Activity Description: Small Enterprise Assistance Funds ("SEAF") is a global investment firm focused on providing growth capital and operational support to businesses in emerging markets and those underserved by traditional sources of capital. SEAF selectively makes structured debt and equity investments in locally owned enterprises with high growth potential.

Based in Washington D.C., SEAF invests in more than 20 countries around the world through an international network of 15 offices in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Investors include a cross section of public and private institutions, including several of the international finance institutions, local pension funds, insurance companies, banks and family offices.

Activity Description:

With years of guiding experience, Eduardo Nycander and Kurt Holle created Rainforest Expeditions (RFE) in 1992. Located in the southeast of Peru in Madre de Dios, RFE educates tourists about conservation and sustainable development while providing job opportunities to the local community. The company runs four complementary ecolodges: the 18 room Tambopata Research Center (1992), the 30 room Posada Amazonas (1998), the 24 room Refugio Amazonas (2005) and the recently opened 18 room Konchukos Tambo, near Huascaran National Park north of Lima.

Among these lodges, Posada Amazonas is renowned for its unique partnership with the community of Infierno. RFE offers financing and experience, while the community provides labor and local knowledge of the natural environment. And while profits are split between the company and the community, ownership belongs to the latter.

The community-owned lodge is delivering great outcomes. Not only is it generating profit for RFE, but it is also placing the company in the limelight for potential clients and investors, creating a buzz around the fact that it fully engages a local community. For the Infierno community, it provides full ownership and a participatory process that allows it to pursue long term visions for sustainable development both within the community itself and the wider Amazonian region. In addition to its annual income of over US $250,000 and more than 30 permanent full time positions, Posada Amazonas has also led to the creation of four other small businesses in the community.

With over 50 employees, the recent addition of Refugio Amazonas, and the development of new products ranging from shorter 2-3 day general tours to an array of specialized tours (e.g. birding tours, academic tours), the company continues to attract new investments with plans to expand to other communities in the Andean region. RFE demonstrates how well-managed ecotourism can achieve environmental protection, social benefits, and economic growth.

Activity Description:

Activity Description: Accion Emprendedora (AE) is a non-profit organization formed by young professionals and students that work with low income entrepreneurs. AE's objective is to break the chains of poverty through the trainnig of small entrepreneurs through a three-step deveopment model:
Teaching fundamentals of business through two courses--sector-specific basic and advanced business skills, including the devevelopment of a business plan for each participant; Providing about 4 months of free consulting assistance from a team of tutors, who are business and engineering students; and Financing of projects through partner micro-finance organizations.

Activity Description: Ilzro RAPS Perú implements Remote Area Power Supply (RAPS) technology in rural villages in the Amazon basin of Peru to allow rural Peruvians to engage in income-generating activities.

Activity Description: Red Cientifica Peruana is Peru's premier Internet service provider, having established a network of cabinas (booths with Internet-enabled computers) reaching half a million people. With fees ranging from $1.50 and hour to $15 a month, cabina use now accounts for around 70% of the Internet market in Peru. Starting out as a tiny NGO with only one computer and three modems, RCP is now worth an estimated US $200 million, and has begun to export its business model to other developing countries like El Salvador.

Activity Description: A result of the 1998 "Conectandonos al Futuro" project, Infocentros is a government initiative to replicate Peru's RCP franchise telecenter model in El Salvador. The project includes the development of a network of at least 100 Infocentros distributed throughout the country. Each Infocentro contains a network of 20 computers and will focus on education and training, e-commerce, and the development