AGRICULTURAL POLICY DATABASE AND INDICATORS
(APDI) FOR AFRICA
I.
Scoping Phase of the APDI project: organisation and objectives
The Agricultural Policy and Development Indicators (APDI) for Africa project is a joint initiative of
the OECD and the FAO undertaken with the sponsorship of the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation. The objective of the project is to provide national governments, aid donors,
international organisations and private researchers with information on agricultural policies and
development progress. The project is currently at the scoping phase, with a proposal for full
funding to be submitted to the Gates Foundation by 31 November 2008.
APDIs would be developed for a range of African countries on a consistent and comparable
basis for the purpose of policy monitoring. The kinds of APDIs that would be measured include
sectoral distortions, which could be due to explicit policies or arise implicitly as a result of high
transactions costs or market failures; measures of agricultural development; and indicators of
the level and allocation of government expenditures. The aim is to provide the kinds of
information that are essential for sound policy decisions – in particular to identify areas for
reform and priorities for investment.
A key element of the project would be close collaboration with African partners, including both
national governments and regional organisations, and with donors and international
organisations (including IFAD). Such collaboration is necessary to ensure that appropriate
indicators are developed and provided to policymakers, and that there is “ownership” of the
indicators and related analysis. The structure for the project will involve training and capacity
building for participating countries, a mechanism for Peer Review, and regular policy monitoring.
II.
Background and Rationale
Good policy decisions depend, first and foremost, on good information and analysis. A
fundamental starting point is a good understanding about the performance of the sector (and
sub sectors) over time and relative to other countries, especially neighbouring countries with
similar constraints and opportunities. Moreover, in a sector such as agriculture, where market
distortions and government interventions are prevalent, the need for a thorough understanding
of the effectiveness and efficiency of government policies is particularly important. The regular
monitoring and peer review of sector performance and agricultural policies, which is a well
established OECD practice for developed countries and some larger emerging economies,
provides a template that may have useful elements for African countries.
In most Sub-Saharan African countries, agriculture is the backbone of the economy and
partial or exclusive source of livelihood for the majority of the poor and hungry in rural areas.
Moreover, the performance of agriculture is closely linked to the sustainability of the fragile
natural resource base. In spite of the importance of the agricultural sector and numerous
efforts to improve the statistical system, policy-makers in these countries typically do not
possess a comparable set of indicators such as are available for OECD countries and
emerging economies.
Agricultural policy makers are increasingly challenged by their Finance Ministries to justify
market interventions and programme expenditures. Donor agencies are promoting country-led
development strategies based which require economic analysis that many agricultural
ministries are ill-prepared to provide. Institutional capacity for regional dialogue has improved
immensely but the information/analytical inputs required for substantive discussions leading to
effective policy reform are mostly lacking.
After years of neglect in terms of government investment and development aid, agriculture is
back on the agenda. Most major multilateral and bilateral agencies have pledged to increase
support for African agriculture, through support to the CAADP, including in successive G8
Summits from Kananaskis in 2002 onwards. The entire OECD donor community has signed
on to a strategy that sees agriculture as the heart of pro-poor growth (OECD 2006, Promoting
Pro-Poor Growth: Agriculture). A coherent development aid strategy for OECD donor
countries requires a good understanding of the agricultural policies that affect production,
productivity, markets, incomes and trade.
III.
Partners and Collaboration
The scoping exercise would be led by the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in close collaboration
with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD).
Development of the theoretical framework for the APDI project for Africa would start from that
developed over many years by the OECD for its member countries and a growing number of
emerging economies. Consistent and comparable information on agricultural performance and
measures of support have been available for developed countries since 1988, when the
OECD started to compile and publish its producer and consumer support estimates (PSE,
CSE). This ongoing monitoring programme not only provides internationally recognised policy
indicators but feeds a rich policy dialogue where countries can compare policy experiences,
seek answers to common problems, identify best practices and co-ordinate domestic and
international policies. Over time, this dialogue has led to the adoption by OECD countries of
common policy principles and operational criteria, as well as useful lessons about the process
of reform. The methodology has evolved in response to the changing nature of policy
measures themselves and the more sophisticated demands of policy makers for policy
evaluation.
III. Project Design and Implementation Plan
The FAO and IFAD will be the main collaborating institutions for the scoping exercise. Experts
from these two institutions will be directly involved in every phase of the project. Other
international or regional organisations with country-based networks, such as the FAO, IFAD,
World Bank, IFPRI, NEPAD, AGRA, the Hub in Dakar, etc. could also play a prominent role in
the eventual project.
In order to ensure that the proposed indicators can be developed and conform to the needs of
policymakers, African experts will be invited to help define the indicators and the multistakeholder dialogue and capacity-building aspects of the project.
The bilateral and multilateral donor community would also be informed about this programme
to gauge interest, as well as to identify information needs specific to donors. In Africa,
expenditures on agriculture come largely from development aid, and development agencies
continue to have a strong influence on policy decisions, so it makes sense to involve these
important stakeholders. This could be done via such bodies as the OECD Development
Assistance Committee (DAC), the OECD-based African Partnership Forum Support Unit, the
OECD Development Centre (authors with the ADB of the African Economic Outlook), the
European Commission DG Development and the Global Donor Platform on Rural
Development.
Close collaboration will be sought with recent and ongoing initiatives aiming at improved
statistical systems in African countries. One is the CountryStat project of FAO, funded by the
Gates Foundation. FAO is currently embarking on an ambitious project in 17 Sub-Saharan
African countries, which aims to pull together data systems, identify gaps and weaknesses
and assist countries to strengthen their agricultural data systems. Another project of
importance is the Partnership in Statistics for the 21st century (PARIS 21), which is currently
instrumental in promoting good statistical systems in African countries.
IV.
Expected Outcome of the APDI Scoping Phase
At the end of the scoping phase, a 15-20 page report will lay out the proposed programme
and the budget for the APDI project. This report will be submitted to the Gates Foundation and
to IFAD (who has expressed the desire to co-finance the project in the future). It will list the
indicators and quantify them so that they can be tested by the countries participating in the
pilot phase of the project. It will also lay out the institutional make up of the project, its lifespan
and the roles that the various stakeholders, such as governments of the countries involved,
international organisations, regional organisations, etc. will play, as well as the modalities of
the multi-stakeholder dialogue and capacity-building at the national, regional and international
levels. The report will also contain consultations carried out between governmental
representatives and the regional organisations along with the concerned donors.
Provided the necessary financing is obtained, the project can commence at the beginning of
2009. It will be a long-term project and the initial phase would last about five years. Initially, it
will include a small set of interested countries that can provide the initial data necessary to
produce the indicators. The project can then be expanded to include more countries. At the
end of five years, 12-15 Sub-Saharan African countries should be benefiting from the APDI
project.