//  The Platform at Busan - participating & reporting

Two staff from the secretariat went to Busan together with Platform co-chair Brian Baldwin and other members (WFP, FAO). This included distribution of the Platform's "evidence" paper, knowledge pieces and other basic Platform documentation. Specially designed 'roll-up screens' were prepared and used to provide information and targeted 'messages' to participants. They supported the organisation of the IFAD/OECD/WFP side event co-hosted by the Platform as well as two mini-debates and reported on the proceedings of ARD-focussed side events as well as on other content relevant to you.

//  ARD at HLF-4

Overall, side events and mini debates with a direct ARD-focus – especially the one co-organised by the Platform and by IFAD (together with OECD & WFP) – were well attended and included donors, civil society, private sector and partner countries. Attendances, according to informal feedback from OECD colleagues, were above average for the respective events. The large number of concurrent events, plus the plenary sessions, prevented greater attendance. Themes and messages were well articulated and should give the basis for more focussed messaging in the near future as well as contributing to discussions on what topics need specific follow up. The ARD community displayed itself as united behind its main messages. In side events with foci on subjects other than ARD, ARD still was mentioned a number of times. Attendees agreed on throughout that ARD is a subject of highest priority for achieving MDG 1.

From this perspective the ARD community did a good job with its attempt to get better recognition. However, the outcome document and the speeches in the opening ceremony did not mention ARD. Speakers highlighted health, women's rights and education as primary concerns for development. However, the outcome document text was always intended to be on a political level with a focus on the Paris processes. What did get emphasised was – and this is particularly relevant for ARD – the importance and nature of partnership between ARD stakeholders. This was stressed by Homi Kharas, who chaired the panel in the final plenary and introduced a specific discussion on the need for a "Global Partnership for Agriculture".

//  Relevance of Outcome Document for ARD

Informal feedback indicates that while the outcome document represents an important consensual document – insofar as it is endorsed by donors, partner countries, civil society, emerging economies and private sector – it has required sections that are caveated. So one could say, at least with this slight frustration the ARD community was not alone. Nevertheless some constituencies managed to get a paragraph with their special interest into the document – for example 'Statistics for Results' with para 18c. This will have important consequences for the work currently underway on agricultural statistics.

//  Downloads

Busan Partnership Agreement_English

Busan Partnership Agreement_French

Platform Evidence Paper

Platform Knowledge Pieces

Targeted Platform poster for Busan

Opening ceremony speeches

Gregory Adams, Yukiko Omura, Ernest Ruzindaza, Beverly Oda, Josette Sheeran, Jan O’Sullivan, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Eunice Musiime

Josette Sheeran, Jan O'Sullivan, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Raj Shah, Eunice Musiime

Ernest Ruzindaza, Beverly Oda, Josette Sheeran, Jan O’Sullivan

//  Agricultural productivity alone is not enough

Focussing on agricultural productivity was of little use and doomed to fail, emphasized Ernest Ruzindaza, Permanent Secretary of the Rwandan Ministry of Agriculture. A raise in productivity needed to be combined with improved market access. Utilizing the example of Rwanda’s successful implementation of the Purchase for Progress (P4P) programme, he outlined how a parallel focus on productivity, quality, market information and access could encourage a circular development process in the agricultural sector.

//  The necessity of political value chains

Ruzindaza’s point was picked up by Gregory Adams of Oxfam, who introduced what he called the necessity to improve not only agricultural but also ‘political value chains’. He called to attention that it was real value that was being wasted when missing links between different spheres of rural development were not properly addressed. There were not only economic value chains but also political value chains. Disregarding them was a typical mistake causing not only political damage but also very tangible immense economic losses. If for example a road was built without consulting the local communities to establish their interests, this could mean the failure of a project, causing immense economic costs. According to Adams, the ARD community needed to get used to not just focusding on the technical attributes of agriculture but also on political attributes — and relay these considerations into fora such as the HLF.

A possible solution to imperfect political value chains was presented by Canada with the example provided by Beverly Oda, Minister for International Cooperation. Donors had to help bridge the gaps that made ARD such a fragmented area and seek to cooperate with all ministries involved in ARD. Too often, she stated, ARD got lost between departments.

