Policy Analysis and Advocacy Programme

PAAP

Policy Analysis and Advocacy Programme

Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in

Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA)

Electronic Newsletter

08 February 2008--Volume 11 Number 02

Appointments

Prof. Paul Mafuka Mbe Mpie has been reappointed as the Director General of the Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research (INERA). PAAP congratulates Prof. Mafuka on his reappointment and wishes him well.

Dr. Emmanuel Iyamulemye Niyibigira has been appointed as the Programme Assistant for Agro-biodiversity and Biotechnology Programme. Emmanuel joins us from the Crop Protection Department of Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. He holds an MSc and PhD degrees in Plant Sciences from Wageningen University in The Netherlands and MBA from Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi. His contacts are ; Tel: 256 772 926614.

Ms. Pamela Tumwikirize has been appointed as the Programme Assistant for the Programme Management Unit. Pamela joins us from Makerere Institute of Social Research and holds a Masters degree in Agribusiness Management from Makerere University. Her contacts are ; Tel: 256 41 4322226.

PAAP welcomes Emmanuel and Pamela to ASARECA.

STRATEGIC PLAN FOR PAAP: 2008-2013

In 2006, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) produced a strategic plan that would guide its activities from 2006 to 2015. This strategy is aimed at taking an integrated approach towards tackling poverty through contributions to enhanced productivity, competitiveness and value addition in a sustainable manner in the region. To implement the strategy several changes were introduced, among which was the consolidation of 17 networks, programmes and projects into seven programmes. The Eastern and Central Africa Programme for Agricultural Policy Analysis (ECAPAPA) and the FOODNET were merged into the Policy Analysis and Advocacy Programme (PAAP). This issue of the newsletter explains the process and provides an insight into PAAP’s Strategic Plan 2008-2013 which was approved this week by the ASARECA Board of Directors.

Introduction

Development of the strategic plan for PAAP kicked off with a stakeholder consultation workshop, attended by 55 participants representing diverse institutions in the region. The participants deliberated on the aspirations of the ASARECA strategy, achievements and lessons from ECAPAPA and emerging trends that have a bearing on policy agenda for the region. Through analyses of the trends, four core programme areas for PAAP were identified. This was a reduction from the six programme areas identified by ECAPAPA in 2003. Two were a continuation of on-going activities, thus stressing their relevance and the other reflected emerging challenges, with advocacy cutting across all programme areas. The programme areas are:

·  Trends analyses: looking inside and outside (new)

·  Rationalization, harmonization and advocacy of policies and legislation (continuation)

·  Policy issues for natural resource management (continuation)

·  Options and opportunities for small scale agricultural growth (new).

The programme areas and strategic intent on advocacy are elaborated through a rationale, expected outputs, outcomes and impacts; challenges and gaps to achieving results; strategies that will lead to results and key research questions that need to be addressed in order to achieve the desired outputs, outcomes and impacts. These include the reform of policies, regulations and procedures that impend on investments in appropriate technologies and restrict sectoral growth and trade. Advocacy of evidence based policy options will be carried out. The desired end will be efficient market chains bridging the production to consumption continuum, improved linkages between research and development, and supportive policies and institutional arrangements. Ultimately, supportive policies and institutional arrangements will encourage investments that will allow judicious use of resources to enhance livelihoods while at the same time ensuring that nature is conserved and or allowed to rejuvenate for future generations. This will require strong partnerships, new skills and networks and sharing of information and knowledge to help scale up supportive policy and institutional arrangements throughout eastern and central Africa.

ASARECA STRATEGY: Moving from networks to programmes

ASARECA was created in 1994 by Directors General of National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. This was in response to the realization that few countries in the region could on their own afford to sustain a national agricultural research system with sufficient capacity to meet the scale and scope needed to enhance the contribution of research to economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainability of the environment. Over the years, ASARECA has evolved into a viable sub-regional organization and provides services to different stakeholder interests. These include strengthening of the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in their relation with advanced research institutes and international centres; validation of the power of regional action, and generating economies of scope and scale. In 2006 ASARECA produced a revised Strategic Plan 2006-2015 that was largely guided by the prevailing development imperatives espoused in the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and halving the proportion of people whose income is less than US $ 1 a day, between 2000 and 2015.

