Work Plan for the Cuban Independent Agricultural Cooperatives Project for the period October 1, 2000 to June 22, 2001 Cooperative Agreement LAG-A-00-00-00012-00 June 23, 2000 to June 22, 2001 ACDI/VOCA
Washington, D.C. September 22, 2000 (Cont...)

B.         Overseas Study Visits

Provision has been made for study visits by three pairs of ANAIC members to agricultural cooperative hosts in other Latin American countries, most likely Central American locations. Willing and appropriate hosts have already been identified in Honduras and Guatemala, and several ACDI/VOCA co-op organization clients in Costa Rica will probably provide another set of options.
The study tours will have durations of two to three weeks, and the travelers will be hosted by several cooperative organizations in each country visited. Appropriate host organizations will be those with relevant related activities (e.g. farm supply and/or marketing of the same or similar crops to those in Cuba, perhaps small farmer credit operations), and those with small-scale operations serving small and medium farmers.
One GACI/Florida member will accompany part or all of each country visit to observe quality and appropriateness, monitor activities, and form criteria to recommend improvements to the project for future visits or projects. In this way, the project can also familiarize ANAIC's Florida presence with the outside cooperative world with which ANAIC wants to connect.
A work program for each proposed study visit will be prepared by the overseas hosts with guidance from ACDI/VOCA and GACI. The program will then be communicated by GACI over the telephone to the approved travelers. They will have a last opportunity to offer suggestions for the program, suggestions that would be implemented if they were reasonable and feasible.       
Given the sensitive nature of the activity, we would not ask the travelers to prepare written reports on their study visits. We envision asking them to give a verbal evaluation of their experience to their overseas hosts and their GACI colleagues. We will provide a standard format for the verbal evaluation so there will be a guarantee that salient points are covered. These would include a summary of the study program as drafted, actual activities carried out, the most salient/valuable findings and observations, the least valuable or interesting parts of the program, an overall evaluation of the program (0 to 10), and suggestions for future improvements. The hosts would fax the questionnaires to us. GACI representatives would receive verbal debriefings from the travelers, and GACI would receive a copy of the evaluations from us.
At no cost to the project, we will facilitate cooperative visits in Brazil for Diosmel Rodriguez and ANAIC president Antonio Alonso (if he is allowed to leave Cuba.) They are invited to a NED democratization conference in São Paulo in November. We have already organized local support for a four-day study visit to cooperatives before the conference with the president of the International Cooperative Alliance, Roberto Rodrigues, who is a good friend and has an ICA office in São Paulo. The Brazilians will cover local costs, and the Cubans will visit small and medium cooperatives, avoiding huge co-ops common in that part of Brazil.
Assuming the ANAIC members can secure exit visas, the intent is to complete the study visits during the two upcoming quarters. However, given our decision to not let ourselves become entangled in inflexible timing targets for this activity, we are planning to schedule volunteer visits to Cuba during the first two quarters as well. In other words, whichever is feasible first will be done first. We intend to roll with the punches, while strongly suspecting that it will be easier to send in volunteers than to bring out ANAIC members. Whatever the outcome, the work program will be adjusted to accommodate reality while maintaining an active flow of deliverables to keep up project momentum.   

C.        Volunteer Technical Assistance to ANAIC

Four volunteer technical assistance assignments to Cuba are envisioned at this time. The first specialist, targeted for month one of the activity, will carry out dual functions.
First, he or she will, working from a format provided by ACDI/VOCA, conduct a rapid assessment of ANAIC's and its members' current status. This baseline analysis will include a focus on current economic and advocacy levels of activity, needs, strengths and weaknesses, areas where rapid improvements might be made, and barriers standing in the way of progress. The specialist will want to identify technical publications desired by the groups and elicit their opinion on their preferences in technical content for subsequent volunteer visits and for overseas study tours by ANAIC members.
Second, the specialist will provide technical advice in the areas that we elect to emphasize for the first volunteer visit. At this point, we are leaning toward a specialist in cooperative development and organization, leaving agronomic, post-harvest, marketing, accounting and business management aspects for the next three volunteer experts.
All volunteer interventions will be planned and coordinated with the documentation and training center's capacity and role in mind. We have selected the technical tripod for emphasis during the nine-month activity, and one external volunteer specialist will be assigned to each of the designated topics. ANAIC/Cuba will assign local technicians to accompany each assignment to enhance technology transfer and lend an element of post-project sustainability. The three areas are:  

• Agricultural cooperative business management and operations;
• Agricultural cooperative accounting, record-keeping and financial controls; and,
• Agronomic, post-harvest handling and marketing assistance.

Clearly, other related technical areas will be of interest to ANAIC during the project, and we will address all questions as they arise, either through the volunteers, the overseas visits, or technical publications - or through all of the above. The volunteers and other visitors will, as a special gesture, leave small amounts of badly needed over-the-counter medicines with our ANAIC hosts. We intend to execute these volunteer placements during the first and second quarters of the activity, country conditions permitting.

IV.       RESULTS AND IMPACTS

ACDI/VOCA distinguishes between results and impacts of technical assistance interventions. For example, a Guatemalan expert in cooperative accounting and record-keeping might spend four weeks helping two cooperatives set up modest accounting systems and train local people to keep the books. The result of his or her visit would be two accounting systems installed in two co-ops being kept by two local volunteer accountants in two cooperatives. The measurable impact will be that two co-ops have correct accounts and financial statements at the end of business year 2001. This concept will apply to crop work with ANAIC farmers, certain business structures and modus operandi being adopted and utilized by assisted co-ops next year, and so on.
Many of the intended impacts will be measured after we are gone from the scene, but all of our efforts will be directed at:

• utilizing inputs (USAID funds)
• to deliver outputs (volunteer services, technical materials, study tour learning opportunities)
• that achieve results (services/information internalized and applied/implemented)
• leading to impacts (measurable improvements in business or farming operations and outcomes.)

V.        ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS

Programmatic and expenditure reports will be submitted within 30 days of the completion of each calendar quarter, including those covering the first 13 weeks of this activity (June 23 - September 30, 2000). The final report will be submitted within 90 days of project completion.
ACDI/VOCA and USAID agree that this activity is apt to present surprises and challenges that might interfere with work plans and implementation schedules. For instance, we might find it advisable and productive to refocus our efforts and send eight volunteers to Cuba if it appears that ANAIC members are going to have severe problems leaving the country. If we find that laptops or fax machines are being confiscated, we will stop sending them and reprogram resources to more attractive undertakings. However, any significant shifts in direction in response to such situations would be made only after consultation with, and the approval of, the project's cognizant technical officer.
This work plan includes various levels of effort of four individuals that are classified as key personnel. They are the three ACDI/VOCA headquarters staff members named in the cooperative agreement plus Mr. Diosmel Rodriguez of GACICUBA/Florida.