Measuring policy impacts in Africa: Lessons from MAFAP
1. Measuring policy impacts in Africa:
Lessons from MAFAP
Jean Balié and Mulat Demeke
Agricultural Development Economics Division
FAO, Rome
Washington DC , 19 April 2013
2. 1. The importance of policy
2. What we have learned with
MAFAP
3. Key conclusions
4. Source: FAO (State of Food and Agriculture 2012)
• Importance of private decisions
• Importance of enabling environment
• Need for information and analysis to
support policy dialogue and decision
making
5. A very active field, but with a gap in terms of a system of
quantitative indicators of policy impacts in developing countries
Motivation for MAFAP
Many related initiatives…
7. Key contributions
• System of indicators to inform analysis, dialog, policy,
resource allocation
• A new market development gap indicator
• Systematic and comparable across commodities, countries
and over time
• Presence in 10 + countries in SSA
• Partnerships to build capacity, ownership and sustained use
• Evidence-based policy dialogue in on-going policy processes
and primarily CAADP
8.
9. Key findings
• Policies and market development gaps reduce prices
received by farmers for most commodities
• Market access is a significant constraint
• Agri-business and value chains are underdeveloped
Indicates opportunities for improved policies and
expenditures
Requires improved data, analysis, capacity and
buy-in
12. What we have learned
Ascertain country buy-in and commitment
1. Seek country ownership
2. Embed in existing policy process CAADP
3. Build capacities
4. Support institutionalization
Work in partnerships
5. Build on others strengths Ex. OECD to
develop methodology
6. Add something to what exists
7. Build and use a coalition to have impact
16. Next steps
• Consolidation and “graduation” in initial
countries
• Expansion to additional countries
• Methodological improvements
• Expanded policy dialogue
• Continuing role of FAO
