Why is the BBA important?
Alan Rennison
Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
11 October 2013
Overview of the Foundation and our work in the Ag Policies space
 Foundation belief: Every person
deserves the chance to live a healthy,
productive life
 Ag Development goal: Sustainable
smallholder productivity growth
 Ag Policies goal: Address policy and
institutional constraints that limit
sustainable productivity growth in staple
and livestock value chains
Granting by BMGF
business unit
Payout in
2012
Awarded
since 1995
Foundationwide
$3.2bn
$34.2bn
(100%)
(100%)
Global
Development
$1.5bn
$13.6bn
(47%)
(40%)
Agricultural
Development
$378m
$2.6bn
(12%)
(8%)
Agricultural
Policies
$56m
$348m
(1.8%)
(1.0%)
BMGF’s Ag Policies investment areas
5. Monitoring &
priority setting
4. Costeffective policy
implementation
3. Deliberation &
policy selection
1. Data &
statistics
2. Policy
research &
analysis
BMGF’s Ag Policies grantees
© 2013 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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Why does BMGF invest in policy?: Good policy and regulatory
environments facilitate sustained smallholder productivity growth
Well designed policies facilitate smallholder access to: (i) improved inputs and knowledge; and (ii) output market opportunities
Inputs market
Supply-side
Outputs market
Demand-side
Supply-side
Demand-side
Urban and rural
consumers
Local processors and
other agribusinesses
Neighboring farmers
Seed companies, agrodealers
NGOs
Smallholder
farmers
NGOs
Government
Government
Ag policies and regulations should facilitate:
Smallholder access to safe, efficacious
inputs and improved farm practices
Smallholder incentives to participate in
efficient markets and trade
Investment in local agribusinesses that
supply inputs and knowledge to farmers
Investment in local agribusinesses that buy
raw produce from farmers
Improved targeting and efficiency of ag
expenditure allocations
Stable and more predictable food prices
© 2013 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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Why is BBA important? It informs policy decision making, in
particular around commercial ag involving smallholders
BBA draws upon and complements indicators from a number of other important data sets
BBA enables:

Assessments of the extent to
which national policies and
regulations adhere to CAADP

Benchmarking and cross-country
comparison of key ag indicators

Focused and detailed policy
dialogue and analysis

A basis for national-level policy
and regulatory reform

A basis for improved donor
investment targeting

A private sector ‘voice’ in the ag
policy debate
BBA complements:
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Why is BBA important? It helps to identify policies and regulations
that facilitate or deter private sector investment in smallholder ag
We focus on local SMEs because of their crucial role in the inputs and outputs markets that smallholders participate in
Examples of policies and regulations
limiting private investment in ag SMEs
Local SME
agribusinesses
DISCOVERY
MARKETS
Basic
research
Adaptive
Research
Seed
companies
Fertilizer
blenders
Input
production
Input
delivery
Commercial
seed farms
Agri-vets
On-farm
production
Postharvest
Trading
Processing
‘Outgrower’
farms
Input
wholesalers
Aggregation
businesses
Domestic
Markets
Traders /
retailers
International
Markets
Importers /
exporters
Agriprocessors
Variety registration and release:
Excessive requirements
Industry structures: Government monopolies, Government producer/regulator conflict
Certification, grades and standards: Excessive requirements, weak enforcement, lack
of regional harmonization
Import / export procedures: Excessive
requirements and non-tariff barriers
Ad hoc implementation: Uncertain timing and duration of active policies and regulations,
inconsistent economic rationale
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