Dhaka, Bangladesh – The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a multi-lateral funding mechanism, approved funding for the government’s Integrated Agriculture and Food Security Project (IAPP) last June 2010 for an amount of $50M through its public sector window, aimed to increase agriculture production through technology generation, adoption and water management. The IAPP began implementation in early 2012.
In March 2012, the GAFSP likewise approved a loan to Natore Agro, a subsidiary of PRAN, a big agro-processing company in Bangladesh, for an amount of $5M, through its private sector window, managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group. The loan was part of the total $15M loan to the said company, provided by IFC to “expand production capacity, create 1,800 rural jobs and integrate small farmers into retail supply chains.”
Implementors of the two projects were not aware of the each other’s project. Meanwhile, at the Steering Committee level, its members were in a GAFSP continuous improvement process, and one major issue currently being reviewed is the relationship, coherence, coordination and governance of both the public and private sector windows of GAFSP.
It is in this context that AFA, together with Action Aid Bangladesh and Kendrio Krishok Moitree, AFA’s member in Bangladesh, conducted a consultation in Dhaka last April 4 at the Action Aid office in Dhaka. The consultation brought together , for the first time, key stakeholders of GAFSP in Bangladesh: 20 representatives of IAPP, PRAN, IFC, and FAO, who is handling the technical assistance component of IAPP, and CSOs who have been tracking the progress of GAFSP in the country since 2011, when the first concept note was approved. A lively discussion took place where participants raised questions, made clarfications and shared concerns and issues related to both projects’ implementation and relationship with each other.
The consultation was part of the GAFSP CSO mission conducted April 3-4 by an AFA team composed of Mr. Soc Banzuela, National Coordinator of Pakisama, AFA member in Philippines and alternate CSO-Asia representative to the GAFSP SC, and Mr. Amirul Islam, Program Manager of AA-B and anchor staff for KKM. The mission was supported by funds from the Coordinating Unit of GAFSP.
AFA will provide a full report of the mission at the end of the month.
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