//  Increased aid flows in ARD

Representing both the Global Donor Platform and IFAD, the Vice President of IFAD Yukiko Omura highlighted the chances and opportunities that were retained in ARD, thereby emphasizing the necessity for increased aid flows. No other sector, she underlined, offered higher returns for investment or offered comparable chances for poverty reduction. For these opportunities to take full hold however, she called on donors to avoid competition and repetition for the sake of more effective aid in ARD.

The challenge of allocating more resources to a sector that tends to fall behind defence, education and health when it comes to government priorities was further addressed by Eunice Musiime from a Ugandan CSO. She stressed however that agreements and partnerships such as CAADP — which Uganda had joined — could contribute to increase governments’ attention to ARD.

//   Food security on the ARD agenda

Increasing attention to ARD was also at the heart of the statement of Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Finance Minister of Bangladesh. Despite its continuous importance for ARD, attention to food security was coming and going, he noted. Long term, sustainable programmes however, could only be implemented in an environment where food security did not repeatedly slip from the agenda.

//  Getting the results in ARD

Raj Shah of USAID called to attention that ARD did indeed present high challenges for finding the right indicators, measuring results and aggregating data, but that it was possible to do so. “We can no longer hide behind the excuse that it is too difficult to collect data in a complex field like ARD“, he argued.

It was highlighted by the represented donors, that a change of mindset was slowly emerging towards more comprehensive models of ARD and the overdue focus on getting the results. As Josette Sheeran, moderator of the debate and WFP Chair stressed “we cannot expect better results if we do not change the way we do things“. The panel left no doubt that ARD, with its unique potential but also unique challenges, was the sector where there was a dire need to improve approaches and to focus on aid effectiveness.

Jan O’Sullivan, closed with the statement that “this meeting is surely one of the most important we could attend here at Busan”

//  Ernest Ruzindaza and Katarina Eriksson on the private sector in ARD

Ernest Ruzindaza, Permanent Secretary of the Rwandan Ministry of Agriculture

To ensure food security, it is essential to invest in primary production, Ruzindaza acknowledged. But, he added, no project would become sustainable and provide results reliably if it did not expand beyond questions of production. To incorporate the whole value chain of agricultural products into development efforts was the only way to eventually make aid redundant and create self-sustained agricultural production. To capture the interest of the private sector — often deterred by high investment risks and a resulting difficulty in finding loans — however remained a key challenge to such comprehensive projects, Ruzindaza stated. It must also be kept in mind, he pointed out, that the task did not end with having integrated all stakeholders in a value chain. An inclusive negotiating process to arrive at a concept based on mutual agreement was the foundation for a successful partnership, predetermining whether a project would be successful or not.

Katarina Eriksson, Senior Analyst at Tetra Laval

The private sector is increasingly keen to take on its role in development cooperation but has difficulties being accepted as a partner since it is not a traditional development actor. Given its work in the agricultural sector and with its presence on rural markets however, the private sector can contribute valuable expertise and go beyond the usual provision of supplies. Sustainable business strategies can help develop sustainable development strategies. Donors should strive towards renewing the relationship with the private sector towards more cooperation in development projects and not leave this opportunity unused.

//  Organizers

Rwanda, Aquila Food IG, OECD, IFAD, WFP

//   Interview with IFAD Vice President Yukiko Omuram and Brian Baldwin, IFAD senior operations management advisor and Donor Platform co-chair

According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, 75 percent of the world's poorest people ― a total of 1.4 billion ― live in rural areas, depending on agriculture for their livelihoods.

“About two billion people live and work on the world’s 500 million smallholder farms. Most survive on less than $2 a day,” IFAD Vice President Yukiko Omuram said ahead of the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness where global leaders are setting a new agenda to increase effectiveness of global development. “While their concerns are being heard, action is unfortunately still very slow,” she added. “We need a sea-change in investment in agriculture, with significant increases from donors and developing countries alike.”

The agency set up to finance food production in developing countries is calling for a global partnership between civil society, governments, donors and the private sector to use aid more efficiently.

Omuram said that while “solid progress” had been made since the Paris Declaration on aid management was endorsed in 2005, the pace of change remains slow. She added: “Now it is time for donors and their partners in developing countries to take responsibility for accelerating action. We will raise attention for the need of a strengthened effort to scale up proven rural development solutions to impact the lives of more people and to further improve aid efficiency and sustainability of interventions." She said it was vital to address the underlying problems of soaring food prices, including underinvestment in the agricultural sector.

"The world’s population has now reached 7 billion and we know that half are living in poverty," said Brian Baldwin, IFAD senior operations management advisor who is also attending the Busan conference which runs from 29 Nov to 1 Dec.

