Many a dogma produced by agricultural policies over the past decades has proved disastrous for African agriculture. Ms Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, Commissioner of Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union (AU), looks at lessons learnt and suggests ways to bring progress to Africa’s rural regions.
The Congo Basin Forest Partnership aims to reconcile forest conservation with forest use. This article explains what a “policy network” of this sort can achieve and where its limits lie.
Climate change is one of the major threats to the development of rural Africa, and without wide-ranging adaptation strategies the challenge it presents cannot be met. Although appropriate measures have been identi? ed, international funding for adaptation has not materialised at the rate that was pledged. This is irresponsibly delaying the implementation of adaptation measures.
In January 2011 the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) launched an online knowledge resource offering researchers and opinion leaders easy access to research and information on Africa. The Africa Portal will establish a forum to share important insights on Africa with policymakers and the general public, explained SAIIA.
Agricultural development has moved up the agenda. Today it has not only to reduce poverty and hunger, but also become environmentally sustainable and climate smart. Disputes over agricultural policies are highly visible, but consensus exists on fundamentals for growth. It is not just what to do that matters, but also how to do it. Increasingly, the search is not for optimal policy, but for ‘good fit’, or even ‘good-enough’ policy.
In 1978, the rural reform began in China, and since then farmers, including the poor ones, have benefited from a steady growth in income and gradually strengthened food security. This article explains how China achieved food security in the past three decades, how the reform process has affected poverty reduction and what aims are established to deal with extreme poverty and child malnutrition for the period of 2011–2020.
The land reform process in Cambodia is full of examples of injustice and human rights violations. Promises to improve the situation of the landless and land-poor citizens have remained unfulfilled. Development co-operation efforts have not changed this either.
The changes in global agricultural markets over the past decade have major implications on agricultural policy. What are the challenges and opportunities for development-oriented agricultural policy-making? And what advisory capacities are needed to deliver substantive advice to developing countries’ governments? The answers to these questions constitute a new agenda for contemporary capacity development for agricultural policy advice.
Carbon labels for food are a new strategy of industrialised countries to reduce climate change-relevant gas emissions in agriculture. However, not every label includes the measurement of all emissions and may disadvantage and even exclude exporting farmers from developing countries. Policy-makers should reconsider this approach or at least focus on fair and non-discriminatory labels.
The Future Agricultures Consortium was established in 2005 with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as a learning alliance of leading African and UK-based research organisations. The Consortium provides independent analysis and advice for improving agricultural policy-making. The aim is to encourage critical debate and policy dialogue on the future of agriculture in Africa, elaborating the practical and policy challenges of establishing and sustaining pro-poor agricultural growth.
Through our robust search engine, you can search for any item of the over 64,800 highly curated resources in the Land Library.
If you would like to find an overview of what is possible, feel free to peruse the Search Guide.
