DFID’s Agriculture Review: UK Food Group seminar report
Here are the presentations given by DFID and IIED at the UKFG seminar on 30th of November, our follow up letter to Hilary Benn and the next opportunity for your input to DFID’s Guidelines.
Throughout 2004 DFID has been conducting a review of its agriculture policy leading to the production of new 'Guidelines' which are due in early 2005.
Earlier this year DFID commissioned an e-Conference and 14 Working Papers
on a range of issues to feed into the development of the new guidelines.
Issues covered included the role of technology, tackling risk and vulnerability,
rural finance, making markets work for the poor, commodities, trade and
institutions for effective participation of the poor in agricultural
policies. Feedback on the Working Papers was sought from a broad range
of interests e.g. academics & NGOs. UK Food Group facilitated this
process and many members and others provided written comments on the
draft Working Papers.
The final Working Papers are currently being posted
on
http://dfid-agriculture-consultation.nri.org/process.htm
On the 30th of November the UK Food Group hosted an open meeting for all those interested to discuss the impact of the review on, and future direction of, DFID's Agricultural Policy. A team of 5 from DFID and about 40 NGOs, researchers and academics came to debate DFID’s Agriculture Policy guidelines. Presentations were given from DFID, IIED, Christian Aid, the Deccan Development Society and 4 Indian Farmers from Andhra Pradesh.
View presentation files:
- DFID's Strategy Presentation: Agriculture and poverty reduction: growth and inclusion
- Reframing DFID’s approach to food, farming and development: comments on DFID Agriculture Policy by Michel Pimbert (IIED)
"Reframing DFID’s approach to food, farming and development"
DFID presented the following 4 areas for their guidelines:
- The importance of increasing productivity and the need to better understand how this benefits the poor through its impact on the rate of economic growth.
- Ensuring that the benefits of agricultural growth are shared widely by addressing areas of inclusion.
- The importance of acknowledging the limitations to tackling rural poverty through agricultural based livelihoods. The route out of poverty may well lie outside agriculture.
- An acknowledgement that many millions of rural poor people will not be able to participate in the benefits of growth. Efficient social protection systems are needed for tackling chronic persistent poverty.
This provided plenty of discussion on small-scale agriculture and the options available. The need to explore the opportunities for small- scale farmers rather than simply accepting exit strategies as the only option was presented from the subsequent panel speakers and audience to DFID. This discussion was enriched with the contributions of experiences in Ghana and India.
Read our letter to Hilary Benn following the meeting.
The final DFID Working Papers which are contributing to the Guidelines
are appearing on the following site
http://dfid-agriculture-consultation.nri.org/process.htm
The planned timescale for the rest of DFID’s consultation at the moment is as follows:
- Draft Guidelines for further consultation by the end of December
- DFID internal consultation
- External consultation / event in early January
The Guidelines are likely to be ready in early 2005.
If you would like to receive updates directly from DFID on the consultation you can join their mailing list by registering at the following site http://dfid-agriculture-consultation.nri.org/join.php
If you want to be kept informed about Civil Society reactions to the DFID guidelines, send me an email - rachel@ukfg.org.uk
address: UKFG, PO Box 100, London, SE1 7RT email: ukfg@ukfg.org.uk