Inter-American Foundation

The Inter-American Foundation or IAF is a foreign assistance agency of the United States. The Foundation provides funding for grassroots projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Foundation began as part of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969 as an experimental alternative to the larger USAID, which then gave funding almost only to governments and large scale industry. The Foundation presented a new model for funding grassroots development with an emphasis on improving lives at the community level, not just the national. The Foundation receives its funds through annual allocations by Congress and from the Social Progress Trust Fund. The Since beginning operations in 1972, the IAF has made 4,578 grants for more than $586 million. The Foundation has had a low profile because of its comparatively small budget. However, during the mid-1980s, the Foundation received some national attention when it became a political battleground for President Ronald Reagan and Congressional Democrats.

IAF’s Mission Statement

The IAF is an independent agency that works 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 partners with respect and dignity.

Operations

The IAF invites proposals for its grant program. The IAF funds the self-help efforts of grassroots groups in Latin America and the Caribbean to improve living conditions of the disadvantaged and the excluded, enhance their capacity for decision-making and self-governance, and develop partnerships with the public sector, business and civil society. The IAF does not identify problems or suggest projects; instead it responds to initiatives presented. Projects are selected for funding on their merits rather than by sector.

The IAF does not accept proposals presented or directed by government entities; proposals from individuals; proposals presented or directed by entities outside the country in which the project is located; proposals from groups that do not contribute financial or in-kind resources to the proposed activities; proposals associated with political parties or partisan movements; purely religious or sectarian activities; pure research; welfare projects of any kind, charitable institutions or proposals solely for construction and/or equipment); requests for grants under US$25,000 or more than US$400,000; projects whose objectives do not encourage a shared capacity for self-help.

The IAF looks for the following in a project it funds: innovative solutions to development problems; creative use of the community’s resources; a diverse array of community voices in project development and execution; substantial beneficiary engagement in (a) the identification of the problem addressed, (b) the approach chosen to solve it, (c) the design of the project, and (d) management and evaluation of activities; partnerships with local government, the business community and other civil society organizations; potential for strengthening all participating organizations and their partnerships; feasibility; evidence of eventual sustainability; counterpart contributions from the proponent, the beneficiaries and other sources; the potential to generate learning; measurable results; evidence of beneficiaries’ enhanced capacity for self-governance.

[http://www.iaf.gov Inter-American Foundation Official Website]