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OneWorld
British Aid Hampering Poverty Reduction
June 24, 2004“The Department for International Development is one of the leading bilateral donors promoting direct budget support straight to governments with limited capacity,” said Dr Christie Peacock, Chief Executive of FARM-Africa.
“This lack of balanced support to the country as a whole weakens civil society and can suppress the private sector. A further side-effect is that not enough public funds are getting through to support ministries of agriculture,” she added.
“Without targeting resources directly to this sector, it is difficult to ensure that agriculture receives the resources needed to stimulate growth and reduce poverty. It also makes it difficult for donors to provide effective technical support to ministries of agriculture to target poverty reduction,” said Dr Peacock.
The livestock sub-sector in which FARM-Africa also works, is an important area for pro-poor growth where sustained public funding is needed.“Ministries of agriculture are often one of the weakest sector ministries and the least capable of making a convincing case for scarce budget resources to central finance ministries.
“Overall, the adoption of Direct Budget Support has reduced investments specifically targeted towards agriculture,” added Dr Peacock.While direct budget support may strengthen ownership by recipient governments over resource allocation decisions, it distances donors from their responsibilities in implementing effective strategies to reduce poverty involving both state and non-state actors.
Poverty reduction will not be easy, because small scale farmers face a host of problems, including inefficient ministries of agriculture, inadequate access to services and markets, the impact of HIV/AIDS, patchy roads and telecommunications, adverse terms of trade in global markets, low product prices and limited access to irrigation.
But FARM-Africa calls on DFID to consider specific targeting of funds to agriculture in countries where governments are failing to deliver pro-poor growth, to encourage an open debate about the role of agriculture in economic growth and poverty reduction; to establish firmer links between agricultural policy and hunger eradication, to support the development of pro-poor agricultural policy and programmes in developing countries; and to promote agricultural policy reforms that are inclusive of the poor and focus on women.
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