ACDI/VOCA is pleased to announce a new five-year, $38 million activity funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Agriculture and Food Systems Development Activity aims to increase the productivity, inclusiveness, and competitiveness of Myanmar’s agricultural market system. The new activity is the largest current investment by USAID/Burma’s economic growth office and their flagship agriculture initiative. It also joins ACDI/VOCA’s growing portfolio of market systems programs worldwide.
“We are excited to add Myanmar to our global portfolio and to apply our industry-leading market systems expertise to this dynamic new context,” said Charles Hall, president and chief executive officer of ACDI/VOCA. “We believe AFDA can contribute to increased peace and stability and achieve lasting, transformational change in Myanmar’s agricultural economy, to the benefit of smallholder farmers.”
AFDA will work in the Shan and Kachin states as well as the Mandalay, Sagaing, and Magway regions. By leveraging the private sector in regional cities, AFDA will expand and improve the delivery of services and inputs to farmers, including women, youth, and ethnic minorities, as well as link farmers to markets for their crops.
ACDI/VOCA’s inclusive market systems approach will achieve systems-level impacts through pilot interventions. These interventions will allow market actors to learn from and scale up activities that expand the availability of inputs, services, and markets on a commercially sustainable basis. Supported by consortium partner FHI 360, AFDA will also use conflict-sensitive approaches to engage ethnic minority communities in market opportunities as well as strengthen urban-rural linkages, build trust and social cohesion, and promote national economic integration.
An important mechanism for AFDA will be the Market Systems Development Fund. AFDA will competitively select and partner with market actors, including co-creating memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with them to ensure partnerships meet both AFDA’s development objectives and market actors’ business goals. Market actors will also collaborate, learn, and adapt throughout their engagement with AFDA to highlight, refine, and disseminate lessons learned and best practices.
In five years, AFDA aims to reach 125,000 individuals, increase household-level social capital by 50 percent, and create 3,500 full-time equivalent jobs. AFDA also aims to leverage $20 million in new private sector investment and facilitate $42 million in sales by farms and firms.
Learn more about the Agriculture and Food Systems Development Activity.
