Written by Mekong Institute

On October 1, 2013, the Mekong Institute was awarded a grant by the USAID/RDMA to develop an online platform that tracks and lists all foreign-funded food security and agriculture initiatives in the five countries of the Lower Mekong Region (LMR) Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam

The project consisted of two phases: Phase I which involved research and mapping of food security and agriculture activities in the region; and Phase II which entailed the set up and design of the database and the conduct of information dissemination activities.

Staff of the Rural Development Department under which the project was maintained carried out Phase I from October 2013 to mid-2014. Alongside this, Phase II began on December 2013 with the hiring of a website and database programmer to set up the system.

On May 2015, the project team completed the official version of the database. It is currently hosted in an in-house server at Mekong Institute and may be accessed at foodsecurity.mekonginstitute.org. The website was presented to USAID/RDMA and selected donors and development partners on June 29, 2015.

With a grant amounting to USD 108,400, the Lower Mekong Initiative Food Security Donor Mapping Database project ran from October 1, 2013 to June 30, 2015.