"Enough! It is unacceptable that 250 million Africans suffer from hunger. It's time for action!" said African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina at the recent United Nations General Assembly during a session on the role of South-South cooperation to achieve sustainable development for food security. Through its Feed Africa strategy, the African Development Bank (“the Bank”) and its partners are determined to transform African agriculture into a globally competitive, inclusive and business-oriented sector that creates wealth, generates gainful employment and improves the quality of life for the people of Africa. One of the goals of the strategy is to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by achieving self-sufficiency in key staple foods and agricultural food chains.
In 2018, Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) completed two evaluations of the Bank’s support for agricultural value chains development (AVCD), with the objective of providing key lessons and recommendations for the Feed Africa strategy: a cluster evaluation of nine agricultural value chain interventions by the Bank over the period 2005–2016, and a formative thematic review assessing the agricultural portfolio of the Bank, amounting to approximately UA 3.1 billion during the same period.
The thematic evaluation found that supporting the development of agricultural value chains has been a growing and evolving approach for the Bank, and is the cornerstone of the current Feed Africa Strategy. The evaluation also identified five fundamentals and five enablers for AVCD interventions[1].
As regards the performance of the Bank’s interventions, the cluster evaluation found that:
- The projects were highly relevant to Member Countries and Bank strategies as well as the needs of the target population. However, there were several limitations in the analysis and design of AVCD approaches.
- The Bank’s value chain related interventions are generally effective in achieving their stated objectives of increasing production and physical access to markets, but they are not consistent in achieving overall AVCD results.
- In all case studies, AVCD interventions incorporated some design elements to address inclusiveness, but in practice, equitable distribution of benefits is not achieved.
- The sustainability of benefits from AVCD interventions is difficult to assess and receives insufficient attention.
The evaluation recommended that the Bank:
- Build a coherent and consistent approach to AVCD across Bank operations.
- Build AVCD analytical and implementation capabilities
- Focus AVCD interventions on adding value and achieving sustainable impact
- Work with partners, especially the private sector, to strengthen strategic and operational approaches to AVCD.
- Take affirmative actions to ensure inclusiveness.
- Strengthen policy dialogue to enhance a conducive AVCD environment.
On this World Food Day 2019, which is calling the world’s attention to Achieving Zero Hunger through healthy diets while nurturing the planet, IDEV invites you to learn more about the key issues, lessons learned and recommendations for the Bank’s Feed Africa strategy by accessing the materials below:
Video
- Strengthening Agricultural Value Chains to Feed Africa: Cluster Evaluation Report
- The African Development Bank’s Support for Agricultural Value Chains Development: Lessons for the Feed Africa Strategy
- The African Development Bank’s Support for Agricultural Value Chains Development: Lessons for the Feed Africa Strategy (brief)
[1] The five fundamentals include: (1) careful context-specific value chain analysis to ensure value-added along the Value Chain (VC); (2) inclusiveness for poor farmers, women, youth and other vulnerable groups in both participation and benefits sharing; (3) flexibility and responsiveness to changing contexts and market needs; (4) focus primarily on profitability and efficiency of the value chain; and (5) apply strategies to ensure the sustainability of outcomes.
The five enabling factors that are context-specific to ensure the success of AVCD include: (1) availability of appropriate infrastructure and technology; (2) conducive policy and regulatory environment pertaining to the targeted VC; (3) availability of appropriate business support services to strengthen the skills of VC actors; (4) access to finance for VC actors to make required investments to achieve increased profitability; and (5) private sector engagement and working relationships among VC actors. In addition, while the key enablers for AVCD are evident throughout the Bank’s interventions, the evaluation indicates on opportunity to strengthening the VC fundamentals.