Suchergebnisse

This chapter analyzes the provision of agricultural extension and advisory services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the context of a postconflict country and the experiences and challenges in reconstituting an extension system. Since 1996, the DRC has experienced a succession of wars and lower-scale conflicts that caused more than 5 million deaths over the 1998–2008 period (Maystadt et al. 2014). These have had a devastating effect on the country's infrastructure, technology, and institutions, creating a vacuum that has led to a laborious process of restoration. As a result, the DRC faces serious food insecurity and human development challenges. In 2011 through 2013 the DRC was ranked as the country with the most severe food insecurity, based on the Global Hunger Index of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). It remains so according to current alarming hunger indicators (IFPRI 2016). At least 50 percent of the population is deficient in key nutrients, including iron, vitamin B12, calories, riboflavin, vitamin E, folate, and zinc (Ulimwengu, Roberts, and Randriamamonjy 2012). Life expectancy in the DRC is around 47 years for men and 51 years for women; 1 in 5 children die before reaching age 5 (Pfingu 2011; UNDP 2010). ; PR ; IFPRI4; CRP2 ; DSGD; AFR; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

IFPRI3; ISI; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies ; AFR ; PR

Chapter 7 goes to the heart of the location specificity of CSA by investigating the potential benefits of using precision agriculture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, finding that this approach can boost sustainable productivity through increased efficiencies in the use of inputs. Even though the use of precision agriculture may still be many years away, we can extrapolate an important lesson that applies to many other African countries: increased use of fertilizers, coupled with increased efficiency in their use, can lead to an optimal response to the effects of climate change. ; PR ; IFPRI1; ReSAKSS; IFPRI4; A Ensuring Sustainable food production; E Building Resilience ; WCAO

The NEPAD Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has been endorsed by African Heads of State and Governments as a vision for the restoration of agricultural growth, food security, and rural development in Africa. The program aims at stimulating agriculture-led development to alleviate poverty and hunger, and achieve sustainable food security. The creation of a union is often rationalized on grounds of moving the equilibrium toward the first best solution whenever independent policies generate spillovers. This arises as a common agenda can significantly reduce the scope of free-riding behavior among member countries. In addition, cross-border externalities arising out of higher levels of market integration entails countries to agree on policy coordination. Using a Spatial Durbin Model for panel data, the present study explores the extent and magnitude of agricultural production spillover that might validate the adoption of CAADP agenda among African countries, especially among Sub-Saharan African countries. Overall, our results suggest the presence of positive and significant agricultural production spillover. No evidence of beggar-thy-neighbor or negative spillover policies was found; on average, each country received 2.5 percent growth as a result of spillover. Finally, our results suggest that convergence dynamics is much stronger when spillover is accounted for which provides a rationale for a common agenda such as CAADP. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP37 ; WCAO

The need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has raised the profile of social sector investments in Africa and other developing countries. As a result, many African countries are pressured to emphasize short-term concerns related to the symptoms of poverty at the expense of the longer-term needs to raise productivity and incomes, and thereby tackle the real roots of poverty. Because of scarce budget resources, there is a major challenge for African governments in terms of ensuring the necessary consistency of policies and strategies to promote long-term economic growth, raise smallholder productivity, achieve food security, and reduce poverty, while providing the social services that respond to immediate welfare requirements. The main objective of the convergence agenda exposed in this paper is to identify strategies that would allow developing countries to improve the management of public expenditures so as to raise the chances of meeting the income growth and social needs of their populations under tight budget constraints. In this paper we have (1) discussed the terminology used in describing the problem being studied and formulated the assumptions and hypotheses underlying the research; (2) defined a typology of growth–poverty pathways; (3) developed metrics to measure the strength of the relationship between growth and poverty reduction; (4) laid out the theory for the measurement of the degree of convergence of public expenditures on social services, that is, the extent to which they are optimized with respect to their impact on labor productivity and growth; and (5) outlined models for (a) the quantification of social services availability at the local level using a single-score concept, (b) the evaluation of the quality and efficiency of public expenditures in social services sectors in rural areas, and (c) the optimization of public expenditures allocation to maximize the impact on growth and poverty reduction; as well as (6) provided initial evidence proving the validity of the theory of convergence. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP3; GRP26 ; DGO

The poverty rate and income transfer are clearly correlated. However, not much research has attempted to determine the causal linkage between the two. Previous research has primarily focused on the poverty-reducing impact of income transfer. In this paper, we apply a simultaneous equation system of spatial regressions to uncover the spatial pattern of the relationship between the poverty rate and income transfer, using a sample of 3,001 U.S. counties. The results are in line with theoretical expectations; they provide evidence of a significant simultaneity effect between the poverty rate and income transfer. Our findings also confirm the presence of significant spatial autocorrelation. Contrary to previous studies, we find that more generous counties tend to do a better job of reducing poverty and that counties with more poor tend to be less generous, creating incentive for the poor to participate in the labor force. Furthermore, counties located in devolution states perform better in both poverty reduction and income transfer. These findings are missing from extant literature that focuses only on the poverty-reducing impact of welfare payments. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; GRP26 ; WCAO

