ACDI/VOCA

ACDI (Agricultural Cooperative Development International) was formed in 1966[10] by major U.S. farm cooperatives. Its principal objective was to provide expertise and support to cooperative enterprises in developing countries.

In 1967, ACDI helped found Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO), India's largest fertilizer company, re-established cooperative banking in Poland, and set up large business-oriented farmer organizations in East Africa, including the cooperative unions in Sidama and Yirgachefe, Ethiopia, that enabled direct export of coffee from those regions. IFFCO is still a member of ACDI.[11]

VOCA (Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance) was established in 1970 to provide volunteer assistance in developing countries. In 1985 VOCA was the first implementer of the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer program. Volunteers have included bank presidents, coffee roasters, grain storage specialists and business magnates. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a substantial number of assignments were carried out in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States, in many cases providing entrepreneurs there with exposure to the dynamics of the private sector and modern commercial operations.[12][13]

In 1997 the two organizations merged to form ACDI/VOCA. The merger combined ACDI’s long-term development approaches and VOCA’s people-to-people volunteer activities. Formerly the acronym stood for the combination of the two entities (Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance), but today its legal name is solely the acronym. The organization’s programming currently revolves around value chain approaches to enterprise development, self-sustaining financial services development, farmer organization, agribusiness development, self-help community development, and food aid, among other competencies. The organization sends hundreds of U.S. volunteer experts overseas each year on short-term assignments.[14]