The
Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT) is a multi-donor fund
established in 2010 to address food insecurity and income poverty in Myanmar.
LIFT has received funding from 14 donors – the United Kingdom, the European
Union, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, the United States, the Netherlands,
Sweden, France, Luxembourg, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland and Mitsubishi
Corporation. The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is the Fund
Manager to administer the funds and provide monitoring and oversight.
The
overall goal of LIFT is to sustainably reduce the number of people living in
poverty and hunger in Myanmar. LIFT’s purpose is to strengthen the resilience and
sustainable livelihoods of poor people in Myanmar. LIFT’s purpose-level
outcomes are increased income, decreased vulnerability, improved nutrition, and
pro-poor policy developments.
LIFT
works with implementing partners that include international and national
non-government organisations, United Nations agencies, the Government of
Myanmar, private sector organisations, academic and research institutions.
LIFT
is active in the four main agro-ecological zones of Myanmar: the Ayeyarwady
Delta, the Rakhine State, the central dry zone (including Mandalay, Magway and
the southern Sagaing region), and the upland areas of Chin, Kachin, Kayah,
Kayin and Shan States and Tanintharyi Region.
So
far, LIFT has reached more than 7.2 million people, or roughly 20 per cent of
Myanmar’s population; and is active in almost half the country’s townships.
LIFT is funding projects through to June 2019. For more details visit www.lift-fund.org.
Background on the assignment
The Global Agriculture and
Food Security Program (GAFSP) launched by the G20 is a multilateral financial
intermediary fund. The objective is
to improve incomes and food and nutrition security in low-income countries
by boosting agricultural productivity. GAFSP addresses the underfunding of country
and regional agriculture and food security strategic investment plans that are
already being developed by countries in consultation with donors and other
stakeholders at the country-level. GAFSP provides readily available
financing to scale-up agricultural and food security assistance on a
coordinated basis in response to demonstrated commitment to results by
countries.
Myanmar
was one of the eligible countries and applied to the GAFSP funding window 2017.
LIFT has been supporting
Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MoALI) for designing and
developing the proposal with the help from both international and national
expertise to address major issues, challenges interrupted for the country agricultural
sector intensifying especially for the rural poor. GAFSP
funding in Myanmar, for a total of $27 million will support efforts to create
an enabling environment that reduces the incidence of poverty, malnutrition and
food insecurity among the rural poor.
LIFT is continuing to support the
development of the GAFSP operational/business plan by providing lead technical support. LIFT is recruiting a consultant with wide
experience in this sector to provide recommendations to LIFT on the effective
inputs for designing and developing the business model for GAFSP implementation
in Central Dry Zone. The consultant’s recommendations for the business plan
design will provide the government/MoALI. The recommendations will also
identify major issues that should be considered in the GAFSP implementing
strategy as well.
Purpose and Scope of Assignment
The
objective of this assignment is to support LIFT in drafting and developing GAFSP
operational/business plan, in partnership with FAO, ADB and government. The consultant will be
expected to consult various stakeholders along the agri-food value chain actors
for the agricultural development of Myanmar especially for the Central Dry Zone.
Perform
other relevant duties as may be assigned by the supervisor.