More Aid for African Agriculture: policy options for ... - UK Food Group

4. Conclusions
This report has provided evidence of what underlies the mainstream agenda for aid for
agriculture, especially in Africa. While welcoming the promises, as a result of the food
crisis, of significantly increased expenditure on agricultural aid and associated research
and development, there are concerns about what type of agriculture will be
supported and promoted.
The research raises a number of questions about how the new agriculture agenda will
be realized.
1. Aid effectiveness. Will there be a shift in agricultural aid towards the production of
food by local food producers, involving local communities and farmers’
organizations in the design and implementation of targeted programmes that also
secure their livelihoods and sustain the environment? Or will the policy conditionality
attached to aid merely change appearance from an ‘aggressive’ to a more
‘tailored’ liberalization tool supported by ‘aid for trade’?
2. Market and private sector-led agricultural growth. Will the ‘growth agenda’ be
tailored to the increasing needs of local communities for the sustainable production
of food using technologies that cannot be privatized? Or will it be dominated by
export-led and high-value crop production, supported by proprietary technologies
including GM crops and increased use of agrochemicals?
3. Exiting agriculture: Will the new agriculture agenda defend small-scale farmers,
especially women, and protect local food production and food provision? Or will
there be continued pressures on small-scale farmers to stop producing food, with
safety nets, including food aid, providing welfare for those who lose their livelihoods
and the resources with which to produce food?
4. Improved governance and political processes: Will the new aid architecture and
related food, agriculture, trade and environment policies respond to the challenges
of increasing locally-controlled food provision at a time of significant challenges
including climate change? Or will governance systems be unable to deal with the
pressures from the corporate-sector and powerful interests, seeking to benefit
through dominance of the food system and the resources used, that limit options
for local and national control.
5. African ownership: Will African peoples, from local communities to nation states, be
allowed to determine their own development of their own food systems? Or will this
mean that African states have to take ownership of historical problems and of
imposed solutions that are compliant with donors’ priorities.
It is apposite to cite the proposals of an international civil society campaign for More
and Better aid to agriculture 57 that embraces farmers’ movements and nongovernmental
organizations from all regions of the world. The campaign has
developed principles for better agricultural aid that supports full inclusion and
participation in its design and delivery and is sensitive to gender equity.
To support the principles for better aid, the campaign argues that aid to agriculture
should:
■ facilitate provision of sufficient, safe, nutritious food;
■ put emphasis on income strategies, peoples’ livelihoods, local production
systems, local markets, fair trade, fair and good distribution systems, protection
of markets where needed to enhance national and local food security, and
avoid the use of food aid where it will threaten the market for local products;
57 ‘More and Better’ was set up in 2003 to campaign for a major increase in, and significant improvements in the
quality of, development aid for agriculture, rural development and food in developing countries. It is an
independent campaign comprising social movements, civil society and non-governmental organizations from over
40 countries. The campaign is closely linked to the purposes of the FAO’s International Alliance Against Hunger (IAAH)
and co-operates with the International CSO/NGO Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC).
http://moreandbetter.org/
Will the new
agriculture agenda
defend small-scale
farmers, especially
women, and protect
local food production
and food provision?
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