Mennonite Economic DevelopmentAssociates of Canada

Published purpose

The project aims to help local businesses develop financial and technology-related products and services, so they can better respond to the needs of smallholder farmers and enterprises in Zambia, Nicaragua and Peru. The program has two components: 1) Technology Links for Financial Services : MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates of Canada) works with MiCredito, a microfinance institutions in Nicaragua and Mobile Transaction Zambia Limited (MTZL), a mobile transaction company in Zambia to develop mobile transactions and mobile banking services to support increased savings among smallholder farmers; 2) Technology Links for Agriculture: MEDA supports an Agriculture Technology Matching Grant Fund in Peru and Nicaragua with the Inter American Development Bank. The Fund provides grants funding to local private sector firms to develop agricultural technologies that address the needs of small farmers. CIDA's contribution supports technical assistance related to the management and administration of the Fund. The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: rural households, enterprises, and farmers, including women, demonstrate increased usage of new technologies and financial services to increase their productivity, build assets and/or mitigate risk; enhanced capacity of local partners (private sector providers of financial or agriculture support services) to provide appropriate and more diversified products and services to rural households, enterprises, and farmers, including women; and technology-based products and services are integrated into competitive agricultural value chains, and results, methodologies and lessons learned are shared with a range of audiences.