PROGRESS REPORT

20 PROGRESS REPORT GTP I TRANSFORMATION AGENDA 21
Overview of Agriculture Component of GTP I
Creation of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda in GTP I
Two of the Government of Ethiopia’s (GoE’s) main
development goals are poverty reduction and
eliminating the country’s dependence on food aid
within a short time frame. With this in mind, the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
has coordinated the design and implementation
of a number of related strategies over the last
two decades. Between 2000/01 and 2004/05, the
Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction
Program (SDPRP) was implemented, followed
immediately by the Plan for Accelerated and
Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP)
for the years 2005/06 - 2009/10.
Building on the experiences of these strategies,
the first Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP)
was formulated for the years 2010/11 to 2014/15,
with a set of clear objectives and targets. As with
the preceding national policies and strategies,
the GTP recognizes agriculture as the heart of
the Ethiopian economy and sets objectives that
aim to boost agricultural production, strengthen
agricultural research, and facilitate stronger
market linkages. Fourteen agricultural growth
and transformation objectives were developed in
GTP I, along with their corresponding outputs and
measurable targets. These comprised the GoE’s
plans to develop the agriculture sector within the
specific five-year period.
Agricultural Objectives in GTP I
1. Ensure food security and support the food industry
through increasing crop production
2. Increase crop productivity by applying good agricultural
practices
3. Increase crop production by increasing cultivable
agricultural land
4. Improve agricultural production and productivity by
improving extension service utilization and agricultural
inputs
5. Strengthen agricultural marketing strategy & increase
foreign market earnings
6. Improve livestock production & productivity
7. Enhance agricultural research
8. Encourage private sector investment in agriculture &
increase agricultural product exports
9. Enhance plant health & quality control
10. Enhance livestock health & quality control
11. Strengthen natural resource conservation
12. Strengthen biodiversity conservation
13. Improve disaster mitigation & management
14. Decrease the population living below poverty line
When the ATA was established in 2011, GTP I
was already one year into its implementation.
While this created some challenges, GTP I also
offered the opportunityto test the ATA’s model
of engagement with all key stakeholders and
learn from the approach. The process of creating
the Transformation Agenda has, in fact, been an
evolutionary process over the past four years,
continually tailoring and contextualizing the
approach to best fit the Ethiopian context.
In the first two years of the ATA’s existence
(2011-13), the MoA and the ATA jointly identified
and prioritized a number of interventions that
could accelerate transformation of the agriculture
sector and help reach the agricultural targets in
GTP I. These deliverables were initially focused
on the broad systems areas of the agriculture
sector, such as seed systems, soil health,
research and extension. However, it very quickly
became clear that interventions in these areas
would not bring rapid impact at the smallholder
farmer level if a parallel engagement was not
made in the specific commodity value chains that
these system level interventions were aimed at
addressing. In addition, key crosscutting issues,
such as gender, climate and MLE, were added
to ensure that unintended consequences from
other deliverables were minimized. In total,
fourteen distinct program areas emerged from
the prioritization of broad engagement areas for
the Transformation Agenda in GTP I.
A more challenging aspect of developing
the Transformation Agenda, however, laid
in identifying the specific deliverables and
interventions that should be prioritized within
each of these fourteen program areas. Systemic
bottlenecks exist in a wide range of areas and
it would be impossible to try and address all
of these challenges simultaneously. As such,
a target number of deliverables was identified
for each broad vertical area. For the programs
in the Systems vertical, which were the priority
during GTP I, a target of 5-7 deliverables were
identified in each program area. For programs in
the Value Chains vertical, a smaller number of 3-4
deliverables were identified in each program area.
Finally, in the Crosscutting Initiatives vertical, 2-3
deliverables were identified in each program.
The identification of a final set of transformational
deliverables in each program area went through
an iterative process whereby a larger number
of deliverables were initially identified. Through
deliberation, analysis and consultation with all
stakeholders (all the way down to smallholder
farmers in key geographies) a final list of 84
deliverables were ultimately identified for
prioritization during GTP I.
Planning and execution of the Transformation
Agenda in GTP I afforded many lessons,
identifying the areas of greatest success
aswell as those in need of improvement. In
terms of broad areas of operational success,
the Transformation Agenda has aligned
stakeholders around key strategic deliverables
and strengthened a wide range of sector
implementation structures. It also integrated a
continuous learning process into the execution
of deliverables, in part through the introduction
of effective and regular reporting formats. Most
importantly, a number of pilot initiatives have
proven effective enough to scale-up across the
country, delivering real results for smallholders.
There are also some key challenges and lessons
from the implementation of the Transformation
Agenda in GTP I that must be addressed in
GTP II. This includes adjusting the scope and
designof deliverables to better match the owners’
implementation capacity, and demanding greater
ownership and accountability from stakeholders.
Appropriate resource allocation for some
deliverables was also a challenge during GTP I
and will be critical for effective implementationin
GTP II. In order to better track the outcomesof
deliverables, specific, evidence-based and
capacity-sensitive targets and milestones are also
necessary. Finally, well-designed capacity building
programs must be integrated into deliverable
implementation to ensure that all activities will be
institutionalized and sustainable.