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The Inter-American Foundation (IAF) is an independent foreign assistance agency of the United States government, working to promote equitable, responsive, and participatory self-help development in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to Part IV, Section 401(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969, "it shall be the purpose of the Foundation, primarily in cooperation with private, regional, and international organizations, to:
- Strengthen the bonds of friendship and understanding among the peoples of this hemisphere;
- Support self-help efforts designed to enlarge the opportunities for individual development;
- Stimulate and assist effective and ever wider participation of the people in the development process;
- Encourage the establishment and growth of democratic institutions, private and governmental, appropriate to the requirements of the individual sovereign nations of this hemisphere."
The guiding principles of the Inter-American Foundation are to support people, organizations, and processes; channel funds directly to the non-governmental sector; promote entrepreneurship, innovation, and self-reliance; strengthen democratic principles; empower poor people to solve their own problems; and treat its partners with respect and dignity. |
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The IAF believes that the key to sustainable democracies, equitable societies, and prosperous economies is a people-oriented strategy that stresses local participation, organizational development, and networking to build the social connections necessary to maximize human and physical assets. It defines “grassroots development" as the process by which disadvantaged people organize themselves to assume the authority to improve the social, cultural, and economic well-being of their families, communities, and societies. As a pioneer in grassroots development, the IAF seeks to support projects that produce local improvements, but that also have the potential to offer lessons and inspiration to individuals as well as projects that can be replicated to impact broader groups. The IAF also seeks to share its development lessons learned with other donor organizations, local and international.
Since the commencement of its operations in 1972, the Inter-American Foundation has distributed over $500 million through 4,400 grants to over 3,600 organizations. Many grants have supported grassroots organizations such as agricultural cooperatives or small, urban enterprises; others have been awarded to larger, intermediary organizations that provide grassroots groups with credit, technical assistance, training, and marketing assistance. IAF grants have been primarily in the area of agriculture and food production followed by small enterprise development, education and training, eco-development, and community services. IAF gives preference to organizations that have not received direct funding from other U.S. government agencies and to applications that demonstrate a strategy for forming development partnerships with private and public sector institutions.
The IAF does not design projects; it responds to proposals that it receives and identifies those that show the most promise to engage the grassroots in their own development. Poverty is the lack of command to change one's own circumstances. IAF-style grassroots development addresses the individual's and community's ability to improve their own circumstances.
The IAF seeks to support projects that:
- Offer innovative solutions to development problems among populations generally beyond the reach of traditional foreign assistance agencies;
- Demonstrate substantial beneficiary participation in project design and project management;
- Empower socially, politically, and/or economically excluded groups and communities;
- Generate practical experiences that increase the capacity of disadvantaged people to help themselves;
- Are technically feasible;
- Have the potential for sustainability; and
- Show counterpart contributions from the proponent, and ideally, from other local supporters.
The IAF is a founding member of the U.S. Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership directly supporting four border community foundations. It also has a matching endowment grant with CEMEFI that reaches 13 Mexican community foundations (including the four on the border). In addition, IAF has supported community foundation initiatives in Brazil and most recently in Argentina.
The Inter-American Network of Corporate Foundations and Companies for Grassroots Development (RedEAmérica)
RedEAmerica is an alliance of business formed to provide leadership, management and know-how to the field of poverty reduction. It is a learning and action network with a mission to make grassroots development the centerpiece of development strategies in the Americas. The idea for a hemispheric network came from the IAF in a paper titled, “Private Sector Leadership for Grassroots Development.” RedEAmerica was officially established in September 2002 and now has 54 members in 12 countries. The IAF is one of 27 founding members and is the only public-sector member. RedEAmerica is governed by its general assembly of all members which elects a council of directors and a general secretariat and appoints national and hemispheric CEO committees to directly engage its business leaders.
RedEAmerica seeks to expand funding responsive to organizations of low-income people whom this support will assist in implementing self-help projects, strengthening community organizations, engaging in local development and building democratic societies from the bottom up. |
