Publication: Food Systems in Africa: Rethinking the Role of Markets
Loading...
Files in English
11,651 downloads
Other Files
2,779 downloads
Date
2021-01-27
ISSN
Published
2021-01-27
Editor(s)
Abstract
Food for cities in Africa is changing under the triple effect of growth demography, urbanization and transformations in agricultural production and trade. These changes create risks: African cities increasingly face the challenges of undernutrition and malnutrition. But they also generate new opportunities: the food economy is the continent’s main source of employment and will remain so in the near future, both to ensure agricultural production, agro-food processing and product distribution. At the center of this economy are the intermediaries market, which link producers and consumers, and whose ineffectiveness explains that about a third of the production evaporates in food losses.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Balineau, Gaelle; Bauer, Arthur; Kessler, Martin; Madariaga, Nicole. 2021. Food Systems in Africa: Rethinking the Role of Markets. Africa Development Forum;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34919 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Promoting Agro-Enterprise and Agro-Food Systems Development in Developing and Transition Countries : Towards an Operational Strategy for the World Bank Group(Washington, DC, 2003-05)This paper sets out a strategic framework for WBG assistance for the modernization of agro-food systems in client countries. The objective of this strategy is to enhance the competitiveness of food, feed, and fiber systems-as a powerful source of growth and income generation-and to do so in a manner in which the poor are major beneficiaries in their capacities as consumers, farmers, workers, and entrepreneurs. This is a major challenge, not only because of the long-standing constraints faced by developing country farmers and agro-enterprises (i.e., weak infrastructure, anti-business policies, etc.) but also because major changes in the global agro-food market are tilted toward those economic agents who have capital, superior organizational and marketing skills, and an acute understanding of consumer requirements. Those lacking such assets and capabilities risk being (further) marginalized. The focus of attention here is on those enterprises, activities, institutions, and relationships that occur off the farm-in other words, those entities and functions that deliver material inputs to the farming sector and transform, distribute and otherwise add value to food and fiber products, yet are not directly engaged in primary production and natural resource management. The shorthand term for this sphere of activity and institutions is agro-enterprise activity. As already demonstrated in a number of countries (including China, Chile, Thailand, Taiwan, Brazil, Mexico and Kenya), agro-enterprise activity-sometimes also referred to as agribusiness can be a powerful source of growth, income diversification and poverty alleviation. However, competitive agro-enterprise activity does not emerge spontaneously. It requires a resourceful, market-oriented private sector which is willing and able to bear commercial and other risks, and a facilitative enabling environment comprising policies, rules, and infrastructure. With consumer demand and agricultural markets undergoing continuous change, sustained agro-enterprise success requires flexibility and the capacities to refine one's approaches, products, and services.Publication Improving Food Security in Arab Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009)This joint working paper lays out a rationale and strategic framework for improving food security and managing food-price shocks in the Arab countries. The paper does not provide country specific policy and project recommendations. Such recommendations will follow from the country by country application of the framework, taking into account each country's political and cultural preferences, resource endowments, and risk tolerance. In 2007 and the first half of 2008, a sharp rise in agricultural commodity and food prices triggered grave concerns about food security, malnutrition and increased poverty throughout the world. While the threat of a prolonged food-price shock receded with falling energy and commodity prices and a weakening global economy in the second half of 2008, many factors underlying the volatility in food prices appear here to stay and will require careful management if the world is to avoid future food-price shocks. This paper suggests three critical strategies that, together, can serve as pillars to help offset future vulnerability to price shocks: a) strengthen safety nets, provide people with better access to family planning services, and promote education; b) enhance the food supply provided by domestic agriculture and improve rural livelihoods by addressing lagging productivity growth through increased investment in research and development; and c) reduce exposure to market volatility by improving supply chain efficiency and by more effectively using financial instruments to hedge risk.Publication Are There Lessons for Africa from China's Success Against Poverty?