Publication: World Bank Assistance to Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa : An IEG Review
Loading...
Date
2007
ISSN
Published
2007
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This study assesses the development effectiveness of World Bank assistance in addressing constraints to agricultural development in Africa over the period of fiscal years 1991-2006. This Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) review of World Bank assistance to agriculture in Africa has a twofold purpose. First, it is a pilot for the proposed IEG study on Bank-wide assistance in agriculture scheduled for fiscal year 2009. Second, the review provides timely insight into specific issues relevant to the Bank's renewed focus on agriculture in Africa, especially as expressed in the Africa Action Plan. The central finding of the study is that the agriculture sector has been neglected both by governments and the donor community, including the World Bank. In order to effectively support the implementation of the Africa Action Plan and its appropriate focus on agricultural development as a key priority, the study has three recommendations for the Bank. First, it should focus attention on achieving improvements in agricultural productivity. Second, it should increase the quantity and quality of analytical work and ensure that policy advice and lending are grounded in its findings, and rebuild its technical skills. Third, it should establish clear benchmarks for measuring progress.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Independent Evaluation Group. 2007. World Bank Assistance to Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa : An IEG Review. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6907 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication The CGIAR at 40(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-09-01)The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has been one of the most successful research-for-development organizations over the past 40 years. The $11 billion invested by CGIAR donor members in research conducted by the international Centers under its umbrella has yielded many multiples of that sum in economic benefits to developing and emerging countries. Annual economic benefits of research on rice in Asia alone are equivalent to the total investment made by CGIAR donors over 4 decades, leaving aside benefits in other continents and from other research conducted by CGIAR institutions. The CGIAR‘s success is due in part to the way it was organized. The Group itself was an informal forum for dialogue among donor members about research priorities, investment options, and the continuing relevance and effectiveness of the institutions supported. The international centers constituted the core of the CGIAR. Each was (and still is) an autonomous international organization governed by an international board. The Group and the Centers were originally advised by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of distinguished scientists from developing and developed countries, each appointed as an individual. The Group’s activities were facilitated by its Secretariat based at the World Bank in Washington, DC, and TAC’s activities by another secretariat based at the food and agriculture organization in Rome.Publication Kenya(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-11)Despite myriad challenges, Kenya has emerged in recent years as one of Africa’s frontier economies, with headline growth in the most recent decade propelling the country toward middle-income status. Less well understood is how risk dynamics associated with production, markets, and policy adversely impact sector performance, in terms of both influencing ex ante decision making among farmers, traders, and other sector stakeholders and causing ex post losses to crops, livestock, and incomes - destabilizing livelihoods and jeopardizing the country’s food security. The present study was commissioned in part to bridge this knowledge gap. It is the first step in a multiphase process designed to integrate a stronger risk focus into sector planning and development programs. It seeks to learn from and build on a range of broad initiatives by the Government of Kenya (GoK) and its development partners purposed to enhance Kenya’s resilience and response to natural disasters. The ultimate objective is implementation of a holistic and systematic risk management system that will reduce the vulnerability and strengthen the resiliency of Kenya’s agricultural supply chains, and the livelihoods that depend on them. This sector risk assessment is the primary output of phase one. The study’s main objective is to identify, assess, and prioritize principal risks facing Kenya’s agriculture sector by analyzing their impacts via quantitative and qualitative measures. The study’s main findings highlight an agriculture sector increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather variability. Chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides an overview of Kenya’s agriculture sector and a discussion of key growth constraints. Chapter three assesses the main agricultural risks (production, market, and enabling environment). Chapter four analyzes the frequency and severity of the major risks identified and assesses their impact. Chapter five presents some stakeholder perceptions of these risks and the potential to improve their management. Chapter six concludes with an assessment of priorities for risk management and a broad discussion of possible risk management measures that can help to strengthen the resiliency of agricultural supply chains and the livelihoods they support.Publication Comprehensive Assessment of the Agriculture Sector in Liberia : Volume 1, Synthesis Report(2007)The overall objective of the Comprehensive Assessment of the Agricultural Sector (CAAS) is to provide an evidence base to enable appropriate strategic policy responses by the Government of Liberia (GoL) and its development partners in order to maximize the contribution of the agriculture sector to the Government's