The strategy outlines two key scenarios that become critical inputs to ASARECA’s positioning. The first scenario elaborates what would happen if current trends in productivity and growth of areas planted continue, which is termed ‘business as usual.” The bulk of the region’s population resides in rural areas and depends on agriculture for income and sustenance. Given the low levels of productivity growth in the sector, hunger and malnutrition have deepened in Eastern and Central Africa (ECA) in recent years. Following a “business as usual” strategy, none of the countries in the region, will achieve the MDGs and, more alarmingly, most will be worse off or only marginally better off in 2015 than at present. The second scenario which elaborates what growth and productivity trends by commodity sector (staples, cash crops, and livestock) are needed to achieve the MDGs on poverty and hunger is termed “business unusual”. This favourable scenario departs from historical experience and would imply in some cases a trebling of the historical growth rates to 6 percent or more. In general, growth rates will have to almost double in staples and livestock and more than double in cash crops.

The strategy concludes that:

·  The biggest impact on poverty reduction will come from concentrating on staples such as maize, sorghum, and cassava and commodity sub-sectors for which demand is greatest and/or likely to grow fastest such as milk, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables.

·  “Business unusual” approach calls for productivity and production gains that have not been realized across the member countries and sustained in the past.

·  Balanced growth is necessary since productivity growth alone will not lead to economic growth and poverty reduction without roads, markets, and access to information. Growth linkages in value added along the producer-to-consumer chain and backward linkages to input suppliers are required.

·  Potential spillovers from research are important and countries can reduce learning costs by sharing information.

The strategy identified eight development domains based on quantitative measures of 1) agricultural potential, 2) market access and 3) population density that cut across national boundaries. Agricultural potential was based on length of growing period overlaid on soil characteristics. Market access was based on the time of travel to different types of markets: purely local markets, regional, major national urban markets, and export points: international port or airport. Population density (above or below 100 people/km2) was used as a proxy for demand and land pressure. Agricultural strategies are likely to have the same relevance for areas falling in the same development domain. Development domains are useful in posing key questions about the welfare of different countries, the formation of country sub-groups, and decision-making in an organization has no mechanisms for making political trade-offs.

Characterization of the development domain ranks agricultural potential, market access and population density on a High (H) or Low (L) scale. For example, the HHH domain has high agricultural potential, high market access, and high population density. Four areas are identified as strategically important for agriculture:

·  HLL: This is the largest agricultural domain accounting for 38 percent of the area in ECA and is found in most countries. It is considered the highest strategic priority because of its size, suitability for different crops and potential for growth. However, it will require investment in infrastructure, security, and market access to be exploited.

·  HHH: This area with favourable conditions accounts for less than 2 percent of the area and already contains 17 percent of the population and 14 percent of rural population. Intensification and management-intensive techniques are needed.

·  HLH: This is another small domain in terms of area with high population density. High value products depend on solving the market access problem. Nevertheless, it remains a small niche.

·  LLL: In spite of “low potential” this domain is important in terms of size and rural population and therefore strategic for the region.

To implement the strategic plan, ASARECA developed an Operation Plan (2007-2011), aimed at strengthening of effectiveness through the integration of the 17 NPPs to seven programmes. These programmes are: Staple Crops merging NPPs working on Irish and sweet potatoes, beans, cassava, sorghums and millets, rice, maize and wheat, and bananas; Non- staple Crops merging coffee network with new activities in horticulture, oilseeds and pulses; Livestock and Fisheries merging the animal agriculture network with fisheries activities; Agro-biodiversity and Biotechnology merging plant genetics resources and biotechnology networks; Natural Resource Management and Forestry merging trees on farm, soil and water management and African highlands initiative; Policy Analysis and Advocacy merging the policy analysis programme and food marketing network; Capacity Development and Institutional Strengthening including Innovation Processes for Technology Uptake and Up-scaling merging agricultural information network and technology uptake and up-scaling project.

