Publication: Standards and Agro-Food Exports from Developing Countries: Rebalancing the Debate
Loading...
Published
2004-06
ISSN
Date
2013-06-20
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The proliferation and increased stringency of food safety and agricultural health standards is a source of concern among many developing countries. These standards are perceived as a barrier to the continued success of their exports of high-value agro-food products (including fish, horticultural, and other products), either because these countries lack the technical and administrative capacities needed for compliance or because these standards can be applied in a discriminatory or protectionist manner. The authors draw on available literature and work in progress to examine the underlying evidence related to the changing standards environment and its impact on existing and potential developing country exporters of high-value agricultural and food products. The evidence the authors present, while only partial, suggests that the picture for developing countries as a whole is not necessarily problematic and certainly less pessimistic than the mainstream "standards-as-barriers" perspective. Indeed, rising standards serve to accentuate underlying supply chain strengths and weaknesses and thus impact differently on the competitive position of individual countries and distinct market participants. Some countries and industries are even using high quality and safety standards to successfully (re-)position themselves in competitive global markets. This emphasizes the importance of considering the effects of food safety and agricultural health measures within the context of wider capacity constraints and underlying supply chain trends and drivers. The key question for developing countries is how to exploit their strengths and overcome their weaknesses such that they are gainers rather than losers in the emerging commercial and regulatory context.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Jaffee, Steven; Henson, Spencer. 2004. Standards and Agro-Food Exports from Developing Countries: Rebalancing the Debate. Policy Research Working Paper;No.3348. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14061 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Publication The Macroeconomic Implications of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Options(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-05-29)Estimating the macroeconomic implications of climate change impacts and adaptation options is a topic of intense research. This paper presents a framework in the World Bank's macrostructural model to assess climate-related damages. This approach has been used in many Country Climate and Development Reports, a World Bank diagnostic that identifies priorities to ensure continued development in spite of climate change and climate policy objectives. The methodology captures a set of impact channels through which climate change affects the economy by (1) connecting a set of biophysical models to the macroeconomic model and (2) exploring a set of development and climate scenarios. The paper summarizes the results for five countries, highlighting the sources and magnitudes of their vulnerability --- with estimated gross domestic product losses in 2050 exceeding 10 percent of gross domestic product in some countries and scenarios, although only a small set of impact channels is included. The paper also presents estimates of the macroeconomic gains from sector-level adaptation interventions, considering their upfront costs and avoided climate impacts and finding significant net gross domestic product gains from adaptation opportunities identified in the Country Climate and Development Reports. Finally, the paper discusses the limits of current modeling approaches, and their complementarity with empirical approaches based on historical data series. The integrated modeling approach proposed in this paper can inform policymakers as they make proactive decisions on climate change adaptation and resilience.Publication South Africa’s Fragmented Cities: The Unequal Burden of Labor Market Frictions(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2026-01-08)Using high-resolution administrative, census, and satellite data, this paper shows that South African cities are characterized by spatial mismatches between where people live and where jobs are located, relative to 20 global peers. Areas within 5 kilometers of commercial centers have 9,300 fewer residents per square kilometer than expected, which is 60 percent below the global median. Poor, dense neighborhoods are most affected. In Johannesburg, a 10-percentile increase in distance from the nearest business hub corresponds to a 3.7-percentile drop in asset wealth (a proxy of household wellbeing) and 4.9-percentile drop in employment. In Cape Town, the declines are 4.0 and 3.7 percentiles, respectively. Employment is 87 percent lower in the poorest decile than the richest in Johannesburg and 61 percent lower in Cape Town. These findings suggest that South Africa’s spatial organization of people and economic activity constrains agglomeration and reinforces inequality. This methodology provides a scalable and standardized data-driven framework to analyze spatial accessibility and agglomeration frictions in complex, data-constrained urban systems.Publication The Evolution of Local Participatory Democracy in Nepal(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-05)Nepal is, according to its constitution, among the world’s most decentralized countries, with a long and complex tradition of local-level public participation. This paper traces the evolution of Nepal’s modern participatory institutions, examining the extent to which they are “induced” by external interventions versus being “organically” rooted in indigenous practices. The paper identifies three broad phases: an initial focus on participation in project implementation; a subsequent phase that expanded citizen engagement; and a third phase of citizen empowerment, culminating in the 2015 federal constitution, which granted unprecedented local autonomy. The analysis yields five key findings. First, over the past 50 years, successive reforms have progressively expanded opportunities for citizens to influence local decision-making. Second, these reforms have integrated traditional participatory mechanisms into formal institutions of local government. Third, although central-level initiatives exist, most participatory platforms continue to operate at the local level. Fourth, the federal constitution has created a new landscape of local democracy, embedding autonomy and accountability. Fifth, although they are still valued in many ethnic and territorial communities, traditional participatory practices are gradually disappearing. The paper concludes by offering policy recommendations to help donor agencies and governments strengthen Nepal’s democratic