1. Private Sector and AFIM In line with its Private Sector Strategy, UNDP is becoming increasingly well positioned to support innovative approaches of inclusive market development (IMD) engaging with the private sector and other stakeholders to improve opportunities for the poor to participate in markets as producers, employees or consumers. With Africa being a major focus of UNDP's work, a strategic, regional Private Sector and Inclusive Market Development for Poverty Reduction in Africa project, the "African Facility for Inclusive Markets" (AFIM), commenced in November 2010. This project is led by the Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA) and supported by the Private Sector Division, and coordinated from UNDP's Regional Service Center in Johannesburg. AFIM's four main outputs are: 1. Increased capacity of regional organizations, governments, and other stakeholders to support inclusive market development in the region; 2. Inclusive market development initiatives at sub-regional and country levels developed and supported 3. Alliance of partners for African inclusive market development established 4. Improved access to finance for small producers and enterprises facilitated This project is demand-driven and aims to complement and support implementation of existing and emerging UNDP private sector country projects as well as support the development and implementation of new sub-regional and country initiatives. AFIM is in full alignment with UNDP's MDG Breakthrough Strategy as its primary aim is to support poverty reduction and the MDGs by contributing to capacity development for evidence-based policy dialogue and advocacy and institutional strengthening for the expansion of a vibrant indigenous private sector in Africa through initiatives that involve public and private stakeholders at regional and national levels. AFIM is mandating a study, followed by a Public-Private Dialogue, in support of the African Union's (AU) decision at the AU Abuja Summit of December 2006 to select some strategic commodities, which the continent must prioritise. AFIM requires consultant to carry out a set of mapping studies that will lead to a mapping report on the roles and responsibilities of the Private Sector in African Agriculture and particularly the development of a Food Industry Sector that is secure, competitive, inclusive and sustainable. The main task of the consultant is to identify successful models, innovations and partnerships that can unleash the potential of the Private Sector to contribute to the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), AU's Minimum Integration Programme (MIP), the African Agribusiness and Agro-industries Development Initiative (3ADI) and other relevant initiatives such as UNECA's Regional Food Commodities Value Chain Initiative / Expert Group. 2. Agriculture and Food Sectors Agriculture, which dominates the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa, has potential to play a more effective role if made more dynamic and allowed to achieve greater significance in the world so that Africa can escape being a price-taker and a region unable to influence world polices and institutional arrangements in this field, which is more important for it than for any other part of the world. It is obvious that in order to achieve the most direct reduction of poverty and hunger, priority must be given to economic growth in sectors: (a) where most of the poor work; (b) that use factors of production the poor and undernourished possess; (c) that generate outputs the poor consume; and (d) whose development occurs in areas where they live. In Africa, agriculture meets all these criteria better than any other sector, and has potential in Africa as it has done elsewhere, to act as a lead sector for initiating rapid growth and broad-based economic development in the medium term. Despite the high potential contribution of agriculture to economic development, the production of farm products even for domestic markets has fallen or stagnated – Africa has become a leading destination for food aid and its commercial agricultural markets are often supplied from other regions. In trade, Africa is not only a growing buyer of farm products from abroad but its export of agricultural commodities has continued to decline as other countries overtake them in both production volumes and export commodity values. At the same time, despite agriculture being able to contribute to the development of vibrant Food Industry Sector in Africa, the roles and responsibilities of the Private Sector in agribusiness and agro-industries in order to promote food security, employment generation and sustainable economic growth are not well documented. Despite generalized unsatisfactory performance and a myriad of constraints to be overcome, Africa has some success stories in the involvement of the Private Sector in agriculture, which demonstrates that it is possible for sub-Saharan Africa's agriculture to develop and for its exports to compete internationally through inclusive Private Sector development. Some of the success stories in Africa that are proposed for inclusion in these studies include: Uganda's fish and fish products' export; Ethiopia's green coffee, and Malawi's inputs-based cereal (maize) production. These success stories point towards the importance of involvement of the Private Sector in Africa's agriculture through establishing a vision, having clarity of market direction and its promotion; adopting adequate policies and other support measures, orchestration of all key players through appropriate institutions, development of technology, establishment of infrastructure and strengthening of human resources. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment