High rates of unemployment, debilitating poverty and long-standing inequality are some of the major issues plaguing Bolivia and impeding it's development. Fostering local capabilities, increasing access to capital, and strengthening country-wide business linkages can provide better economic security and improve the standard of living.

PRODEM, a private financial fund founded in 1986, is working to effect positive change in Bolivia's financial sector through investment, technical assistance, and support. Working with more than 4,000 micro entrepreneurs, primarily poor farmers, PRODEM has enabled its clients to access the necessary capital for micro- and small development projects which, in turn, has increased earned revenues and forged important relationships between suppliers and enterprises.

The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC’s) Grassroots Business Initiative (GBI) provided funds for PRODEM capacity building and the expansion of the investment Fund. The funds will be used for:

• Technical assistance activities to support the strengthening and development of the Fund investment management, and monitoring and evaluating institutional capacities. The goal is to strengthen the capacity to provide direct technical assistance to the grassroots business organizations/SMEs during the investment. Another goals will be to develop and implement reliable medium to long-term exit strategies for PRODEM, based on the strengthening of each SME business and social model. An expected side product of this technical assistance is the improvement of PRODEM’s capacity to identify, select, assess and design new investments.

• Establishing a lending facility for the purpose of on-lending to SMEs in the form of working capital loans to expand their operations with small-scale producers/suppliers.

For more information on PRODEM, visit: www.prodemffp.com