AFA attended the second MTCP Steering Committee meeting for South Asia and Southeast Asia plus China last December 18, 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand. The meeting was convened to review the reports of the IFAD Supervision and Implementation Support (SIS) mission on the implementation experiences of MTCP (2009-2012) in the ten countries it covers. The review drew lessons learned, which were shared with IFAD as a major financer for possible scaling up.
Since June 2009, the Medium Term Cooperation Programme (MTCP) funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and coordinated at the regional level by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been implemented in two sub-regions, namely Southeast Asia plus China and South Asia. The goal of the MTCP is to improve the livelihoods of rural poor producers, and its purpose is to enable small farmers’ organizations in the Asia and Pacific region and their networks to influence policies affecting their members. As an active member of the Global Farmers’ Forum, AFA, together with other regional/international FOs, pioneered the promotion of MTCP within IFAD.
IFAD initially expressed commitment to support MTCP phase 2. AFA expressed appreciation for IFAD’s effort to strengthen solidarity and cooperation among farmers. In line with this, AFA pushed for a more FO-led MTCP 2 as manifested by an institutional arrangement that allows FOs to manage and coordinate various activities not only at the national level but also at the sub-regional and regional levels.
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