Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs (CNFA) is dedicated to increasing and sustaining rural incomes by empowering farmers and rural entrepreneurs. Founded in 1985, CNFA has a successful track record of performance in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the CIS, and Central Asia , and has managed over $150 million in donor-funded agriculture development programs over the past decade. CNFA is committed to a philosophy of enterprise-based agricultural and economic development to facilitate market access, enhance agribusiness competitiveness, increase productivity, and improve access to inputs and credit in developing and transition economies. To achieve these goals, CNFA has developed a set of inter-related methodologies that can be combined and modified to deliver comprehensive, field-to-fork agribusiness solutions.

USAID recognized CNFA as a leader in volunteer mobilization by including it in the task force that EGAT set up in late 2002 to design the new Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA), and CNFA participated actively in that effort. Since the creation of the VEGA alliance itself in late 2003, CNFA has played an active role in the Alliance . CNFA is also a supporter of and participant in President Bush's Volunteers for Prosperity initiative. CNFA is qualified and successful in organizing and implementing programs for mobilizing American volunteers to work on international agricultural and economic development projects. CNFA has mobilized more than 1,100 American farmers, natural resource experts, businesspeople, financial experts, and others to volunteer their expertise in international development activities over the past decade under the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer program and other programs.

CNFA's volunteer database holds approximately 3,000 volunteers and consultants, all of whom have expressed interest in potential IWCRM assignments. Through program outreach and recruiting, this database is constantly expanding, and volunteers can be recruited to meet the specific needs of projects, once identified. At present, 260 volunteers are listed with skill sets related to Water and Coastal Resources Management.

With its more than ten years of experience mobilizing American volunteers for international development activities, CNFA will engage its highly effective and efficient volunteer matching, placement, and support systems to enable USAID to access skilled U.S.-based professionals to conduct activities in water and coastal resources management under the IQC by:

Providing and/or training managers and local staff for volunteer-based projects
Developing Project Strategies for use of volunteers (in consultation with hosts wherever appropriate) to clearly define the overall structure of each volunteer-based project
Developing and managing budgets and procedures manuals for volunteer activities
Developing Volunteer Assignment Scopes of Work for each prospective volunteer assignment spelling out in detail the volunteer skill set sought, the activities that the volunteer will engage in and the support systems and logistical arrangements for those activities, as well as the objectives to be achieved during the assignment
Leveraging CNFA home office recruiters to identify more volunteers with water and coastal resources management skills to execute requested assignments and provide them complete preparation for their assignment, including all logistical and administrative arrangements
Organizing and implementing all programmatic and administrative/logistical support for volunteers during their assignments
Debriefing volunteers to ascertain results of assignments and obtain their recommendations for follow-up
Following-up and coordinating with hosts between volunteer assignments
Conducting periodic Impact Assessments that update data on host/beneficiary capacities and performance relative to the baseline, confirm the success of project strategies, and draw conclusions for future work on the project.

CNFA is deeply committed to environmental and natural resource management, and water and conservation issues are integral parts of its agricultural project designs. Environmental and water resources assessments and environmental monitoring and evaluations are imperative for successful, sustainable, environmentally friendly agricultural program design.

Illustrative water resource management global projects

In Moldova, as an example, CNFA conducted an in-depth irrigation analysis, with four teams focusing on key issues: water resources, irrigation engineering, institutional, and agri-business. These teams then helped to develop strategies to boost output for small- and medium-ized farms. All CNFA programs are carefully monitored, and water is tested for pollution to avoid any adverse environmental impact. CNFA is eager to continue to its commitment to environmental and natural resource management issues through the implementation of projects under the IWCRM IQC.

www.cnfa.org