A distinct theory of change
At the IAF, we engage with marginalized communities in Latin America and the Caribbean as partners and not merely beneficiaries. We provide opportunities for their incipient organizations to directly tap into small amounts of patient and flexible capital, accompanied by technical assistance as needed.
We seek our community partners to map, prioritize, design and implement solutions that respond to their own communities’ challenges and local contexts. Our ultimate purpose is to facilitate their self-reliance so that they become less dependent on external aid, more resilient, and less vulnerable to crime, violence, extreme poverty, economic downturns, natural disasters, and other challenges.
Talk about community-led development!
Recent News and Stories
New partnership aims to benefit Latin American and Caribbean farmers
The IAF, Fairtrade International, and the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers and Workers (CLAC) are partnering to boost income and food security for small-scale farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The IAF in the Making
In a Guatemala City hotel in late 1968, Marian Czarnecki and Robert Culbertson talked late into the night about creating a new, independent agency for social and civic development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Meet Juan García Salazar, the Man Who Championed Black Identity in Ecuador
Behind the very first artifact to enter the African American History Museum’s collections resides a story about recovering the Afro-Ecuadorian experience.