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