Linkages between activities will not happen on their own. The design of the Productive Development Project included three Activities. In particular, it was envisioned that the Production and Business Services Activity (PBS) and the Investment Support Activity would work together. Producers receiving technical assistance and training under PBS were to receive help developing business plans to access credit under the Investment Support Activity. By July 2011, at least 15 PBS participants were approved for loans out of a total of 44 approved loans (34 percent). This was not the level of interaction originally envisioned between the two activities. Incentives or requirements could have been included in implementer contracts to ensure that the two activities worked together. In addition, the targeted beneficiaries of each activity could have been aligned so that there was more overlap. The minimum loan amount of $50,000 under the Investment Support Activity may have been the primary reason for the lack of integration between PBS (which generally served small, poor producers) and the Investment Support Activity (which generally served small- and medium-scale business owners).
Lesson Learned