The U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Food Security Donor Mapping activity helps increase coordination and connectivity throughout the LMI region. The grant will support the Mekong Institute to map agriculture and food security activities in the Lower Mekong Region. The goal is to provide regional donors and stakeholders with information regarding priorities and programs in the food security sector.

A worker irrigates seedling plants at a farm in the Greater Mekong Subregion. USAID is helping to improve coordination between food security donors in the lower Mekong.

Mekong Institute

Food security is a key development issue for the Greater Mekong region with rice as the main staple food for the population. Net rice exports from Southeast Asia represent about half the import needs of the rest of the world and the region’s rice exports help underpin the world rice market.

Global demand for food is expected to grow by 60 percent by 2050 due to a 30 percent global increase in population. In addition, variability in water cycles driven by climate change is considered likely to impact rice production in the near future.

The Mekong Institute is an intergovernmental organization which implements and facilitates capacity-building programs supporting regional cooperation and integration issues in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The institute is the only capacity-building organization operated in cooperation with the six Greater Mekong Subregion governments: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China.

SUPPORTING REGIONAL COORDINATION AND PLANNING

USAID will support the Mekong Institute to build an online portal to highlight information and where food security programs are taking place in the region. The goal of the project is to facilitate collaboration, increase transparency and assist in smarter USAID and donor programming within the lower Mekong region. The portal will include stakeholder contact information, project descriptions, locations and other useful program details.

PROGRAM GOALS

At its completion, the initiative will provide The Mekong Institute with a tool that allows them to be at the center of the region’s food security activities. The activity will also assist the institute with building its own internal capacity to be a leading coordinator and regional think-tank.

PARTNER

The Mekong Institute