“Agriculture: Turning promises into realities on the ground” Coordination amongst development partners Niger, Burkina Faso and Ghana April 2011 Sébastien Fourmy Oxfam France

Field Mission 3 West African countries: Niger, Burkina Faso, Ghana Interviews: – Bilateral international development agencies (heads of the rural sector, agriculture, food security departments, etc.) – Multilaterals (FAO, WFP, UNDP, World Bank, EU, etc.) – Ministries of Agriculture, Economics and Finance; Food Crisis Management bodies Partner Organisations: –Farmers’ platform of Niger (PFPN); –Farmers’ confederation of Burkina Faso (CPF); –Farmers’ Organisation Network of Ghana (FONG)

Context A griculture: neglected by ODA (1/3)

Context N eglected by national investments (2/3) Ghana: 2008 MoFA budget Niger: 2008 budget secteur rural

Context D omination of the project approach (3/3) Burkina FasoNb DPsNb of Projects NigerNb DPsNb of Projects GhanaNb DPsNb of Projects

Ghana: Aid flows ( ) Million $

Adverse effect of project aid Project approach : 100% of funds implemented through projects in Agriculture sector (Burkina, 2007) Project management units (PMUs) : –40% of projects put PMUs in place (Burkina, 2007) –PMUs accounts for 15 to 60% of project fundings (Niger, 2007) Missions : –330 missions from donors in 2007 (Burkina, 2007) –Ghana imposed a 2 months ‘mission free period’ Specialization : 12 different donors units within gahna’s Ministry of Finance

Lack of coordination and of country ownership Value chains in Burkina Faso “In the field, the donors have such different intervention methods that they are becoming incomprehensible to the actors they are supposed to be helping.” Official of Ministry of Finance, Burkina Faso Government strategy: Around 20 ‘value chains action plans’ 6 DP programmes with no links between them: – Poor distribution across the supported value chains : – Poor geographical distribution of value chains –Different intervention strategies in the field – Poor alignment on existing strategies, coordination bodies, etc.

Lack of coordination and of country ownership Coordination bodies: ex of Niger dgq< = 27

Challenge: strengthening national policies Investing concretely in programmes Necessitates a change in approach by the TFPs: – Specific skills : prior capacity building –Specific human and financial investment – Flexibility and an individual pace necessary for any learning process – Repositioning by the TFPs –effective participation by civil society From words to actions : –A waiting strategy adopted by the TFPs in country –Few TFPs are actually adopting a support approach

Main recommendations TFPs should: Move away from implementing projects towards concrete support for developing and implementing sector-wide programmes ; Move towards a phase of dialogue and real coordination for their interventions ; Translate the funding promises made at international level into additional, long term, predictable funding, so as to strengthen the current national and regional process.

Main recommendations States should: Ensure active supervision in the development and implementation of sector-wide agricultural programmes, to be consistent with the regional trade policy creating a favourable environment Demonstrate real leadership in coordination for TFP interventions Make agriculture and food security real budgetary priorities

Thank you for your attention The full study is available in English and French