PLATFORM UPDATE

OUT NOW: ANNUAL REPORT 2019

Influencing ideas and resources for sustainable agriculture and food systems transformation

2019 was an important year for the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, and we are pleased to announce that the 2019 Annual Report is hot off the press, giving an overview of the previous year and highlighting key milestones:

25 international events; 1 Annual General Assembly (AGA); 4 Board meetings; 17 Thematic Working Group meetings; 4 webinars; 40 members and 13 Board members; the repositioning and further development of a vision for a Platform 2.0; and, finally, the transfer of the Secretariat from GIZ to the new host, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – these figures and processes best reflect the activities of the Global Donor Platform last year.

The repositioning coincides with the transition of the Secretariat. For the past 17 years BMZ has provided an institutional home for the Platform Secretariat, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Beginning in 2020, the hosting baton was passed to IFAD in Rome, Italy, and by the end of June 2020, GIZ will step back from the Secretariat.

The efforts and engagement of GIZ and Secretariat team members have already been acknowledged by the Co-Chair David Hegwood in the Annual Report 2019. In return the GIZ team would like to thank the Global Donor Platform Membership, Thematic Working Group members and further partners for the successful und trustful cooperation over the last 17 years. We wish the IFAD team hosting the Secretariat, the Board and the Co-Chairs all the best for the future of the Platform.

Other 2019 highlights were an impressive number of Thematic Working Group meetings as well as a well-received webinar series in autumn focused on inclusive agribusiness, Africa’s youth network, and climate adaptation and mitigation in agricultural sector. The webinars explored operational examples and experiences of project implementation, giving participants and presenters an opportunity to have an exchange about initiatives on the ground and discuss agriculture and rural development issues.

WEBLINK

  LEARN ABOUT THE YEAR IN REVIEW FROM THE PLATFORM’S ANNUAL REPORT 2019

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COVID-19 TASK FORCE

Promoting effective coordination in the light of the global pandemic

In light of COVID-19, and to better promote effective coordination between donors, the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development has recently constituted a COVID-19 Task Force which is composed of 12 organisations.

As the lockdowns continue worldwide and impacts of COVID-19 keep unfolding, policymakers are not only under pressure to make quick decisions, they also need to strengthen their support to agriculture (as well as other sectors), both from an emergency perspective, but also looking at the long-term economic effects of the pandemic, in particular on agricultural value chains and employment in the rural sector. To act responsibly under the pressure of urgency, donor agencies must gain access to the best data available, including country-level and regional impacts, and the modelling of impacts of COVID-19 on food and agriculture.

To date, the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development has hosted two COVID-19 Task Force dialogues. The first session was convened on the 29 April 2020 and included the participation of 12 organisations, as well as the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). It aimed to promote an exchange on how to better coordinate and streamline information gathering on COVID-19 implications on agriculture and food security. Participants noted that although there is a lot of evidence coming from previous crises, what can be used remains unclear, because of the level of comparability. Other analytical challenges highlighted include:

• How to manage huge volumes of information;
• How to better understand and track what everyone is doing;
• How to collect and repackage information for different audiences;
• How to gain access to what others are doing and thus coordinate analysis.

The second session took place on 15 June 2020 and aimed to promote an informal exchange on the availability of country studies, their use in country networks that can help keep track of developments and possibly facilitate coordination. Using various case studies, Maximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist/Assistant Director-General (FAO), Benoît Thierry, Head of West Africa Hub and Senegal Country Director (IFAD) and James Thurlow (IFPRI)- who were guest speakers - gave presentations on how their organisations have approached the crisis and how they are undertaking country-specific work. IFPRI additionally shared its ongoing and planned COVID-19 country studies and policy engagement.

The participants from both sessions acknowledged the cooperation of multilateral agencies prior and during the COVID-19 pandemic and stressed the need for effective coordination within the international system, to efficiently utilise scarce funds and limit the number of bilateral projects and duplicative processes. There was also consensus to keep the discussion ongoing and create connections between this crisis and any other crises that might emerge or are already happening, e.g. the climate crisis. The Global Donor Platform for Rural Development will continue to support such dialogues now and post-COVID-19.

