FROM RELIEF TO DEVELOPMENT

Since 1986, PFD has worked with a wide range of communities throughout the world to improve the lives of the vulnerable and underserved.  Its initial work as an emergency response organization began with providing grant management services to Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger) for projects in Sudan, Liberia, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. Beginning as an independent organization in 1992, PFD now focuses on providing sustainable, community-driven longer term development programs.

With its local partners, PFD has addressed issues relating to poverty, malnutrition, and preventable diseases through integrated activities in public health, safe drinking water and sanitation, secure livelihoods, and agricultural development. All PFD programs emphasize local partner participation through training programs, provision of technical assistance, and enhancement of non-governmental organization capabilities.

PFD efforts, therefore, have been distinguished by not only what we do but how we do it.  Specific program strategies and tools developed over the years include:

• Capacity building of NGOs and Community-based organizations;
• Selection,  training , supervision , and evaluation of village level workers;
• Micro-credit and village banking integrated with reproductive health and nutrition training;
• Empowerment of women;
• Development and marketing of tools for village and community surveys;
• Applied and operations research;
• Providing advice to Governments on sectoral implementation and planning;
• Disseminating innovative technologies such as hammock nets and bike driven water pumps in Cambodia, and a “chit system" for service provision;
• Establishing "Kids Clubs" for HIV-afflicted children and orphans
• Improving food security and nutrition
  

Throughout its existence, PFD has enjoyed a wide range of donor support for its work. PFD is recognized by the U.S. government to be a private, non-sectarian, charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is a registered and accredited organization with the US Agency for International Development and the US Department of Agriculture. These major US government donors have repeatedly demonstrated their confidence in PFD’s program approaches and competency.

PFD has won competitive awards from International entities including the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Australian Agency for International Development, the UN Fund for Population Activities, and others. Further support has been granted by private foundations and individual donors. In addition, PFD staff and Trustees have successfully established funding partnerships and program links with the European Union and two EU member countries, Poland and France. PFD is a legally recognized entity in each country in which it works. It is also a Guide Star- registered organization.

WHAT WE STAND FOR

PFD’s mission is to work with underserved populations in developing countries to improve quality of life. The central criterion for assistance is need, without regard to race, religion, age, sex, or ethnic group. We work in a manner such that local partners help design, implement, and assess programs to the greatest degree possible. This approach of collaborating with local counterparts leads to skill-development in key areas.

• Training local health-care providers in prevention and treatment of primary health-care problems.
• Providing technical assistance in start-up and support of small enterprises.
• Promoting growth and enhanced capabilities of many partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs) locally.

SUMMARY OF PFD PROGRAMS

CAMBODIA

PFD has been operational in Cambodia for over 19 years.  PFD began work in late 1992 focusing initially on establishing a clean-water supply in Kratie province. In recent years PFD has moved to address issues of entrenched poverty, malnutrition, and the prevalence of fatal but preventable diseases through an integrated approach in the sectors of public health, water and sanitation, income generation, agricultural growth and food security. PFD’s malaria prevention and control program, supported by the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria since 2004, works closely with the Ministry of Health’s National Center for Malaria and Dengue (CNM) to implement malaria prevention and control activities through village volunteers who work as malaria educators in their communities.

In November 2007, PFD commenced work on the USAID-funded Malaria Prevention and Control in Cambodia (MCC) Project in collaboration with University Research Corporation and the CNM. Activities are centered on the northwest provinces of Battambang, Pailin, Banteay Meanchey and Oddar Meanchey, which are focal points in the global issue of multi-drug resistant malaria.

NIGERIA

Since 2000, PFD has been implementing an integrated program in central and northern Nigeria, and more recently in the Niger Delta. Working with several Nigerian NGOs, PFD promotes improved agricultural production, processing, and marketing coupled with enhanced health care. PFD’s support of local NGOs strengthens such groups and therefore enhances local capacity; it also enables the program to have substantial outreach, as many local partners have extensive networks.

A key PFD innovation in Nigeria has been to incorporate reproductive health education among borrowers in a large micro-finance program.  In 2010, PFD's work to enhance communication about nutrition, safe motherhood and reproductive health through our micro-finance program supported over 30,000 women and their families in improving preventive health practices.  Through funding from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, PFD has also initiated a referral system, linking microcredit borrowers to local clinics.  In 2010 alone, over 14,000 borrowers were referred to clinics, 9,700 accepted family planning methods and 26,000 accessed services such as antenatal and post-natal care, delivery, clinic-based child welfare services, emergency obstetric care and counseling and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients.

