[{"bbox": [93, 153, 1165, 381], "category": "Text", "text": "Two years after the coup d'état which halted our cooperation with the Myanmar Government and brought the EU to reorient its programming, the EU can how focus on what has effectively been built over our years of cooperation with Myanmar, and consolidate this foundation. As such, traditional EU support to agriculture and livelihoods gives a starting point to branch off into connected areas which consolidate the impact in this area. Thus, to enhance impact on local economic development, support to rural livelihoods is complemented in this action by an added focus on MSMEs, and synergies will be built with ACT-61326 \"Securing Energy Needs and Transition of RUral areas in Myanmar (SENTRUM)\" (Special Measures 2022), which will increase access to renewable electricity and the use of energy-efficient products."}, {"bbox": [93, 398, 1165, 541], "category": "Text", "text": "Another lesson learnt is that the partnerships built over the period pre-coup represent a solid foundation to consolidate and expand. The multi-donor approach continues to be highly valuable to express in tangible ways common priorities among like-minded development partners, and project partners need to be selected for their efficiency and effectiveness in building trust with local organsations in a highly sensitive environment, and build their capacity. This has proven critical to achieve the high absorption capacity that EU programmes display."}, {"bbox": [93, 557, 1165, 644], "category": "Text", "text": "The 2019 evaluation³³ of the LIFT programme, implemented for ten years, showed positive impact on rural livelihoods, reducing poverty and increasing consumption. It prioritized women and conflict sensitivity. To address climate vulnerability, the evaluation recommended integrating climate-smart agriculture approaches."}, {"bbox": [93, 660, 1165, 889], "category": "Text", "text": "The LIFT Strategy for 2024-2028 was designed to take onboard lessons learnt. It aims to address Myanmar's food security crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, military takeover, conflict, and rising commodity prices. It includes climate change adaptation measures and focuses on strengthening the resilience and livelihoods of communities living in vulnerable situations. The strategy is centred around four pillars: increasing food production, improving income opportunities and women's role, enhancing household nutrition, and building community resilience to climate change. LIFT will be guided by its Gender Equality Strategy (GES 2022-2023) to promote gender equality and women's empowerment. Monitoring and assessment of impact on women's empowerment will be done through a MEAL plan."}, {"bbox": [93, 906, 1165, 1191], "category": "Text", "text": "Several initiatives have been piloted to support MSMEs investment in sustainable and responsible practices, and the Responsible Business Fund stands out as having come up with a successful formula to generate demand on part of MSMEs and achieve sustainable development results, not only for the participating MSME but through the demonstration effect of the support provided. The 2020 Midterm Review of the Danish Myanmar Country Program highlighted the continued relevance and success of the Responsible Business Fund. It had an impressive portfolio of 500 grants to SMEs in areas such as energy, water efficiency, waste management, working conditions, OSH, and food safety. The review praised the Fund's flexible implementation approach, gender performance, and country-wide distribution of benefits. By December 2022 MSMEs have already made investments in technologies that promote resource efficiency, export readiness, improved working conditions, and responsible business practices that demonstrate the 'business case' for investing in Resource Efficiency."}, {"bbox": [93, 1208, 1165, 1295], "category": "Text", "text": "Another lesson learnt from the RBF has been that MSMEs are willing and capable of substantially co-funding these investments and demonstrating achievements to other players in their line of business. These key principles were built into the RBF methodology, and have been fundamental to the success of the RBF and sustainability of results."}, {"bbox": [248, 1326, 562, 1357], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 3.5 The Intervention Logic"}, {"bbox": [85, 1620, 357, 1644], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³³ LIFT's 2015-2019 Evaluation"}, {"bbox": [1028, 1682, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 15 of 27"}]