The Mekong Institute is soon to launch the Lower Mekong Initiative Food Security Donor Mapping Database this year. 

The said database features a geo-map and a listing of food security and agriculture activities in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Viet Nam and Thailand. The project, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aims to provide a public platform for accessing relevant information on food security and agriculture projects and initiatives in the Lower Mekong Region (LMR) as a contribution to enhancing donor cooperation and collaboration. It also seeks to help national key agencies in mapping priorities and future directions of food security and agriculture efforts in the five countries, minimize overlaps and achieve more efficient results. 

The beta version of the site can be viewed at www.mekongfoodsecurity.org. A work in progress, the database now has over 700 entries of completed and ongoing projects in food security and agriculture in the LMR. These projects are classified according to sectors, ranging from crop and animal production, nutrition and health to market and trade, and rural credit and finance, among others. Projects may be searched according to sector, geographical location (country and province of implementation) and donors and implementing organizations. 

The project team at MI’s Rural Development Department has spent more than a year compiling and adding project information from publicly existing databases in the five countries and from websites of donors, implementing organizations, and government agencies. 

The database also features a News Page for news stories, blogposts and feature articles on relevant food security and agriculture issues in the region. 

Project editors and donor organizations may also register as users/editors for editing project and donor information and creating new project entries. 

The database launch is planned for May 2015.