Source: Microlinks

Original press release here.

USAID’s office of Microenterprise Development is pleased to announce the winners of our Innovations in Financing Value Chains Contest. As the field of enterprise development continues to search for successful approaches to serve value chain actors with financial services, this contest sought to capture proven or promising strategies and provide a venue for their dissemination. Two submissions of extraordinary merit were selected to share the first prize:

• Introducing Purchase Order Financing by Ramiro Ortega Landa of USAID/Bolivia’s Rural Competitiveness Activity (ARCo) implemented by Crimson Capital and Chemonics

• Value Chain Finance Methodology by Luis Jimenez of WOCCU/Peru

These papers, both of which detail their pioneering and groundbreaking interventions, impressed our diverse panel of judges with their potential impact on the value chain, creativity of approach, validity of their model, and relevance for other implementers.

Awards Ceremony
Date: February 6, 2009
Time: 9am-12:15pm
Venue: The QED Group, LLC (Washington, D.C)

Awards will be given to competition winners who will discuss what makes their project unique, and a panel will lead a discussion on implications for future value chain finance programming. For those who cannot attend in person, there will be an option to access and participate in the ceremony remotely throughout the morning (details to follow).

The panel wishes to congratulate the contest winners and sincerely thank all those who submitted entries for the contest.