Goal, purpose and outputs

Implementation of the ASARECA strategy is guided by the Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP) of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

The goal is increased economic growth and improved social welfare in the ECA while enhancing the quality of the environment; and the purpose is enhanced sustainable productivity, value added and competitiveness of the regional agricultural system. The intermediate outcome is enhanced uptake of agricultural research and development innovations in the ASARECA sub –region.

Output/result areas are:

1.  Performance driven governance and management structures and systems established and operational

2.  Generation and uptake of demand driven agricultural technologies and innovations facilitated

3.  Policy options for enhancing the performance of the agricultural sector in the ASARECA sub-region facilitated

4.  Capacity for implementing agricultural research in the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) paradigm in the ASARECA sub-region strengthened

5.  Availability of information on agricultural innovation enhanced

ASARECA will rely on the seven Programmes to deliver these outputs. PAAP will specifically contribute to output 3, 4 and 5 of ASARECA singly and/or in collaboration with other programmes.

Where we are coming from: ECAPAPA to PAAP

In 1995, a working group was commissioned by the ASARECA Committee of Directors (CD) to identify problems in the agricultural policy arena in the region and suggest solutions within the ASARECA framework. The group proposed the establishment of an Agricultural and Natural Resources Policy Research Initiative (ANARPRI). Following consultations with stakeholders, the ANRPRI concept was restructured and the Eastern and Central Africa Programme for Agricultural Policy Analysis (ECAPAPA) was established in 1997. In the establishment of ECAPAPA, the ASARECA Committee of Directors observed that agricultural policies:

·  Were restricting the optimum performance of the agricultural sector, that is, its contribution to sustainable social and economic development, in general, and poverty alleviation in particular, through limiting support services, links to markets, and incentives to entrepreneurs;

·  Inhibited the effectiveness of agricultural research by offering little support and restricting the motivation for producers to use improved information and technical innovations;

·  Lacked the micro-economic perspectives to ensure that the interests of the intended beneficiary populations are central and that policies are environmentally sustainable and economically efficient.

ECAPAPA was thus established to perform three tasks:

·  Capacity building: to increase the ability of individuals and institutions to relate to, influence and apply policies;

·  Policy analysis: through support and coordination of research in selected thematic areas to develop policy recommendations which can be used to inform the policy making process and;

·  Policy information exchange: using electronic and more traditional media to provide policy information to a wide cross section of stakeholders, linking various organizations, programmes, projects, and networks, and engaging in policy debates.

In 2003, ECAPAPA prioritised six programme areas and 21 research projects. Research projects were developed gradually and by 2007, ECAPAPA was coordinating eight projects. Beyond the consolidation of NPPs at ASARECA level, the evolution of ECAPAPA to PAAP has been influenced by previous external reviews. The review of 2001 recommended that the policy change cycle phases: 1) data, 2) analysis, 3) dialogue, and 4) action/advocacy need not be treated as linear or sequential but activities around them could be initiated simultaneously The review in 2003 recommended more focus on globalization, regional and international trade and the associated need to influence agricultural policy. A review in 2007 called for a focus on a few large projects that will allow ECAPAPA to allocate staff time more efficiently.

Why policy analysis and advocacy in Eastern and Central Africa

Policy analysis is an investment in more effective outcomes that provide enabling environments and frameworks that guide investment decisions and break restrictive barriers. In this context, a distinction is made between economic analysis (what “ïs”), policy analysis (what “could be”) and policy advice (what “should be” and what “can be done”). Policy is defined as a process that includes setting of a deliberate course of action and implementing it. It includes the setting of policy agendas, official policy legislation which includes development of laws, regulations and procedures, and the whole process of implementation. It is also about what happens on the ground: a policy is worth nothing unless it results in actual change. The demand for policy analysis is derived from a real need for policy change on the part of some important client. The link between policy research and analysis and policy change can be direct when the results of the analysis are so compelling that the common wisdom is overturned. Often this is not the case. The hypothesis in this case is that policies can actually make a difference and that there are different policy choices leaving room for manoeuvre.