The Context
The Asia-Pacific region is the largest and most populous continent. It is home to 60% or 4 billion of the world’s population. The rural population in many of the developing countries in the continent can be anywhere from 40-80%. The region has 38% of the world’s arable lands and has the most extensive forest and fishery resources in the world. Moreover, the region feeds 60% of the world’s population, produces, 90% of the world’s rice, 40% of the world’s cereals and 40% of the world’s meat. It has 70% share of the global market for food and vegetables and 80% of the global aquaculture.
The number of hungry people in the world has dropped from 1 billion to 795 million. However, there are still 490 million people in Asia Pacific who suffer from chronic hunger – more than any other region of the world. They are the women and men who rely on agriculture, fisheries and forestry for a living – small-scale farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples, pastoralists/ herders. They share common problems: 1) lack of access and control over basic production resources, particularly land, waters, forests, seed; 2) inadequate access to physical infrastructures (such as roads and electricity), to basic social and economic infrastructures (such as education and health) as well as to economic, financial and communication services; 3) vulnerabilities to natural and man-made disasters and food price volatilities; and 4) lack of meaningful participation in policy and decision-making processes, from the local to the national levels.
MTCP was the result of the Farmers’ Forum, an on-going, bottom-up process of consultation and dialogue among small farmers’ and rural producers’ organizations (FOs), IFAD, and governments, focused on rural development and poverty reduction. The Forum started in 2006 and is held every two years. It is one of the venues for FOs’ various initiatives to respond to the needs of small-scale producers in claiming their political and economic rights, pooling their economic resources, getting access to services and technologies, marketing their products, and protecting their environment.
Implemented in 2009-2012, MTCP1 succeeded in bringing together different national and local FOs in 10 countries in Southeast and South Asia in regular dialogues among each other, as well as with their governments and FAO and IFAD representatives resulting in increased opportunities for partnership and involvement in policy making venues for farmer-to-farmer sharing of experiences and initiatives.
Building on the success and achievements of the first phase, MTCP2 was launched in 2013. It now includes three international and regional FOs, 94 national FOs, 895 sub-national FOs, (provincial, district, etc.) and 12, 987, 135 individual farmers from 15 countries.
After a year of implementation of MTCP2, the following have been achieved: 1) the program is now fully managed by FOs; 2) it has expanded to more FOs in more countries and sub-regions; 3) various capacity building activities have been conducted; 4) most FOs initiated research activities in aid of an evidenced-based advocacy and in support of effective market engagement; 5) concrete gains on policy advocacy were achieved, benefiting millions of farmers; 6) opportunities to widen the space for dialogue and common agenda building among FOs have been opened; 7) technical assistance from partners was mobilized; 8) engagement with regional bodies (ASEAN, SAARC and SPC) were carried out; 9) resources have been mobilized; and, 10) sound fund flow and high utilization rate of project fund by FOs were ensured.
Goals, Objectives, Targets
MTCP2 aims to strengthen the capacities of farmers’ organizations in Asia and the Pacific to deliver better, improved and inclusive services to their members and to engage in effective dialogues with governments, thereby making FOs more viable, responsive and accountable to their members, more respected by their partners and with greater participation in policy making and program implementation processes of governments and IFAD country operations.
MTCP2’s primary beneficiaries are smallholder farmers who are current or potential members of participating FOs. It targets 150 FOs representing 20 million small-scale farming families in 25 countries in Southeast and South Asia and the Pacific.
MTCP2 Coverage
MTCP2 covers the following countries:
Pacific: Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue and Tuvalu will be considered at a later stage.
South Asia: Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan and Afghanistan at a later stage
Southeast and East Asia: Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, China, and Thailand at a later stage.
Components, Activities, Budget
MTCP2 is a 5-year program with four components. The first three are technical components: 1) Strengthening FOs and their Networks; 2) FO Participation in Policy Process; and 3) FO Services and Involvement in Agriculture Development Programmes. The fourth component is on
Program Management and Coordination. Under each component are sets of sub-components and activities.
Major activities include: a) reviews and assessments on the FOs’ by-laws and capacities to manage their organizations, deliver services to members, help members increase their profits along value chains, and to have greater involvement in the country’s/region’s policy-making and program implementation processes; b) establishing membership databases; c) technical assistance, training and capacity-building on the various needs and gaps as identified through the reviews; d) researches and studies on priority policy issues; e) FO platform strengthening; and f) policy dialogues.
Implementation Arrangements
MTCP2 is managed by FOs at the regional and national levels. The AFA/LVC consortium acts as Regional Implementing Agency (RIA), with AFA as grant recipient and financial manager. The funds received by the RIA are then channeled to the Sub- Regional Agencies (SRIAs), composed of AFA/LVC for Southeast Asia, All Nepal Peasant Federation Association (ANPFa) for South Asia, and Pacific Island Farmers’ Organizations’ Network (PIFON) for the Pacific.
The SRIAS then channel the funds to National Implementing Agencies (NIAs). IFAD selected the RIA and SRIAs based on a call for proposal. The participating FOs at the national level select the NIA.
The implementing agencies will establish an effective and efficient online Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and a strategy for Knowledge Management that is in line with IFAD’s guidelines.
MTCP2 is guided by one regional steering committee (RSC) and three sub- regional steering committees. The RSC is composed of 1 representative from each sub-regional FO, and one national FO per sub-region as observers. On the other hand, the sub-regional steering committees are composed of one representative from each covered country and the sub-regional FOs. The Chairpersonship of the steering committees is renewed on a regular basis.