The paves project shall have two activity components-a sub-award F2F volunteer program and a knowledge management component

The Catholic Relief Services - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (CRS-USCCB) was awarded a $2,030,000 Cooperative Agreement under the John Ogonowski Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program, a USAID initiative focused on improving global food production and agricultural marketing through technical skill transfer. The award will fund two key components: 1) A sub-award F2F volunteer program to engage new organizations, test innovative approaches, and develop organizational capacity to implement agricultural volunteer programs; and 2) A knowledge management component to support learning, document best practices, organize workshops, and evaluate volunteer programs. The award has a performance period from July 15, 2024 to July 14, 2029.

Sub-award program: the paves project will develop and manage a program of sub- awards to bring in new organizations, test innovative approaches to use volunteers, draw from non-traditional sources of volunteers, address targeted agricultural sector problems, and develop capacity of organizations to effectively implement agricultural sector volunteer programs. This program is designed to enable additional organizations and volunteers to participate in the F2F program and provide valuable cross- fertilization and learning in volunteer program management and implementation. Knowledge management support: the program of knowledge management should support learning from paves activities to improve sub-awardee programs and potential for continuing with future agricultural volunteer activities. Activities may involve: a) specialized technical assistance to define, document, and disseminate best practice lessons in volunteer programs; b) organizing workshops and events for F2F staff and stakeholders; c) outreach activities; and d) evaluating volunteer programs and projects. Management of communications materials, websites, F2F social media, and related tasks are part of this component. Knowledge management activities should be conducted in collaboration with the F2F community of practice.