(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-01)At the outset of China's reform period, the country had a far higher poverty rate than for Africa as a whole. Within five years that was no longer true. This paper tries to explain how China escaped from a situation in which extreme poverty persisted due to failed and unpopular policies. While acknowledging that Africa faces constraints that China did not, and that context matters, two lessons stand out. The first is the importance of productivity growth in smallholder agriculture, which will require both market-based incentives and public support. The second is the role played by strong leadership and a capable public administration at all levels of government.Publication Enhancing Food Security in Afghanistan : Private Markets and Public Policy Options(Washington, DC, 2005-08)This report analyzes some key aspects of food security, namely production, trade, markets and food aid at the national level, and consumption at the household level. In doing so it aspires to make a contribution to the on-going work in Afghanistan regarding the attainment of the poverty and hunger Millennium Development Goal. The major findings of the report can be summarized as follows: Food security (at the national level) does not necessarily require national self-sufficiency in wheat or other food staples, as long as the country has access to international markets. Rather, diversification into legal high-value crops and livestock products may be the most effective means of increasing food security, by generating foreign exchange and raising the incomes and purchasing power of the rural poor. In spite of very difficult conditions, wheat markets in Afghanistan have performed fairly well and private sector international trade has helped to stabilize supply and prices. Therefore, further developing the infrastructure and institutions to support wheat markets and facilitating private sector trade is called for and will enhance food security. At the household level, food insecurity in Afghanistan is largely caused by inadequate access to food resulting from low household incomes. For most of Afghanistan, where availability of food is not a constraint, increasing cash incomes is the more efficient means of enhancing food security of the poor. Development of both private and public capacity for data collection and analysis is a high priority for effective formulation, assessment and implementation of food policies.Publication Drivers of Sustainable Rural Growth and Poverty Reduction in Central America : Guatemala Case Study, Volume 2. Background Papers and Technical Appendices(Washington, DC, 2004-12-31)This regional study encompasses three Central American countries: Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras. The focus of this report is Guatemala. The study is motivated by several factors: First is the recognition that sub-national regions are becoming increasingly heterogeneous, and economically differentiated as part of ongoing processes of development and diversification, with some areas advancing, and others being left behind. Second is the acceptance that one rural strategy does not fit all; design of an appropriately tailored rural strategy requires understanding the assets, markets, and institutions that frame household opportunities and livelihood strategies. Third, rural heterogeneity requires identification of sufficiently homogeneous areas and household types to facilitate policy formulation, investment strategies, and project design. Fourth, there is a need to bridge the gap between conceptual strategies, and their timely implementation in order to obtain tangible and sustainable results. To this end, it is necessary to identify the appropriate sequencing, and complementary of investments in assets needed to drive growth and reduce poverty. The study's focus on assets is appropriate given historically stark inequalities in the distribution of productive assets among households in the region. Such inequalities are likely to constrain how the poor share in the benefits of growth, even under appropriate policy regimes. Rural poverty in Guatemala is characterized by three important features. First, geographic isolation, caused by varied topography, and inadequate transport networks, is an important correlate of poverty. The second dominant feature of rural poverty is ethnic exclusion. Poverty rates are far higher among indigenous groups and groups whose primary language is not Spanish. Third, rural poverty is concentrated in particular areas: that is, it has a particularly strong spatial dimension in Guatemala. Findings indicate that the high degree of overlap between high poverty rates, and high poverty densities in areas such as the Western Altiplano, means that investments there should reach significant proportions of the country's rural poor. Thus, to generate substantial gains in poverty reduction and broad-based growth, complementarities between productive, social, and location-specific assets must be addressed. Specifically, the report focuses on access to land, and strong local level institutions, and social capital, to compensate for lack of physical assets. This also requires a move from geographically untargeted investments in single assets, to a more integrated and geographically based approach of asset enhancement, with proper complementarities.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System : A Handbook for Development Practitioners(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004)An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations, and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a 'readiness assessment' and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way.Publication World Development Report 2019(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019)Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future. The 2019 World Development Report will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Technological progress disrupts existing systems. A new social contract is needed to smooth the transition and guard against rising inequality. Significant investments in human capital throughout a person’s lifecycle are vital to this effort. If workers are to stay competitive against machines they need to train or retool existing skills. A social protection system that includes a minimum basic level of protection for workers and citizens can complement new forms of employment. Improved private sector policies to encourage startup activity and competition can help countries compete in the digital age. Governments also need to ensure that firms pay their fair share of taxes, in part to fund this new social contract. The 2019 World Development Report presents an analysis of