While global food trade has allowed countries to buffer against domestic food production shortfalls and gain access to larger markets, engaging in trade has also opened economies up to shocks and increased extraction of food resources. With this research, we analyze how the global grain network influences country-level nourishment, while controlling for per capita land and food production. First, we model the trade network structure of the global wheat supply chain to measure the centrality or positionality of countries. We use spatial regression analysis to assess the impact of trade networks, volume, purchasing power, production capacity and geography on undernourishment. We find that the six countries most central to the global grain trade by betweenness and eigenvector centralities account for more than half of all wheat exports globally by volume. The centrality of these countries as opposed to volume of wheat produced or traded, determines their influence in the wheat supply chain network. The parametric component of our analysis confirms that trade, and centrality have significant implications for national levels of nourishment. Our findings suggest that for countries with low purchasing power, increasing centrality allows improvements in nourishment levels but for countries with very high purchasing power, increasing centrality can increase hunger outcomes. To counteract perturbations and shortfalls such as those being experienced currently in the globalized food system, local and regional governments may consider refocusing on regional and local based food systems. ; PR ; IFPRI3; ISI; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry ; AFR

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is a continentwide framework for accelerating broad-based economic growth and progress toward poverty reduction and food and nutrition security through an agriculture-led growth strategy. It was officially adopted by the African Union (AU) heads of state and government in the 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security with two main targets: achieving a 6 percent annual agricultural growth rate at the national level and allocating 10 percent of national budgets to the agriculture sector. In 2014, the AU heads of state and government reaffirmed their commitment to CAADP by adopting the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods. In the Malabo Declaration they made seven broad commitments, including upholding the CAADP principles and values; enhancing investment in agriculture; ending hunger and halving poverty by 2025; boosting intra-African agricultural trade; enhancing resilience to climate variability; and strengthening mutual accountability for actions and results by conducting a Biennial Review (BR) of progress made in achieving the commitments. ; PR ; IFPRI1; ReSAKSS; CRP4 ; AFR; A4NH ; CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)

In this paper we develop a typology to help design and improve spatial targeting of food and nutrition security (FNS) interventions. Using a comprehensive framework, the proposed approach allows for the broad identification and location of major food security bottlenecks. The resulting typology is based on an amendable demarcation of areas in a four-indicator diagram representing the four core dimensions of FNS. The proposed typology is applied to the rural territories of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Despite a continuum of heterogenous development challenges across the country, the typology helps identify clusters of territories that suffer from production, access, and utilization constraints. For the nine territories (out of 145) with the highest child stunting levels, we identify four broad intervention zones and analyze their efficiency profile in more detail. Despite its reductionist nature, our typology is conceptually sound, operationally flexible, and less data intensive, important features to promote evidence-based policymaking in contexts characterized by imperfect and scarce data. ; IFPRI3; IFPRIOA; ISI; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies ; AFR ; PR

In this paper we develop a policy-relevant typology using different intervention types and nutrition constraints. Our approach is based on an amendable demarcation of areas within a four-indicator diagram, each of which represents a core dimension of food and nutrition security (FNS), which makes our typology conceptually sound, operationally flexible, and less data intensive. The derived typology is applied to rural territories of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Despite a continuum of heterogenous development challenges across the country, the typology helped identify various clusters of territories which suffer mostly from production, access, and utilization constraints. Consequently, for the nine territories (out of 145) with the highest child stunting levels, we identified four broad intervention zones and studied the efficiency profile in more detail. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies ; AFR

IFPRI3; ISI; CRP2 ; DSGD; WCAO; PIM ; PR ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of local-level (territory) multistakeholder platforms using data from 55 CARGs in 23 randomly selected territories in three provinces (Bandundu, Bas-Congo, and Kinshasa) of the DRC. The first CARG was established in 2008, and the survey was conducted three years later, from August to October 2011. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; Theme 6; Subtheme 6.2; GRP32; F.3 The Role of Decentralization and Governance for Public Service Provision ; DSGD; WCAO

Ce rapport a été élaboré à partir de divers produits de connaissance et matériels de formation regroupés sous l'appellation « eAtlasimprimé », qui ont été développés et partagés avec les organisations de la société civile (OSC) dans le cadre du programme Voice for Change Partnership (V4CP). ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; Capacity Strengthening; Voice for Change Partnership ; AFR

The first decade of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) post-conflict reconstruction period (2004-2013) was marked by an unprecedented economic growth in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of 3-4% per year, but was this 'peace dividend' translated into widespread poverty reduction within the Congolese population? This working paper answers this question by focusing on the percentage of people in poverty (or poverty headcounts) using micro-level data. The paper uses two national household surveys: the first was conducted in 2004-2005, right before the 2006 elections that inaugurated the first post-conflict government; and the second was carried out in 2012-2013, about seven years after the first round. Both the Institut National de la Statistique (INS) (RDC, 2014) and the World Bank (2016) estimate very high poverty rates; and both point to a significant decrease in poverty between the two survey periods. Using the same datasets, both institutions find that the poverty headcount decreased by five to eight percentage points. The problem with both estimates, however, is that they cannot be replicated. The World Bank reports its poverty estimates without elaborating on the methodology, nor explaining why they differ from the INS results. Although INS provides more detail on the methodology they followed, this information only enabled the authors to replicate its 2005 poverty estimates (RDC, 2006), not its 2012 estimates. When applying the INS's methodology from 2005 to the 2012 survey, the authors found that the percentage of people in poverty substantially increased from 72% to 81% – in sharp contrast to the INS's own reported results, and also runs counter to current understandings on the evolution of the DRC's economy. To produce more accurate poverty estimates and trends, the authors made a number of modifications to the INS methodology. ; IFPRI5; Capacity Strengthening; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance ; AFR ; Non-PR