Photo: © Corbecoms

The group said farewell to the GIZ CAADP support program. Progress on the formulation of National Agricultural Investment Plans and their application in some African countries were a success. The key lesson learnt here is that national ownership clearly drives the success of the NAIPs.

In 2018, the working group created a sub-working group that has been zooming in on national policy advisors — its main purpose being to enhance networking and knowledge sharing among the advisors. In that regard 2019 saw the installation of an interesting new app that can be used by the policy advisors, the Agri-Policy Tool Kit. It provides various instruments to actively support the work in policy advice.  (Make sure to check back, there’s a video forthcoming on this soon)

In terms of the working group speaker team, Thomas Breuer (Namibia) remains speaker; the group introduced a new co-speaker Theresa Kinkese (Zambia) and Dominik Fortenbacher as tandem partner from the sectoral department. The group will be supported by Klaas Grimmelmann of the sector project Food Security and Agricultural Policy and Food Security.

Looking to 2020

The future work streams aim to continue and strengthen the learning and exchange amongst the National Policy Adviser Group with a learning visit to Germany (Eschborn and Bonn) in the first half of the year. In addition, a policy learning event that focuses on “Methods and strategies of support and policy reforms and changes processes” in all relevant areas of the SNRD is scheduled to take place in Ghana during the second half of 2020.

Furthermore, the rural areas, the nutritional status of the people and the agri-food sector are currently being affected by climate change among other factors. So future topics will include all forms of malnutrition, climate change, youth in the sector and access to finance.

Moving forward, policy advisory services seek to shift away from the discussion and exchange on topics towards exchanging on strategies, methodologies, the skills set of the advisers, exchange formats, including south-south exchange, and management strategies for policy reforms and changes to identify “fit for future” strategies, policies and implementation instruments and tools. Another forward process is to find a way to organise the generational shift from senior experts to the incoming younger generation of policy advisers, and to ensure a sufficient knowledge and experience transfer within the team and groups.

Processes, methodologies and management topics for 2020

1. Policy Process and instruments (also with a focus on fragile context and bad governance structures)
2. Peer Learning and trust exchange for Managers in GIZ (Management, Leadership, …)
3. Skills set for policy advisers
4. Innovations and future topics in policy processes

Through the above-mentioned processes, methodologies and management, the group will apply the knowledge to the core future issues for Africa which are to

1. End hunger in all forms
2. Create jobs specially for the youth
3. Adapt to climate change and protect natural resources