“We also know that agricultural investment is three times more effective at raising people from poverty than other kinds of investment," he added. "One billion people are living on one dollar a day. If we don't scale up on agricultural investment we know that we will not reach the millennium development goal to halve poverty by 2015."

//  Source

The Korea Herald

//  National Convergence Initiative

Mahbub Hasan // Eva Benita A. Tuzon

Howard White // Anupama Jha

Eva Benita A. Tuzon, from DAR, Philippines outlined the structure and achievements of the National Convergence Initiative which seeks to combine resources and best knowledge of three ARD related ministries (agriculture, agrarian reform and environment) as well as civil society, the private sector and media, in a quest for more aid effectiveness. The Initiative thereby seeks to avoid the common problem of having several institutions working alongside each other on the same agenda, while being subject to little coordination or cooperation.

//  Importance of local research in ARD

Howard White, Executive Director of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation called to attention that the biggest challenge to ARD today, was to find out and collect evidence on what works and why it works. For this, he advocated local research to take a larger role – being best connected to local circumstances. White pointed out that often the best expertise rests with international actors and donor countries and suggested incentives to enable researchers from developing countries to work in their countries of origin. This would allow for more country ownership and better results.

//  Transparency in ARD

Anupama Jha, Executive Director of Transparency International, India, underlined the importance of focussing on transparency in local development programmes. Only where clear commitments have been determined in advance can results be reached reliably.

//  Planning and budgeting in ARD

Mahbub Hasan, Chief Regional Officer of the Coastal Development Partnership, Bangladesh, highlighted sound planning and budgeting in ARD as a further area that required additional attention in rural development.

//  Q&A session

The Peasant Farmer's Coalition demanded that more attention in ARD be put on allowing people who cultivate land to own this lan

//  Download

Mini-debate presentation_country ownership

//  Organizers

Department of Agrarian Reform, Philippines

//  Tackling poverty through ARD

The importance of ARD as a means to tackle poverty was thoroughly underlined, drawing attention to its absence as topic in the forum's plenary. Posing complex and characteristic challenges to development success, ARD was portrayed as the sector in which progress in aid effectiveness was of particular need. It was shown to be a sector with immense potential for reducing poverty as the majority of the poor lived in rural areas.

Venue

GDPRD Mini-debate room

Steve Wiggins // Azra Sayeed // Andax Rukonge

//  The importance of including local actors for better aid

As in yesterday's ARD mini-debate, presenters repeatedly highlighted how important it was to find the right partners and focus on the inclusion of local actors. Using the evidence collated in the research for Platform Knowledge Piece I on Aid Coherence, the paper's author Steve Wiggins of ODI showed how development programmes which included actors with interest to see the programmes through, were the most successful ones. Consequently, this resulted in multi-stakeholder projects which included the various actors involved in a value chain.

Andax Rukonge of Better Aid and Azra Sayeed, co-chair of PCFS, both mentioned the importance of contributions that stakeholders from the community level can bring to multi-stakeholder programmes. CSOs could add to this by helping to determine a more effective choice of priorities on the basis of informing on the situation on the ground.

Rukonge pointed out that agriculture ministries often heavily depended on donors, with contributions of up to 80% to their budgets. This caused more than only a questionable inflation of priorities – it actually distorted the picture of whose priorities they were in the first place.

According to Sayeed aid could not be entirely horizontal. Multi-stakeholder coalitions may allow a more balanced choice of priorities. However, projects were stated to still fall short of involving actors from the community.

//  Q&A session

The issue of women’s contribution to ARD effectiveness was addressed as critically important to the success of programmes. While there was no lack of information, Sayeed underlined that it was the implementation and political will that had been lacking. These however were central to “getting women out of their house” and involving them in development processes.

//  Conclusions

Panellists agreed that overall results in ARD had fallen short of living up to the Paris Principles. While the letter of the Paris Principles had been followed, its spirit was not, commented Steve Wiggins. He illustrated this point using the principle of alignment: where alignment had officially been reached, he argued, this was often due to government priorities being so wide that almost everything would count as aligned. His message to the donors: “You need country staff to hear the local voices and listen to them. Start taking countries more serious and stick with your priorities and strategies for longer times.”

The mini debate was attended by 27 delegates.

//  Organizers

People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty ,Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, Better Aid