overarching policy objectives. Given the strong relationship between growth in agricultural productivity and poverty reduction, future efforts in Liberia need to focus on productivity enhancing measures with a pro-poor focus that increase incomes. Growth based on extensification using traditional technologies is generally not profitable and has damaging implications for the environment. Given the low level of assets possessed by most Liberians, future efforts need to address the question of access to assets (i.e. land, knowledge and inputs) in addition to providing opportunities and an enabling environment. Liberia needs to make concerted efforts to preserve and consolidate its emerging stability by focusing on interventions to ensure food security and poverty alleviation at the community and household levels. Improving access to food and generating sustainable, remunerative activities and employment are crucial to this process. This report is designed to assist in indicating and specifying the potential role of specified agricultural commodity value chains in achieving the priority objectives of the government by focusing on small holders, traditional farming, and food security and forms an input for the preparation of a strategic orientation framework to achieve sustainable food security, nutrition and agricultural development. This report reviews gender issues in Liberia's agriculture and rural sector with a special focus on rural women and how to improve their participation and contribution to rural development. The report reviews women's roles in agriculture and the rural economy; their access to key inputs and services which are essential to carry out their socio-economic role in rural areas; as well as gender-related social trends and problems that may have an impact on productivity and poverty reduction in rural areas. The assessment also reviews the institutional and policy framework for agriculture and rural development and identifies opportunities to improve the rural sector's capacity to address gender issues and support female farmers and rural entrepreneurs. The findings and recommendations will inform the reform of the sector, currently underway, and thereby support the GoL poverty reduction effort and the implementation of the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP).Publication Malawi Agricultural Sector Risk Assessment(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-12)With more than three-quarters of its workforce employed in agriculture, Malawi is highly vulnerable to any adverse events affecting the agriculture sector, and agricultural risks are ever present in the country. Agricultural risks can obstruct development and enforce poverty traps, particularly for a country as reliant on agriculture as Malawi. Because of the size of the sector in the economy and the importance of agricultural products for export, agricultural growth correlates closely with gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Malawi’s effort to manage risks and to provide relief in response to adverse events diverts significant resources from longer-term development investments. To better understand the dynamics of agricultural risks and identify appropriate responses, incorporate an agricultural risk perspective into decision making, and build the capacity of local stakeholders in risk assessment and management, the agricultural risk management team (ARMT) of the agriculture and environment services department of the World Bank conducted an agriculture sector risk assessment. The purpose of this report is to assess existing agricultural risks, prioritize them according to their frequency and impacts on the sector, and identify areas of risk-management solutions that need deeper specialized attention. Three levels of risks were assessed: production risks, market risks, and enabling environment risks to selected supply chains. The report takes a quantitative and qualitative approach to assessing risk. This report is structured as follows: chapter one gives introduction and context. Chapter two provides an overview of the agriculture sector and the selected crops. Chapter three maps the production, market, and enabling environment risks to food crops and export crops. Chapter four looks at the adverse impacts of agricultural risks in terms of losses, both at the national level and for different regions. Chapter five prioritizes the risks in terms of their frequency and the severity of their impacts, and discusses solutions based on this prioritization, ongoing risk-management activities, and the feedback from the consultative workshop.Publication Evaluative Lessons for Agriculture and Agribusiness(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-01)Agricultural investments made by developing countries and multilateral development banks (MDBs) have declined in recent decades. This decline is associated with a slowdown in the growth of agriculture productivity. Most development institutions have recognized the damage caused by this past neglect, in part evident in rising food prices, and renewed attention to agriculture and agribusiness is emerging. But this renewed interest will need to deliver results, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the MDBs have had the least success but where the needs and opportunities are enormous. This paper synthesizes recent work by the independent evaluation agency members of the Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG) and incorporates lessons from related research by MDBs and from the academic literature on agriculture and agribusiness. The objectives of the paper, in addition to distilling evaluative lessons for agriculture and agribusiness, are to examine the key constraints on the sector and to provide evaluators, operational staff, and policy makers with an evaluative perspective on interventions in countries at different stages of development.