**An Investment in Cacao and the Venezuelan Community.**

# La Fundación Proyecto Paria.

La Fundación Proyecto Paria (FPP) is one of the most interesting local
development experiments in Venezuela. FPP operates in the Municipio of
Arismendi in the State of Sucre, one of Venezuela\'s poorest states,
with a special focus on seven nucleus known as the "Vuelta Larga --
Puipuy" axis. All of FPP's program activities in the area are part of a
proposal to bring together business and social sectors in a strategic
alliance. The Foundation was started by a group of businessmen who
wanted to spur local economic growth. Today, FPP's mission is \"to
promote the enhancement of quality of life for the population of the
Paria region, State of Sucre, by formulating and supporting projects and
actions which, in harmony with the natural setting and with the active
participation of local actors, contribute to the region\'s development
and the sustained realization of the population\'s economic, social, and
cultural rights.\"

In 1988, a group of local development pioneers conceived of a project
that would transform the Paria region by promoting local tourism. The
initiative grew to include development of local agriculture as well. It
was later refined to reflect the necessary balance between the quest for
local economic success and equitable improvements in the living
conditions and quality of life for the people in these communities.
Ultimately, through a process of continual searching and creative
discussion, FPP formulated its growing conviction that, to help promote
sustainable development in the region\'s rural sector, FPP must promote
the development of businesses that are identified as having the most
potential to increase the incomes of local communities in need.

**Cacao and the Community.**

FPP discovered that cacao, one of the region\'s ancient crops, could be
a multiplier for human and economic growth in the area. Currently,
Venezuela controls 17% of the market for fine or aromatic cacao. FPP's
cacao project falls into this niche. This market access coupled with
cacao's association with tradition, respect and hard work, make the crop
a natural focus for one of FPP's economic development projects. With
this in mind, FPP began to revive and plant land suitable for organic
cacao.

Under the cacao program, FPP has made significant gains: five
associations of small producers were established; 424 producers were
trained; 88 loans were granted to small producers; and the community\'s
has been re-acquaintance with an activity all its own, cacao growing.
Productivity during the first three years of the program exceeded the
goal of 600Kg/hectare, reaching 825Kg/hectare. The goal of restoring 75
hectares of crops was exceeded up to 82 hectares; and approximately 120
additional hectares are being restored. In 2001, FPP opened a cacao
manufacturing plant.

Within its cacao project, FPP has continued to tie its productive
strategy with a broader local development vision to include considering
its impact on education, health, and the local economy. Under their
eight-year, co-financing agreement, the Inter-American Foundation (IAF)
and Petroléos de Venezuela (PDVSA), financed FPP's comprehensive
program, taking into account cacao\'s potential vis-à-vis basic needs in
the area. Respecting local cultural and contextual boundaries, the FPP,
IAF, and PDVSA realized that the productive, community, and
technological resources needed to ensure the project's success would not
be easy to apply or easy for the community to accept. So, FPP developed
a methodology to disseminate and implement teaching tools that
guaranteed, in simple language, the local communities ability to profit
from their hard work harvesting organic cacao.

**IAF and PDVSA.**

In 1992, the IAF and PDVSA formalized an agreement to co-finance
projects that reflected sustainable, innovative development solutions to
the complex situations facing some of Venezuela\'s most disadvantaged
populations. The IAF\'s value-added was its knowledge of working with
and commitment to participatory community development. As a result of
the agreement, PDVSA established a centralized social investment program
which awards grants to community groups with self-help development
projects. At present, the co-financing agreement between IAF and PDVSA
has expired; however, the two institutions remain active in the same
community development arena and cooperate informally as the country\'s
largest donors.

FPP's project was one of those co-financed by IAF-PDVSA in 1999. While
the program is not directly related to the PDVSA\'s primary business
interests, the FPP project is an opportunity for the company to foster a
stable society, which ultimately helps it move forward with its business
activities. For the IAF, this was the second grant to FPP. Its first was
the FPP's first formal grant, akin to seed capital, which gave the
organization an opportunity to plan pilots and come back to the IAF some
years later with an integrated development project.

**Private Social Responsibility Taking Charge of Collective Matters.**

Regarding sustainability, FPP has a long history of cooperating with the
public and private sectors to promote development in the State of Sucre.
For FPP, diversification of its funding sources has been fundamental to
ensure the organization's well-being.

From the outset, FPP had private sector funding sources, specifically
CORPOMEDINA, the region\'s major financier of business development
projects involving tourism and real estate development.

PDVSA continues to support FPP and most recently awarded the Foundation
a grant towards FPP's program *"Promotion of the comprehensive
development of the cacao producing communities of Paria."* Similarly,
Compañía Anónima Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela (CANTV) has also
contributed to that local development process. With regard to
multilateral cooperation agencies, FPP has received contributions from
the United Nations Population Activities Fund (UNPAF), the
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Andean Development
Corporation (CAF).

With all of these success stories, it is easy to get distracted from the
most important one \-- this project has given the local community an
opportunity to learn its abilties, demonstrate them, expand them, and
turn them into a tool for sustainable development. This type of project
result is critical to ensure that community and the companies doing
business in the area are satisfied, that more public-private sector
alliances in the region are strengthened, and that the communities\' own
values are reinforced.

**Lessons Learned:**

-   NGOs bring a wealth of knowledge to the alliances; as such,
    alliances should be viewed as a two-way street, with both
    institutions contributing their strengths;

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-   It is extremely important that the alliances respect the cultural
    and contextual boundaries that define the target populations\' local
    problems.