Agriculture, Rural Investment, and Enterprise Strengthening (ARIES) Project

Provinces	Badakhshan, Badghis, Baghlan, Balkh, Bamyan, Daikondi, Farah, Faryab, Ghazni, Ghor, Helmand, Herat, Jowzjan, Kabul, Kandahar, Kapisa, Khost, Konar, Kunduz, Laghman, Lowgar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Nurestan, Paktia, Paktika, Panjshir, Parwan, Samangan, Sar-e Pol, Takhar, Uruzgan, Wardak, Zabul
Program	Economic Growth (Reducing poverty by promoting economic growth)
Dates	September 2006 - September 2009
Partner	Academy for Educational Development
Website

The Agriculture, Rural Investment, and Enterprise Strengthening (ARIES) Project, implemented by the Academy for Educational Development, is a new project designed to provide economic opportunities and expand access to sustainable rural financial services.  In FY 07, through ARIES, the U.S. Government is planning to disburse over 50,000 loans for a total value of $22.4 million; create rural credit cooperatives, 4 investment and finance cooperatives, and 3 new FINCA branches; and establish a new lending window for small and medium enterprise (SME) loans within an apex institution – the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan.  ARIES is designed to support equitable access to essential financial services in rural Afghanistan for a range of female and male-owned microenterprises (households and smallholder farmers) and agro-based SMEs.  To achieve this goal, ARIES provides technical assistance, training, capital, and operations support for start-up and expansion of retail non-bank financial institutions and capacity building of local commercial banks in rural and SME finance.  By establishing a rural finance system and expanding access to finance, the ARIES project expands productive capacity and income generating opportunities for rural SMEs, thereby contributing to Afghanistan’s local economic growth.

All Economic Growth activities