Twenty-eight-year DAI veteran Gary Kilmer has been awarded a Golden Medal by the Government of Armenia for his contributions to Armenia’s agricultural achievements—only the 54th such award issued since Armenia voted for independence in 1991.

The medal recognizes Kilmer’s work as Executive Director of the Armenia Agribusiness Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Market Development Program (ASME), a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) project that ran from September 2000 to December 2007.

Presented at ASME’s final open house on December 3, the award was accompanied by a decree signed by Armenian Minister of Agriculture Davit Lokian, who cited Kilmer’s work developing the market for agricultural SMEs, improving animal disease diagnosis and prevention (including avian influenza control), and enhancing food safety.

“Our project was very successful and very long,” said Kilmer, “almost seven-and-a-half years. As a result of our success, we were asked to get into more and more areas.”

That expanding mandate was reflected in the terrific attendance at the open house, which brought together more than 400 ASME partners, many from the agribusiness sector that was ASME’s original focus (canneries, dried fruit producers, meat and milk processors, and so on), and many others from the nonfarm rural enterprise sector to which ASME extended its assistance after 2004.

All told, ASME assisted more than 500 companies—including 110 owned or managed by women—and thereby met USAID’s goal of increasing export and domestic sales and creating jobs: 53 ASME-assisted enterprises for which data were collected each quarter increased their annual sales by $26 million, creating 16,000 new jobs either internally or among their suppliers.

ASME’s grant fund expended $3.1 million in 508 cost share grants, ranging from less than $100 to help entrepreneurs participate in training programs or trade shows to $93,000 to share the cost of developing a food-safe fish processing plant (now qualifying for ISO/HACCP certification). Some $1.2 million in cash and dedicated technical assistance spurred development of the ACBA Leasing Company and introduced an important new financing option for Armenian agribusinesses.

Among its other quantifiable achievements, the project:

Conducted 178 training events—ranging from technical issues to graphic design, market data management, and advanced marketing techniques—involving nearly 2,000 SMEs.

Organized 85 domestic and international trade events, introducing the concept of a national pavilion to Armenian participants and facilitating their ability to penetrate new markets.

Developed working agreements with 33 Armenian business service providers and 83 capacity-building activities to enhance their capacity to assist local SMEs.

Signed 72 subcontracts for technical services with participating business service providers.

Funded 132 short-term technical assistance assignments by 78 international specialists in fields as diverse as queen bee breeding and fashion design.

Conducted more than 50 training activities involving more than 2,000 participants under the avian influenza project.