WEBLINK

  READ THE FULL STORY ON OUR WEBSITE

  MINUTES OF THE TWO SESSIONS CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE

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NEW ON THE PLATFORM’S WEBSITE

COVID-19 TOPIC PAGE

To inform each other about ongoing actions regarding COVID-19 and to coordinate responses amongst the GDPRD membership, a COVID-19 topic page has been set up on the GDPRD website. The new topic page provides an overview of publications and links of Platform member organisations. Platform members are requested to share relevant material on their COVID-19 responses and strategies with the Secretariat (contact: maurizio.navarra@donorplatform.org). The content is continuously updated and expanded.

WEBLINK

  VIEW THE NEW TOPIC PAGE

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CERES2030’S RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS

Orientation for getting back on track

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ceres2030 project taken the initiative and published new materials and hosted webinars focusing on responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ceres2020 is a partnership between International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Cornell University supported by Global Donor Platform members, Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Ceres2030 project’s ability to synthesize and quantify evidence, and to project into the future can help governments to arrive at a better mix of policy actions to protect long-term investments in a sustainable future, while responding to immediate needs in this crisis. Along with urgent action to support people in developing countries that have lost their income due to COVID-19, this provides orientation for getting back on track over the next decade.

WEBLINK

  LEARN MORE HERE

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COVID-19 AND GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY IMPLICATIONS

Results of an online reflection

What are the implications of COVID-19 on global food security? On 7 April 2020, the Ceres2030 initiative held an online reflection to shed light on this question. The virtual meeting was convened by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Cornell University.

This virtual meeting aimed to look at what can be learned, what trends are to be expected, and what is still unknown regarding the pandemic. The meeting also discussed the implications of COVID-19 for agriculture and food systems, now and into the future.

This interactive online reflection which allowed participation via digital conferencing technology had an overwhelming response with over 500 people registering for it. The speakers were Christophe Bazivamo from the East African Community (EAC), Jennifer Clapp from the University of Waterloo and High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) for the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) as well as David Laborde, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The online reflection was facilitated by Carin Smaller, IISD.

Michael Fakhri, the newly appointed United Nation Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, stated that ever since the 2008 food crisis, the international trade architecture was proved to some degree inadequate when dealing with food security. This pandemic has resulted not only to new issues, but it also continues to exacerbate existing problems. He brought on board an institutional perspective into the discussion by proposing the need for more appropriate forums to further discuss food security issues and international trade.

WEBLINK

  READ FULL STORY ON OUR WEBSITE

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NEW WEBINAR SERIES

Aspects of Agricultural Risk Management (ARM)

FARM-D, the Forum for Agricultural Risk Management in Development (FARM-D) has started a series of webinars offering insights into ARM and related topics. FARM-D is a community of practice about agricultural risk management (ARM), hosted by the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM). It aims at bringing actors together to exchange knowledge and advocate best practices for agricultural ‎risk management (ARM) in developing countries. All activities in FARM-D are collaborative efforts built by practitioners for practitioners.

LEARN MORE

  FARM-D WEBSITE

  FARM-D WEBINARS

  PLATFORM FOR AGRICULTURAL RISK MANAGEMENT (PARM)

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MEMBERS AND PARTNERS STRATEGIES, PUBLICATIONS AND EVENTS

NEW PUBLICATIONS

HOW SMALL FARMERS COPE WITH COVID-19
The International Trade Centre has recently released a publication on ‘How Small Farmers Cope with COVID-19’. The report offers a glimpse into farming communities at the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis and relays messages of smallholder farmers on how they are being impacted by COVID-19, their coping strategies, and what support they need from all value chain actors to keep the going and eventually recover while improving their livelihoods and competitiveness.

The report provides examples of how producers and agricultural cooperatives in the Dominican Republic, Latin America, Ghana and Liberia are prioritizing measures to keep farmers healthy. It shows how producers and institutions in Ethiopia, Jamaica and other Caribbean countries are building solidarity around social support and food supply. It also demonstrates that information sharing and clear communication channels that flows both ways across the value chain are helping policymakers form strategies and farmers obtain health and safety guidelines. Public-private partnerships to trigger emergency response measures for transport, health protection and logistics are also proving to be effective.

