(Asuncion, Paraguay) From August 4th to 17th 2019, Korea Institute for Development Strategy (KDS) has dispatched a Project Management team (Dr. Minho LEE and Ms. Eunsaem LEE) to support bidding process for selecting a local implementing agency for the second pilot project of “Samaeul Undong(SMU) Project of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Paraguay”, which is funded by a bilateral grant from the Republic of Korea through Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
In the technical evaluation of the bidding process which was held on August 7th, KDS Project management team has participated as evaluators, with three public officials from the Paraguay Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and the Director of KOPIA Paraguay. Among strong and competent candidates, the IICA(Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura) was finally selected as the preferred negotiator. After the negotiation supported by KDS project management team, the contract between KOICA and IICA has been made in the climate change seminar held on September 4th.
Also, at this event, the Agreement for Project Steering Committee(PSC) was signed between Denis Lichi, Minister of MAG and Mansik Shin, Director of the KOICA Paraguay Office. The Committee is a decision-making organization between Korea and Paraguay for this Project. Main stake holders including Minister and Vice Minister of MAG, Director and Vice Director of KOICA and Project Manager will participate and it is expected to contribute to the national spread of rural development project in Paraguay.
The project aims to achieve income enhancement and capacity building of Paraguay's family and small-holder farmers. From 2015 to 2021, a total of 7 million USD is to be allocated to the following activities: 1) pilot projects with farmers’ organizations, 2) agricultural capacity-building and improvement of training environment, 3) research on farming technology and agri-food value chain. KDS is responsible for the overall project management since December, 2018.
