Articulating trade related concerns in processes at the global, regional and national levels

Measuring policy coherence for food security, what are the challenges?

Francesco Rampa – Head of Food Security Programme

5-6 May 2015 , FAO, Rome

• what is meant by “policy coherence for development” (PCD)

• what is “policy coherence for food security” (PCD4F)

• The PCD ‘political agenda’• Challenges for implementing & monitoring

PCD4F

Outline

PCD rationale: globalisation, costs, dev effectiveness Other policies and financial flows have more impact than ODA

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Prevalent definitions: PCD = …

EU

“The EU seeks to minimise contradictions and to build synergies between policies other than development cooperation that have an impact on developing countries, for the benefit of overseas development”

OECD

“The pursuit of development objectives through the systematic promotion of mutually reinforcing policy actions on the part of both OECD and developing countries”.

Two-fold implication: “do no harm” and beyond:

1. Make sure all policies are development-friendly2. Ensure the proactive promotion of development objectives in other policies:

exploit synergies > win-win

- PCD = btw “dev sectors” policies (of OECD) & those of non-dev sectors e.g. agric., trade, investment, migration

- …btw policies of OECD & objectives of developing countries

- not the traditional PCD debate: btw OECD policies & developing country policies + btw different local policies

- Diverging interpretations and use of the concept of PCD

- PCD IS NOT (only): Coordination with other policies, Harmonization with other donors, Adjustment of dev policy to other policies

Mostly a ‘donor’ debate [bureaucrats/campaigners]

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• OECD Countries’ policies should be supportive of developing countries’ food security objectives or at least not undermine progress twds them

Domestic policies that do not cause negative international spill-overs

External policies support developing countries’ efforts to improve food security

Multilateral policies create a supportive environment (eg, rules-based, fair…)

• Historically, reforming OECD agr. policies causing negative spill-overs

high levels of farm support and internal market protection

agr. export subsidies…on other exporters and on producers in importing countries (p)

NTBs…more recently, biofuel policies increased the use of land for energy crops and the demand for those crops, and pushed their prices (further) up…

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PCD for food security

Three essential operational ‘building blocks’ are key for establishing effective systems for PCD (ECDPM, OECD):

1. Policy statements for promoting/implementing PCD; it’s political

2. Institutional & admin mechanisms supporting policy coordination to realise PCD; it’s systemic

3. Knowledge-inputs & assessment capacity; it’s knowledge intensive

PCD requires a new political business-model

The PCD Agenda : key components

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• Legal anchoring (Belgium, Sweden);• PCD commitments in non-development strategies

(Netherlands, Ireland, Finland);• General and/or specific thematic commitments (Sweden);• Germany: Food Security• Ireland: Food Security• Finland: Tax, Migration, Trade, Security and Food

Security• Belgium & Netherlands: EU PCD Work Program

PCD commitments are increasingly being taken from general level to specific thematic areas

Variations in PCD commitments

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Despite interest in PCD knowledge-inputs:

• Very little investment in generating them;• Only limited to development field;• Not systematic or explicitly linked to PCD policy commitments/processes• …

Shortcomings of knowledge-inputs

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At present, generating evidence to support the case for PCD is the ‘weakest link’ in all national PCD systems…. But new approaches are

being tested (OECD, Finland, Switzerland etc…)

1. Awareness raising on the importance of PCD: “development friendliness … effectiveness” (beyond aid / Busan)

2. Increased peer pressure (OECD, EU, NGOs...) has moved up PCD on development agenda: exchange of experiences, instit.arrangements…

3. Reaching out beyond dev community: Agriculture, Trade, Migration…4. More sophisticated measuring of PCD: case studies, commitment to

development index,…

Changes in OECD agricultural policies

• OECD Farm support changed dramat. over 25 years, less trade-distorting

• largely relinquished price support policies and public storage schemes

• less and less use of export subsidies and export restrictions

• Direct payments to farmers (income support), with environmental criteria

• However, import tariffs have remained high (especially for “sensitive products”) (and as a result, support to farmers has not declined so much)

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Progress

• Rhetoric is there: PCD even more import. now?crosscutting all SDGs …FOOD largest EU aid sector

• but moving target: aid/trade/investment = ec.diplomacy ? African agric…G8 New Alliance = “TNC replacing fam.farmers” PCD for Private Sector !!

• More and better info sharing and exchange among stakeholders, and clear mechanisms to feed PCD evidence and outcomes of multi-stakeholder dialogues back into relevant policy processes

• Need for clear political direction on PCD measurable commitments for specific policies (beyond Lisbon=synergies) e.g. clear mandates for EU institutions (how is PCD defined in specific policy areas?)

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Challenges to improve PCD for food security

• More systematic/sound evidence about coherence (or incoherence) of European policies with food sec objectives…eg EPAs “flood of imports” VS “gradual/exclusion lists/safeg./no exp subsidies”…incomparable methodologies

• causality chains, > specific indicators, PEA… PCD monitoring should be a country-specific (political) process [impact differs across/within countries]… hence > country analysis… OECD-ECDPM Methodology (Tanzania test)

Challenges to improve PCD for food security

• Methodology for ex post, country-level PCD assessment, focus on food security

• Participatory: to build capacity in analysing & formulating domestic policy responses

• Taking into account agricultural production and trade patterns of developing countries and livelihoods of vulnerable households

• Commodity-specific farm support and export subsidies• Commodity-specific trade regimes, prices and trade flows

EU exports/imports into developing countriesIncidence of rejections of imports from ACP countries into the EU, better data on non-tariff measures, …

• Monitoring of FDI flows (especially land transactions and investments in energy crops) and investment promotion interventions

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…OECD-ECDPM Methodology

1. Getting started: considerations and decisions before launching the exercise

A modular, step-by-step approach

2. The country food security profile: the FS system, determinants and FS

3. Establish a route of impact: causal linkages with OECD policies

4. In-country contextualisation and verification of causal linkages > response strategies

5. Communication strategy and follow up

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Your experience?

www.ecdpm.org/foodsecurity

fr@ecdpm.org

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