Poverty Reduction and Local Rural Development (PROLOCAL)

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The Poverty Reduction and Local Rural Development (PROLOCAL) Project, will strengthen local empowerment, improve quality of local services, and increase access to productive assets, to improve the well-being of poor households in selected micro-regions in Ecuador. The main components will: 1) promote social capital formation, by supporting planning for local development, at the community, parochial, and canton levels, as part of a participatory development planning process. Rural communities will identify priority subprojects, and, community representatives will participate in the planning process at the parochial level; likewise, cantons will prepare their development plans, to include linkages to parochial subprojects; 2) train local stakeholders through organized nongovernmental organizations, who will survey technical skills, and prepare a capacity gap analysis, and implement training programs. Formation of local networks of technicians will be promoted, to in turn expand their technical skills, while technical assistance will build local governments' management, and administrative capacities; 3) establish a demand-driven grant fund, to finance infrastructure, productive capacity of socio-territorial organizations, and environmental investment subprojects. Technical screening of this work will be undertaken by technical personnel at the regional level; and, 4) finance consulting services, and equipment to implement the managerial, financial, and technical coordination, through the Project Coordination Unit.