Burning Questions
Fellowship Award Winners

Brian Cook

Location: U.K.
Primary academic field: Food systems
Award category: PhD Holder

Topics to be Addressed during the Award Period:

The role of international funders in promoting industrial animal agriculture in Thailand and Vietnam. The aim is to understand the landscape of international financing, what is funded, the dynamics of the funding and policy context and the motivations of these funders.

• Look for and review information in publications, grey literature, websites, etc. For example: IFC Project Information and Data Portal.
• Collect primary data from interviews with key stakeholders such as NGOs, policy makers, farmers and farming organizations, and international funding agencies. The interviews will provide qualitative insights and first-hand accounts of the impacts of funding on agricultural practices in the region.
• Conduct policy analysis to examine the directives and guidelines that shape funding decisions and their implementation on the ground, focusing on entities such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Some of the Things We Really Liked when We Read the Application:

• Financing is very important in any industry in any country - and it is especially so in developing countries such as Thailand and Vietnam that are in the process of industrializing various sectors, including animal agriculture.
• At the same time this topic is not well understood by front-line organizations and campaigners. That is why providing an accessible and practical resource that explains the role played by international funders (e.g., multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, national development banks) in the expansion of industrial animal agriculture in Southeast Asia appealed to us.