these issues based upon the available evidence.Publication World Development Report 2014(Washington, DC, 2013-10-06)The past 25 years have witnessed unprecedented changes around the world—many of them for the better. Across the continents, many countries have embarked on a path of international integration, economic reform, technological modernization, and democratic participation. As a result, economies that had been stagnant for decades are growing, people whose families had suffered deprivation for generations are escaping poverty, and hundreds of millions are enjoying the benefits of improved living standards and scientific and cultural sharing across nations. As the world changes, a host of opportunities arise constantly. With them, however, appear old and new risks, from the possibility of job loss and disease to the potential for social unrest and environmental damage. If ignored, these risks can turn into crises that reverse hard-won gains and endanger the social and economic reforms that produced these gains. The World Development Report 2014 (WDR 2014), Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development, contends that the solution is not to reject change in order to avoid risk but to prepare for the opportunities and risks that change entails. Managing risks responsibly and effectively has the potential to bring about security and a means of progress for people in developing countries and beyond. Although individuals’ own efforts, initiative, and responsibility are essential for managing risk, their success will be limited without a supportive social environment—especially when risks are large or systemic in nature. The WDR 2014 argues that people can successfully confront risks that are beyond their means by sharing their risk management with others. This can be done through naturally occurring social and economic systems that enable people to overcome the obstacles that individuals and groups face, including lack of resources and information, cognitive and behavioral failures, missing markets and public goods, and social externalities and exclusion. These systems—from the household and the community to the state and the international community—have the potential to support people’s risk management in different yet complementary ways. The Report focuses on some of the most pressing questions policy makers are asking. What role should the state take in helping people manage risks? When should this role consist of direct interventions, and when should it consist of providing an enabling environment? How can governments improve their own risk management, and what happens when they fail or lack capacity, as in many fragile and conflict-affected states? Through what mechanisms can risk management be mainstreamed into the development agenda? And how can collective action failures to manage systemic risks be addressed, especially those with irreversible consequences? The WDR 2014 provides policy makers with insights and recommendations to address these difficult questions. It should serve to guide the dialogue, operations, and contributions from key development actors—from civil society and national governments to the donor community and international development organizations.Publication The Power of Survey Design : A User's Guide for Managing Surveys, Interpreting Results, and Influencing Respondents(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)The vast majority of data used for economic research, analysis, and policy design comes from surveys-surveys of households, firms, schools, hospitals, and market participants, and, the accuracy of the estimate will depend on how well the survey is done. This innovative book is both a 'how-to' go about carrying out high-quality surveys, especially in the challenging environment of developing countries, and a 'user's guide' for anyone who uses statistical data. Reading this book will provide data users with a wealth of insight into what kinds of problems, or biases to look for in different data sources, based on the underlying survey approaches that were used to generate the data. In that sense the book is an invaluable 'skeptics guide to data'. Yet, the broad storyline of the book is something that should be absorbed by statistical data users. The book will teach and show how difficult it often is to obtain reliable estimates of important social and economic facts, and, therefore encourages you to approach all estimates with sensible caution.Publication Zimbabwe(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-03-01)This report presents an assessment of Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector disaster risk and management capacity. The findings indicate that Zimbabwe is highly exposed to agricultural risks and has limited capacity to manage risk at various levels. The report shows that disaster-related shocks along Zimbabwe’s agricultural supply chains directly translate to volatility in agricultural GDP. Such shocks have a substantial impact on economic growth, food security, and fiscal balance. When catastrophic disasters occur, the economy absorbs the shocks, without benefiting from any instruments that transfer the risk to markets and coping ability. The increasing prevalence of ‘shock recovery-shock’ cycles impairs Zimbabwe’s ability to plan and pursue a sustainable development path. The findings presented here confirm that it is highly pertinent for Zimbabwe to strengthen the capacity to manage risk at various levels, from the smallholder farmer, to other participants along the supply chain, to consumers (who require a reliable, safe food supply), and ultimately to the government to manage natural disasters. The assessment provides the following evidence on sources of risks and plausible risk management solutions. It is our hope that the report contributes to action by the Government of Zimbabwe to adopt a proactive and integrated risk management strategy appropriate to the current structure of the agricultural sector.