Strategy for Australia’s aid investments in agriculture, fisheries and water
Agriculture and Food Security Section
Session outline
• Strategy for Australia’s aid investments in agriculture, fisheries and water (February 2015)
− Operational guidance note: Gender equality and women’s empowerment in agriculture (September 2015)
• Market system approaches
− What DFAT means by market system approaches
− Examples from DFAT programs
• The new Strategy responds to Australia’s development policy, released in June last year, which identifies ‘Agriculture, fisheries and water’ as one of six priority areas.
Strategic framework
PRIORITY AREAS OF ENGAGEMENT (OR ‘PILLARS’)
Increase contributions to national economic output
Increase incomesof poor people
Agriculture, fisheries and water
Promote Australia’s national interests by contributing to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
Enhance food, nutrition and water security
Private sector development Human development
Strengthening marketsResearch
and
inn
ovatio
n
Innovating for productivity and sustainable resource use
Promoting effective policy, governance and reform
Wo
men
’s e
con
om
ic
emp
ow
erm
ent
This flow chart illustrates the strategic-level framework outlined above.
• Women’s economic empowerment will be properly considered in all of our investments, not only those that focus specifically on gender issues.
• Future investment designs will also include strategies to support women to overcome barriers, to identify market interventions that benefit women, and to improve access to productive resources, financial services and business skills.
• Operational guidance note on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in agriculture (September 2015) provides guidance on how to achieve this. To paraphrase:
• Do analysis
• Do no harm
• Choose the right value chains or innovations to work on
• Measure changes
Women’s economic empowerment
• Nutrition-sensitive agriculture (September 2015)
• Do no harm perspective, and linkages with WEE.
• Market-based approaches (forthcoming, 2015)
• Provides guidance specific to agriculture sector investments that will be applicable to AMENCA 3.
• Agriculture research for development (forthcoming, early 2016)
• Recommendation of the review of agriculture portfolio, which is still in progress.
Further operational guidance notes:
Market System Approaches
Indonesia: AIP-Rural is working with Syngenta to improve off-season mango production. This partnership is projected to increase 10,000 farmers’ incomes by an estimated $980 per year, doubling farmer income.
An example from the Australian aid program
Market System Approaches
The poor are consumers and producers that rely on agricultural markets for their livelihoods
Improving the way markets operate can be a sustainable and efficient way to improve the lives of the poor
Market System Approaches
The Market System
Scale
Facilitation
Sustainability
Features of market system approaches
ScaleComponents of agriculture investment in the sample of developing countries, 1981 -2007, constant 2005 USD billion
Features Market System Approaches
Features Market System Approaches
Scale Working with partners who provide services to the poor rather than working directly with the poor to achieve scale
Cambodia Agriculture Value Chains Program (CAVAC)
By working with one fertiliser company that has a network of 500 retailers across the country, serving at least 70 farmers each, CAVAC can reach 35,000 farmers with a single initiative
FacilitationFacilitating rather than doing.
• Facilitating requires an understanding of partners incentives to act in a way that benefits the poor
• Doing is about paying for goods or services that are missing for the poor
Features Market Systems Approaches
Sustainability and Systemic thinking • Changes that benefit the poor
and don’t require ongoing donor support
• Sustainable Partnerships
• Sustainable Systems
Features Market Systems Approaches