Rural Initiative Support Fund (RISF) is a special technical program that strives to alleviate poverty among rural people:
The most common issue affecting vulnerable groups in rural areas is a lack of economic opportunity.
The RISF was initiated to support these vulnerable groups with the tools they need to acquire employment and build successful businesses. Under this program ISRCD partners with over 50, OOO cooperatives worldwide to offer three primary services: vocational/business training and technical assistance, microfinance and access to markets.
Training opportunities differ between regions and organization, but common training topics include locally applicable vocational skills, business plan development, integrating technology, bookkeeping and business management, and marketing/outreach. Training is offered through various methods such as workshops, individual counseling, peer networking and mentoring programs.
Since microfinance was revealed as a major aspect of microenterprise development that recently made famous achievements across the country, RISF financially support all rural initiatives aiming at improving the living standards of rural people.
Since traditional lending does not reach underserved communities, RISF will offer a collective solution that lends small increments of capital to local businesses. Along with credit lending, RISF will train emerging entrepreneurs to effectively integrate credit management and savings principles into their business growth.
To help micro-entrepreneurs increase sales and profitability, RISF will work to expand access to local and international markets through relationship building, research and strategic development. By addressing these prominent needs—training, microfinance and access to markets—RISF and its partner organizations will be surely providing economic opportunity at the community levels.
The provision of microfinance services under RISF will contribute to reduced client vulnerability to economic risks; strengthened linkages of clients and their households to the agricultural sector; and the acquisition of highly needed skill sets.
RISF helps different categories of people to organize themselves in cooperatives and /or community-based organizations, trains them on management of such organizations and provides technical and financial support to those organizations.
RISF also trains its partners on Project management, Entrepreneurship and Business management. RISF ensures proper use of resources allocated to all programmes and leads jointly with them monitoring and evaluation of all ongoing projects.
For proper management, each programme works independently but in consultation with RISF.
To ensure that there is inclusive and sustainable development, RISF will strive to put opportunities within the reach of rural people and to ensure that these people participate actively in the determination of their destiny by doing things by themselves to become self-sufficient.
RISF always ensures that all activities to be carried out fit in vision of ISRCD.