisors from 39 development agencies, NGOs, and regional governments have received training in the Farmers Field Schools (FFS) methodology and in Integrated Pest Management (IPM), in Esmeraldas, the Amazon, and the Southern Border Region.