Ko Ko Win

Ko Ko Win has 16 years of experience supporting inclusive growth within Myanmar’s agricultural sector. As a Senior Program Officer on Winrock International’s USAID-funded Value Chains for Rural Development project, he successfully catalyzed the transformation of Myanmar from an unknown coffee producer to a world-renowned specialty coffee source. He is adept at empowering, incentivizing, and building the capacity of private sector partners, producer organizations, and value chain associations to enable producers to effectively respond to market opportunities. Under the Value Chains for Rural Development project, he successfully facilitated and coached private sector actors to take an active role in Myanmar’s agricultural development, and he has played a leading role in linking producers to local, national, and international markets. Ko Ko Win has contributed to the empowerment of women leaders from diverse ethnic groups; for example, he provided coaching and advisory services to support the growth of Ywangan Amayar Coffee Limited, a private coffee business focused on women-grown specialty coffee. He has adapted methodologies developed by the Coffee Quality Institute to the local context to empower female farmers to have a greater voice within farmer organizations. For example, two of the five board of director members of Shwe Taung Thu, a community-based coffee producer group, are now women. Prior to his work with the Value Chains for Rural Development project, Ko Ko Win worked as a coffee specialist for a United Nations program and as a coffee extension agent for the Agriculture Extension Department. Ko Ko Win has a Master of Science degree in Agriculture and Rural Development from the Hankyong National University, South Korea.