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition(Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank, 2016-09-13)The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.Publication World Development Report 2004(World Bank, 2003)Too often, services fail poor people in access, in quality, and in affordability. But the fact that there are striking examples where basic services such as water, sanitation, health, education, and electricity do work for poor people means that governments and citizens can do a better job of providing them. Learning from success and understanding the sources of failure, this year’s World Development Report, argues that services can be improved by putting poor people at the center of service provision. How? By enabling the poor to monitor and discipline service providers, by amplifying their voice in policymaking, and by strengthening the incentives for providers to serve the poor. Freedom from illness and freedom from illiteracy are two of the most important ways poor people can escape from poverty. To achieve these goals, economic growth and financial resources are of course necessary, but they are not enough. The World Development Report provides a practical framework for making the services that contribute to human development work for poor people. With this framework, citizens, governments, and donors can take action and accelerate progress toward the common objective of poverty reduction, as specified in the Millennium Development Goals.Publication World Development Report 2009(World Bank, 2009)Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. World Development Report 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions density, distance, and division are essential for development and should be encouraged. The conclusion is controversial. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. A billion people live in lagging areas of developing nations, remote from globalizations many benefits. And poverty and high mortality persist among the world’s bottom billion, trapped without access to global markets, even as others grow more prosperous and live ever longer lives. Concern for these three intersecting billions often comes with the prescription that growth must be spatially balanced. This report has a different message: economic growth will be unbalanced. To try to spread it out is to discourage it to fight prosperity, not poverty. But development can still be inclusive, even for people who start their lives distant from dense economic activity. For growth to be rapid and shared, governments must promote economic integration, the pivotal concept, as this report argues, in the policy debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration. Instead, all three debates overemphasize place-based interventions. Reshaping Economic Geography reframes these debates to include all the instruments of integration spatially blind institutions, spatially connective infrastructure, and spatially targeted interventions. By calibrating the blend of these instruments, today’s developers can reshape their economic geography. If they do this well, their growth will still be unbalanced, but their development will be inclusive.Publication Boom, Bust and Up Again? Evolution, Drivers and Impact of Commodity Prices: Implications for Indonesia(World Bank, Jakarta, 2010-12)Indonesia is one of the largest commodity exporters in the world, and given its mineral potential and expected commodity price trends, it could and should expand its leading position. Commodities accounted for one fourth of Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and more than one fifth of total government revenue in 2007. The potential for further commodity growth is considerable. Indonesia is the largest producer of palm oil in the world (export earnings totaled almost US$9 billion in 2007 and employment 3.8 million full-time jobs) and the sector has good growth prospects. It is also one of the countries with the largest mining potential in view of its second-largest copper reserves and third-largest coal and nickel reserves in the world. This report consists of seven chapters. The first six chapters present an examination and an analysis of the factors driving increased commodity prices, price forecasts, economic impact of commodity price increases, effective price stabilization policies, and insights from Indonesia's past growth experience. The final chapter draws on the findings of the previous chapters and suggests a development strategy for Indonesia in the context of high commodity prices. This section summarizes the contents of the chapters and their main findings.Publication Poverty Reduction in Indonesia : Constructing a New Strategy(Washington, DC, 2001-10-29)The objective of the report is to point at the need for a new poverty strategy, and the areas of action it should cover, where each area should be specifically discussed, addressing the lives of Indonesia's poor, and the tradeoffs policymakers will need to consider, based on the belief that this poverty strategy should emerge from a broad dialogue among stakeholders. First, in broadening poverty, the report looks at the facts of the late 1990s crisis, which revealed the precariousness of Indonesia's gains in reducing expenditure-based poverty. Thus to extend those gains, the poverty strategy needs to be defined, and then redeveloped by acknowledging the multidimensional reality of poverty, and, it is this notion which will lead to making the strategic choices. Second, within the country's political transition to a democratic, decentralized mode of governance, a poverty strategy needs to be consistent with an empowered populace, and democratic policymaking mechanisms. In creating a policy environment for raising the incomes of the poor, the report identifies the resumption of rapid sustainable growth, with rising real wages, employment opportunities, and, limited inflation, including the economic empowerment of the poor, enhanced by poverty-focused public expenditures. Inevitably, the provision of core public services is an area which should address the people's will in local governance policies, focusing on education and health, while providing appropriate infrastructure, and developing safety nets.