RURALINVEST TRAININGS WERE ORGANIZED IN TURKEY
RuralInvest is a set of tools to support national technicians to identify, prepare and evaluate high quality
small scale (= or < USD 80,000) rural investment projects. The Training Kit is available in English, Russian,
and Turkish (among other 8 languages).
The principles of RuralInvest are to:
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Reflect the perceived priorities of applicants and promote their participation in the preparation
process,
Be usable by technical staff with little training or previous experience in project preparation,
Demonstrate the sustainability of the investment (financial, operational, environmental),
Offer appropriate formats both for projects which are designed to generate income as well as for those
which are not income-based, and to
Ensure high quality financing applications which are complete, clear and comparable.
The following modules are available under RuralInvest;
Module 1: Participatory Identification of Local Investment Priorities
Module 2: Preparing and Using Project Profiles
Module 3: Detailed Project Formulation and Analysis
Module 4: Monitoring and Evaluation of RuralInvest Projects
In Turkey RuralInvest Trainings were organized by FAOSEC Office 3 times collaboration with TCI,
Headquarters and Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock(MFAL) since 2007. The first training were
provided to the staff of various government agencies in 2007, subsequently second one was provided to
ONLY MFAL staff.
In December 2010, up to request of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry The first RuralInvest
training was given in the Turkish language and a number of staff of Turkey’s Ministry of Environment and
Forestry (MOEF) were successfully trained in working with applicant groups and communities to conceive
and implement their own investment projects related to rural development. This training was an important
step forward for initiating further training events in June and July 2011 which took place
The last training was in 2011 July for State Planning Organization Tigris Development Agency. DIKA
is one of 26 regional development agencies created under the auspices of the State Planning Organization
in Turkey. Established in late 2009, it manages an investment budget of approximately USD 20 million per
annum and has been looking for a way to improve the quality and monitoring of the project prepared for
funding under its management. It operates four investment support offices across Mesopotamian Turkey.
An eight-day training course, covering all four modules of RuralInvest, was presented to a total of
16 Tigris Development Agency (DIKA) staff, including field investment support officers, monitoring and
evaluation staff and members of the Strategy Development Unit. As almost all participants had advanced
degrees (many from the USA) and most had at least some background in project finance and economics,
the course proceeded well, and all four modules were fully covered. The reception of the package by
participants was very positive.
Participants were asked to submit case studies to FAO for evaluation and a number have already
been received.
Further detail on RuralInvest can be found on the Investment Centre website at:
http://www.fao.org/investment/ourrole/ruralinvest/en/