With support from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), PFD helps deliver a comprehensive program of care, support and treatment for persons affected by HIV/AIDS through our CAMP program.  PFD also works with local agricultural producers and processors to increase livelihoods using a value chain approach.

The PFD Nigeria program also demonstrates PFD’s ability to coordinate and effectively apply resources from a variety of donors, including the World Bank, the US Department of Agriculture, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, the Irish Embassy, and USAID/Nigeria as of December 2009.

BENIN

In the fall of 2010, Partners for Development embarked on a micro-credit program in partnership with a local non-governmental organization, the Centre Béninois pour l’Environnement et le Développement Economique et Social (CEBEDES). Loan funding from PFD will enable CEBEDES to expand financial services to more borrowers in Benin, increasing small enterprise development and access to credit for the rural poor.

CEBEDES provides loans to 20,000 agricultural producers, processors and traders using a group enterprise approach and has achieved a 95% repayment rate.

LIBERIA

Beginning in 2010, in partnership with a leading local microfinance institution, Local Enterprise Assistance Program (LEAP), PFD initiated a new micro-credit program in Liberia. With  funding from Partners for Development, LEAP will be able to expand its financial services in seven counties of Liberia, further increasing opportunities for the rural poor to access credit and develop small enterprises.

PFD is particularly committed to expanding financial services in the central and southern territories of Liberia, where the population remains underserved despite significant international support.

TANZANIA

The Tanzania program, begun in late 2008, has a three-year core grant from USDA to implement an agricultural development program benefiting 31,250 small-holder farmers in several regions of Tanzania. The program goal is to diversify and increase the incomes of rural, small-holder farmers through the expansion and commercial utilization of Jatropha curcas, commonly referred to as Jatropha.

The program, called Jatropha Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative or JANI for short, is designed to improve food security and nutrition among participating households. The program builds upon the capacity of national partners to work with smallholder farmers to cultivate and process Jatropha, thereby mainstreaming Jatropha into the economy for industrial uses, contributing to national energy policy and creating income growth along the value-added chain.  Under our JANI program, Partners for Development offers training in bio-intensive gardening, solar powered food storage, preservation, marketing and nutrition education.  The JANI program also trains community vaccinators, providing free first vaccinations for chickens to local farmers against Newcastle disease, a disease which kills 70% of poultry each year in Tanzania.

PFD is currently developing a cooking stove fueled by jatropha seeds.  The two prototype models, Jiko Mbono and Jiko Safi, have proven to be more energy efficient than traditional cooking methods in independent testing.  Our innovative fuel pellets both increase the volume of renewable cooking fuel available to replace firewood and charcoal, and provide added value in the form of much sought-after Jatropha oil.  

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

From 1993 and for most of the 1990s, PFD assisted several war-torn central Bosnian municipalities in the following key areas: agricultural, economic, and environmental rehabilitation and development; reconstruction, shelter, and winterization; public health; and facilitation of ethnic reconciliation.

In recent years, PFD’s work in Bosnia and Herzegovina has evolved toward support of agricultural production and marketing, priority sectors identified by the government. A unique PFD program helped establish the State Veterinary Office (SVO) of BiH in accordance with EU Protocols and with accompanying training programs. PFD also helped to build a state of the art Border Veterinary Inspection Post (BVIP) at Raca in north-eastern BiH, bordering Serbia. Other program interventions have included addressing poor infrastructure, lack of market linkages, and technical support for local farmers.

Although PFD closed its field office in 2009, PFD continues to expand access to financial services for agricultural producers in the area

RWANDA

The Rwanda program, 1994-96, rehabilitated health and water infrastructure to help attract displaced Rwandans back to the country to rebuild. The program repaired 35 gravity-fed water systems and trained village committees to maintain the systems, thereby providing an estimated 55,000 persons with improved access to clean water.  It also repaired four health centers and trained the centers’ Rwandan staff, thus insuring primary health care to an estimated 2,100 persons weekly.  Finally, the program trained teachers in how to work with war-traumatized children and provided credit to 300 small groups of vulnerable women so that they might start income-generating activities.

SOMALIA

The Somalia program, 1993-97, assisted in the rehabilitation of primary health care in the northeast.  Community leaders and program staff identified communities in need and capable of managing health posts and/or Maternal and Child Health (MCH) clinics and then trained the personnel.  Thus, approximately 30,000 Somalis, particularly the most vulnerable population groups -- infants and children, pregnant and lactating women, the malnourished, and the sick -- received basic preventive and curative health care from Somali health care workers.  In addition, through the use of PRA, sanitation and income-generation activities were initiated in some communities.