FIELD-Support LWA: 2009 Annual Report

FIELD-Support is a Leader with Associates cooperative agreement between the office of Microenterprise Development in USAID (EGAT/PR/MD) and AED. Consisting of nine leading development NGOs as core partners as well as 17 resource organizations, the FIELD-Support consortium, led by AED, has a proven track record of reducing poverty and promoting sustained, equitable growth through microenterprise development, microfinance, value chain development, institutional and human capacity building, and the promotion of other market-based approaches.

FIELD-Support encompasses both a core leader award and a mechanism for USAID Missions and operating units to issue associate awards. The purpose of the leader award is to advance the frontiers of practical knowledge in relation to microfinance, microenterprise development, and sustainable rural livelihoods, working in close collaboration with the MD office, USAID missions, and the community of development practitioners. The leader award implements activities that seed innovation, demonstrate better practices, document results, and disseminate findings that will advance the global state-of-the-practice.

Activities implemented under FIELD-Support include work at every level of the economy, from the regulatory environment, business value chains, to financial service providers, to promoting economic growth, and improving the financial security of poor households and businesses by strengthening financial and business support systems and their ability to access those systems.

FIELD-Support began operations in November 2005. This fourth-year Annual Report summarizes the key activities and accomplishments of the FIELD-Support LWA and its team from January 1, 2009, through December 31, 2009.