trajectory. It argues that effective interventions should build on Nepal’s deep participatory traditions while recognizing the constitutional reality of far-reaching local autonomy.Publication Institutional Capacity for Policy Implementation: An Analytical Framework(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2026-01-07)State capacity is an important prerequisite for policy implementation, yet at the country level it is difficult to measure, assess, and reform. This paper proposes a focus on institutional capacity: the ability of public institutions to implement the specific policy mandates for which they are responsible. Based on a review of existing literature, the paper defines the different dimensions that compose institutional capacity and groups them into two cross-cutting categories: organizational dimensions (personnel, financial resources, information systems, and management practices) and governance dimensions (transparency, independence, and accountability). The paper proposes measures for organizational and governance dimensions using existing data, shows intra-institutional variation of these measures within countries, and discusses how new data could be collected for better measurement of these concepts. Finally, the paper illustrates how the framework can be used to diagnose the sources of common problems related to weak policy implementation.Publication Closing the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship: Overcoming Challenges in Law and Practice for Female Entrepreneurs(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2026-01-07)Despite significant strides toward gender equality, women around the world continue to encounter systemic obstacles that hinder their entrepreneurial success. This paper systematically reviews the literature on the barriers female entrepreneurs face and the solutions proposed to overcome these challenges. It discusses institutional factors, financial factors, human capital factors, and social and cultural factors. The literature overview is complemented by a series of stylized facts that illustrate how overcoming some of these existing barriers is correlated with improved women’s entrepreneurship and female labor force participation, drawing on the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law database as well as the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys. The findings underscore the need for creating an enabling environment where women can thrive as entrepreneurs.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Food Safety Toolkit(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-03)Legislation based on international standards and harmonized between trade partners facilitates trade and enables products from developing countries to be competitive in the international market. Countries looking to export to the EU should aim to harmonize legislation with EU rules. If exporting to EU markets is not a priority, countries should follow requirements of the WTO SPS agreement and thus ensure that their products can access markets of all WTO member states. Both the EU and WTO legislative models for food safety require a risk-based approach to food safety controls, prioritizing funds and activity on the most risky areas. Reforms in this area should be primarily focused on ensuring food safety, although ensuring that consumers are receiving the quality of food that they expect is also a consideration. When planning legislative reform, the burden on business should be carefully considered, and consultation with the business community is strongly recommended to obtain a good understanding of the business perspective. Public awareness on the need for reforms can be important and it is essential to outline the benefits of improved food safety legislation to consumers and their representative bodies as they can help to support reforms and sustain their results.Publication People, Pathogens and Our Planet : The Economics of One Health(Washington, DC, 2012-06)This study aims to build on the findings from the previously mentioned studies, and seeks to provide more detailed information on the costs of the various functions and categories of expenditure involved in the establishment and operation of system for the prevention and control of emerging zoonotic diseases at country and global level. It will also seek to provide information on efficiency and effectiveness gains that will result from the introduction of a One Health approach. With these aims, the study has two target audiences: (a) project planners, who will benefit from the information of the costs of setting up surveillance and control systems to be used as benchmarks when planning preparedness and control operations; and (b) policy planners at the decision-making level, who would use the information on the efficiency and effectiveness gains to guide them in the decision-making process regarding the eventual introduction of One Health. This report disaggregates costs by task, making explicit those activities that are critical for effectiveness and identifying scope for efficiencies. The analysis draws on a range of data sources and earlier work, including integrated national action plans for, and World Bank staff appraisal reports on, avian and pandemic influenzas responses, a survey of the directors of wildlife services, assessments of veterinary systems in developing countries, and OIE (Office International des Epizooties - World Organization for Animal Health) analyses of disease prevention systems.Publication Managing the Livestock Revolution : Policy and Technology to Address the Negative Impacts of a Fast-Growing Sector(Washington, DC, 2005-06)Fueled by fast-expanding demand, the production of meat and milk in the developing world has doubled in recent decades, and this trend is expected to continue. This expanding sector can provide income, employment, and high quality nutrition for vulnerable groups, and in many areas of the world, essential soil fertility inputs. However, as production grows, market forces, often supported by deliberate or unintended government policies, are causing, in particular in the pig and poultry sector, a spatial concentration of larger-size production units, mostly around urban areas, and an economic concentration of production, processing and retailing. This geographical and economic concentration of the livestock sector probably improves the affordability of meat and milk for the urban poor, and might create better-paid employment up- and downstream of the producer, but has significant negative effects on the environment, animal and human health, and social equity. This paper has the following contents: executive summary; setting the scene - demand patterns, supply patterns, and structural changes; effects of the livestock revolution - environmental, public health, equity, and farm-size interactions; technical solutions, policy and institutional support mechanisms, and