Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes
601 items available
Permanent URI for this collection
Items in this collection
1 - 10 of 22
-
Publication
Introduction to Responsible Agricultural Investment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)The United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) - World Bank knowledge into action note series is a compendium of practical, thematic guidance documents for use by governments, investors, and other stakeholders in the implementation of responsible agricultural investment principles. This document provides background to the knowledge into action note series and the underlying research; it also explains the logic, structure, and sequence of the notes, and suggests some guidance for their use. -
Publication
Monitoring Investments
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This note provides guidance on how to monitor the performance and impact of agricultural investments, and on which aspects to observe. Ongoing monitoring of investments is a key way to hold investors accountable for contractual commitments and deliver the expected benefits to the country and surrounding communities. It also facilitates early identification of emerging negative impacts or of failing investments, enabling remedial actions. Monitoring is often deficient because of a lack of resources and systematic procedures, which allows negative impacts to escalate beyond what will otherwise be the case. Internal monitoring is likewise good practice for investors and their financiers, though the field research indicated room for improvement. -
Publication
Food Security and Nutrition
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This note provides guidance on how to ensure tan agricultural investment makes a positive contribution to local and national food security and nutrition. Investments can play a critical role by introducing technologies to increase productivity, by providing demonstration effects, by creating quality jobs, by catalyzing modernization of the sector, and by linking small-scale producers with global markets—all of which, in the right circumstances, contribute to food securityand nutrition. Yet, investments can have a negative impact and be detrimental to food security and nutrition, especially where investments reduce local access to land and water. The challenge for policymakers and investors is how to design policy and business models that maximize the positive benefits to food security and nutrition but minimize the associated risks. -
Publication
Public Transparency
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This note provides guidance on the type of information about agricultural investments that investors and governments can make publicly available. Transparency about certain aspects of investments can improve relations between investors and communities, enable external stakeholders to hold investors to commitments, and improve investors’ public image. Although some information should be kept private to protect commercial interests, in general the amount of publicly available information is insufficient for transparent, accountable conduct of agricultural investments. This has often led to fear, mistrust, and resentment, and created operational and financial difficulties for investors. Some investors and governments have recently shifted toward a more transparent approach, but the risk of misuse of information needs to be managed. -
Publication
Relocation and Resettlement
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This note provides guidance on approaches to relocation and resettlement of people. Although resettlement is ideally avoided, the complexities of unclear, unrecognized, informal, and overlapping land claims in many areas means that it is an issue that investors and governments often need to address. Field research suggests room for improvement in processes and outcomes where resettlement had been undertaken. Critical factors for success included how resettled people perceived that their living situations had changed after resettlement, which includes compensation, access to livelihood opportunities, and social services. Also important was the extent to which people were consulted, where involved in decision making, and had access to grievance mechanisms. -
Publication
Empowering Women
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This note addresses practices for reducing gender inequalities and for empowering women to make a positive contribution to development through agricultural investments. Women make a crucial contribution to the agriculture sector and account for over 40 percent of agricultural labor in developing countries. However, they are frequently marginalized and their contributions under-acknowledged. Agricultural investments may perpetuate or accentuate gender inequalities if proactive gender policies are not adopted. There are significant economic and social gains to be had from closing the gender gap in agriculture. This note provides investors and governments with guidance on how to do so. -
Publication
Water Access and Management
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This note provides guidance on how to ensure that the impact of agricultural investments on water resources is effectively measured, monitored, and regulated. Water is essential to agricultural production and processing, and has been a driving factor in private and public decisions on where to locate investments. Despite global concerns about water scarcity and pollution, the water use of agricultural investments is in many cases not rigorously measured, monitored, or regulated. Where regulations exist, enforcement is often weak. Some investors improve local water access with community development programs, but such schemes require consultation and careful management. -
Publication
Environmental and Social Impact Assessments
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This note provides guidance on the conduct of environmental and social impact assessments (ESIAs) and the implementation of associated environmental and social management plans (ESMPs). Crop and livestock production, forestry, fisheries, and aquaculture all depend on the use of land, water, and other natural resources that are inextricably linked to rural livelihoods, social systems, values, and culture. ESIAs and ESMPs are key tools for identifying and assessing social and environmental risks and benefits at the planning stage of an investment, and for building risk mitigation measures into project design and implementation. Although usually legislative requirements, too often they have been treated as box-ticking exercises. There remainssignificant room for improvement in the conduct of assessment and the rigor with which findings are incorporated into management plans. -
Publication
Community Development Agreements
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-01)This note provides guidance on negotiating, designing, and implementing community development agreements between investors and local communities. Some investors, in particular those thatoperate in remote rural areas, have made significant contributions to local development through social development programs. Their effectiveness and the manner in which they are implemented depend on the context and the capacity of the investor. The most successful programs include localcommunities in making decisions about scope, require investors to make binding commitments, and support rather than supplant governmental responsibilities. -
Publication
Technology Transfer
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This note provides guidance to governments and investors on how best to support the development and transfer of technologies to local smallholders and communities. New technology can help boost production and productivity in the agriculture sector and, given the growing global demand forfood and fiber and the limits of natural resources, has the potential to substantially raise incomes for smallholders and rural communities. Improving mechanisms to increase the transmission and adoption of technologies is important for building technological capability in developingcountries. The importation and adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies in part depends on investors’ support and training efforts but ultimately will fail if local smallholders acting as partners in the value chain do not achieve gains that warrant the embrace and use of technology.