The 2019 Grow Asia Country Partnerships Workshop held last month in Singapore was an eye-opener for the Myanmar Agriculture Network (MAN) Secretariat Team, and a first for majority of the team members – Country Director (U Ye Htut), Engagement Manager (U Htet Aung Phyo) and Communications Manager (Ms. Naw Rosy Love).
The sessions were crafted to: facilitate a better understanding of Grow Asia’s Theory of Change (and where the in-country work fits into this), promote sharing of learnings between the Country Partnerships (CPs), showcase frameworks for building effective value chain and market system-based interventions, and strengthen the delivery of our value to partners. Among these, the “Business Development Pitch” session in particular provided MAN with insights on how best to pitch for grants and donor applications. The opportunity to present MAN’s value and gather feedback from a panel of experts (Anton Simon Palo from Foodlink Advocacy Cooperative, Biggy Nguyen from Swiss Re, Christy Davis from the Lien Centre for Social Innovation and Jonathan Parry from Spurwing Communications) was a valuable exercise.
The Grow Asia Team from across the region with our four guest judges: Biggy Nguyen, Jonathan Parry, Anton Simon Palo and Christy Davis.
More importantly, the training gave the MAN team an opportunity to interact with our counterparts from the other Grow Asia Country Partnerships (CPs). We identified our shared challenges, discussed ways of working with one another and agreed that more collaboration and exchanges should be promoted. With Grow Asia’s guidance, the consolidated network of CPs, if fully utilized by our partners, could become a catalyst for sustainable agriculture development at the ASEAN level.
The MAN Team would like to express our gratitude to Grow Asia for facilitating this workshop. We would also like to thank every member of the Grow Asia CPs present at the training for sharing their experiences and knowledge. We look forward to more collaborative opportunities in the future.
Grow Asia and the Country Partnership Secretariat Teams