14 RESILIENCE PROGRAMMING AMONG NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS


enhanced resilience for the poor. NGO consortium mem- bers persuaded microfinance institution (MFI) partners to extend credit to PSNP households for the first time by promoting MFI trust in the project’s causal model5


and


providing “guarantee” or “seed” funds to lenders, which helped MFIs overcome resource limitations on extending credit to the poor. In a context in which MFIs had been highly regulated, including being restricted from provid- ing loans to nonregistered groups such as VSLAs, CARE led other consortium members in sensitizing relevant government officials to the potential of the VSLA model for creating financial assets among chronically vulner- able communities. In response, rather than extending credit through the Ministry of Finance, the government’s Household Asset Building Program now elects to promote financial services through existing MFIs and rural savings and credit cooperatives. MFIs also credit PSNP consor- tium members with establishing formal linkages with them and helping them tailor their lending terms to the needs of poor producers (for example, through reduced interest rates). Te successful advocacy of the NGOs in PSNP Plus was bolstered by repayment rates of more than 90 percent (TANGO International 2011). MFIs also com- ment that the growing experience of savings group mem- bers encourages them to overcome risk aversion, a factor that has been seen as a significant impediment to house- hold resilience (Bernard, Taffesse, and Dercon 2008; TANGO International 2011). By designing financial services initiatives to link with existing structures, CARE was able to successfully transform the way these structures value the participation of poorer borrowers—a group that oſten faces entry barriers to formal systems. Te GRD program builds on the success of PSNP Plus by increas- ing communication and coordination within the financial services sector and strengthening linkages between the microfinance industry and participating households. Te GRD program also intends to make efforts to


influence transformative capacities a step further. Based on its experience in PSNP Plus, the consortium will identify key policy issues that could extend the scale and impact of project interventions, and it will work with relevant stake- holders at all levels to prepare and execute policy changes. Finally, the GRD resilience approach includes organizing learning tours and discussion forums with the government


of Ethiopia, the private sector, and other NGOs to share outcomes of advocacy initiatives. In summation, the combined impact of distinct


project initiatives (for example, financial literacy training, formal links between VSLAs and MFIs, sensitization of government actors, and producer and marketing groups) demonstrates a well-designed long-term effort that stands to effectively strengthen the absorptive and adaptive capacities of participating households and to contrib- ute to more enabling conditions for the poor within government systems. A project as complex as PSNP Plus is inherently dif-


ficult to coordinate, implement, monitor, and evaluate. Te task was made even more challenging given the range of consortium members and institutional partners involved, as well as the difficulty of promoting effective engagement of chronically poor beneficiaries in private markets. Internal stakeholders acknowledged that most of the first year was lost due to challenges in building the capacity of consor- tium partners, establishing systems for project implementa- tion in each of the targeted woredas, and reaching formal agreements with institutional partners (MFIs, agricultural research organizations, local government, and so on). Such challenges contributed to a delay in start-up, which proved a serious constraint for the three-year project. Te five-year strategic framework for the GRD program represents a more realistic time frame for testing a causal model that in all likelihood will take much longer to demonstrate con- crete impacts. Another major challenge to PSNP Plus was the


capacity—or lack thereof—of beneficiaries to engage in selected value chains. While many beneficiaries were able to participate in individual value chains and access credit for the first time, participation in a single value chain was unlikely to lead to graduation6


within the limited time frame of the project (essentially only two years).


Concern Worldwide In promoting community resilience to chronic food and nutrition insecurity in drought-prone areas such as the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, Concern Worldwide has adopted a five-step process that emphasizes multisector programming to strengthen community resilience to food and nutrition crises (Concern Worldwide 2013). As part


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