current activities, rationale for international involvement, and the way forward.Publication Global Study on Reconstruction of Public Live Markets, Slaughterhouses, and Meat Processing Facilities, Volume 1. Main Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-11)This study used the data gathered during a previous World Bank project to assess the available options for the cost-effective reconstruction and rehabilitation of livestock market and slaughter facilities in the developing world. Using the rich array of resource material which the previous study gathered in five of the Bank's lending regions, this report provides information on the characteristics of these facilities. It assesses available technologies, processes and materials for reconstruction and makes recommendations on the appropriateness and cost-effectiveness of these measures under a variety of conditions. Despite the very serious state of disrepair and poor operating standards, there is much than can feasibly be done to improve outcomes in the near term and bring about better welfare, safety, and hygiene conditions for all parties concerned.Publication Samoa : Livestock Production and Marketing(Washington, DC, 2011-06-30)This report was prepared to provide information and analysis of the Samoan livestock sub-sector for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries through a technical assistance assignment financed by the World Bank. The Word Bank contributed technical assistance support to the Government of Samoa to help identify measures to strengthen agriculture sector institutions, to improve the performance of selected commodities - including in the livestock sector - both in terms of import substitution and export expansion, and to identify strategic agriculture infrastructure investments. This report provides information and analysis on livestock inventories, the competitiveness of Samoan livestock products, livestock slaughtering and meat hygiene, and government policies and institutional frameworks needed to enhance the competitiveness of domestic livestock production. The report also contains recommendations for the development of a livestock component as part of the proposed Samoa Agriculture Competiveness Enhancement Project (SACEP).
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Design Thinking for Social Innovation(2010-07)Designers have traditionally focused on enchancing the look and functionality of products.Publication Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy(Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003)Most wars are now civil wars. Even though international wars attract enormous global attention, they have become infrequent and brief. Civil wars usually attract less attention, but they have become increasingly common and typically go on for years. This report argues that civil war is now an important issue for development. War retards development, but conversely, development retards war. This double causation gives rise to virtuous and vicious circles. Where development succeeds, countries become progressively safer from violent conflict, making subsequent development easier. Where development fails, countries are at high risk of becoming caught in a conflict trap in which war wrecks the economy and increases the risk of further war. The global incidence of civil war is high because the international community has done little to avert it. Inertia is rooted in two beliefs: that we can safely 'let them fight it out among themselves' and that 'nothing can be done' because civil war is driven by ancestral ethnic and religious hatreds. The purpose of this report is to challenge these beliefs.Publication Governance Matters VIII : Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators 1996–2008(2009-06-01)This paper reports on the 2009 update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2008: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. These aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from 35 data sources provided by 33 different organizations. The data reflect the views on governance of public sector, private sector and NGO experts, as well as thousands of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. The authors also explicitly report the margins of error accompanying each country estimate. These reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data. They find that even after taking margins of error into account, the WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress over time. The aggregate indicators, together with the disaggregated underlying indicators, are available at www.govindicators.org.Publication Governance Matters IV : Governance Indicators for 1996-2004(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06)The authors present the latest update of their aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (1) voice and accountability; (2) political instability and violence; (3) government effectiveness; (4) regulatory quality; (5) rule of law, and (6) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. The authors present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. In fact, the authors give examples of how individual objective measures provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. The authors also analyze in detail changes over time in their estimates of governance; provide a framework for assessing the statistical significance of changes in governance; and suggest a simple rule of thumb for identifying statistically significant changes in country governance over time. The ability to identify significant changes in governance over time is much higher for aggregate indicators than for any individual indicator. While the authors find that the quality of governance in a number of countries has changed significantly (in both directions), they also provide evidence suggesting that there are no trends, for better or worse, in global averages of governance. Finally, they interpret the strong observed correlation between income and governance, and argue against recent efforts to apply a discount to governance performance in low-income countries.Publication Government Matters III : Governance Indicators for 1996-2002(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-08)The authors present estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources constructed by 18 different organizations. The authors assign these individual measures of governance to categories capturing key dimensions of governance and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. They present the point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods. The governance indicators reported here are an update and expansion of previous research work on indicators initiated in 1998 (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Zoido-Lobat 1999a,b and 2002). The authors also address various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of errors.