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2020 GLOBAL REPORT ON FOOD CRISIS: JOINT ANALYSIS FOR BETTER DECISIONS
The Global Report on Food Crises 2020 is the result of a joint, consensus-based assessment of acute food insecurities around the world by 16 partner organizations. It is a flagship publication of a series of analytical products facilitated by the Food and Security Information Network (FSIN) and produced under the initiative of the Global Network Against Food Crises. By carrying out collective analysis and providing clear independent evidence the partners aim to guide coherent and coordinated strategic humanitarian and development investments. The report tracks the numbers and locations of people most in need of emergency food, nutrition and livelihood assistance and it captures how acute food insecurity and malnutrition conditions have changed over time. It identifies the main drivers of acute food insecurity and malnutrition – and explores whether and how conflict, weather extremes and economic shocks interact and exacerbate food crisis situations. It also examines how chronic, structural or seasonal issues combine with shocks to exacerbate situations.

The data and evidence presented here can inform cost-efficient and needs-based humanitarian and resilience-building actions and ultimately enable agencies to seek high-level political action and coordinate policies and actions for durable and innovative ways to tackle the root causes of food crises. In concrete terms, agencies, governments and other key stakeholders can use the information to bolster the case for changing food systems, building resilience to extreme weather events, resolving conflict, promoting durable peace and upholding international humanitarian law.

Chapter one of this report gives a description of key concepts including the drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition. Chapter two starts with a graphical and textual of the key findings of GRFC 2020 and provides the main list of 55 countries and territories in food crises, supplying the peak number of acutely food-insecure people in 2019. Chapter 3 covers 35 most serious food crises and chapter 4 provides a table with pre-COVID-19 pandemic estimates of the number of acutely food-insecure people in need of urgent action in 2020.

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SECURE LAND TENURE RIGHTS FOR ALL: A KEY CONDITION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
A new policy paper produced by GIZ on behalf of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) describes several fit-for-purpose solutions of land governance projects from GIZ and other development partners as well as their positive impacts in the land sector. The aim of the policy paper is to present successful approaches to secure land tenure rights in rural and urban areas.

To support future programmatic decisions by BMZ, this paper focusses particularly on impacts and good practices. It not only highlights examples from the German technical cooperation but also includes good practices achieved by other development partners.

Secure land tenure rights for all are essential to reduce poverty and create sustainable development, ecological sustainability, and social inclusion. It enables people in rural and urban areas to invest in their livelihoods and their homes. Insecure tenure continues create high social costs and threatens the social cohesion of regions, nations and world regions.

This paper also discusses examples of BMZ support to secure tenure implemented by GIZ including the registration of private and communal land in the Laos, formalization of primary and secondary land rights in Uganda, Land tittle for indigenous people in Peru, Responsible agricultural investments in Ethiopia and Allocation of federal public land in Brazil. It further highlights the outcomes and impacts (which have been categorized into social, economic and environmental impacts) of land registration projects using case studies around the world.

This policy paper concludes by highlighting challenges and recommendations going forward.

  DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR LAND AND RESOURCE GOVERNANCE AT USAID
The Research Agenda is the first attempt in almost two decades to synthesize USAID’s experience with LRG programs and the state of the evidence into a single document, which will guide USAID’s learning priorities on Land and Resource Governance (LRG) in the coming years. In revisiting these issues, this Research Agenda relies upon others’ efforts to synthesize, systematize, and render accessible the enormous amount of accumulated evidence on the relationship between LRG and key USAID development objectives.

This publication also highlights seven key findings on the state of evidence based on a thorough analysis of high-quality systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and other studies. One key finding is that insecure land tenure is widespread in the developing world, a condition that has far-reaching social, environmental, and economic consequences. Addressing tenure insecurity is necessary but is often not enough to guarantee positive development outcomes.

This review also provides insights into the methodological gaps in existing LRG research including surprisingly little rigorous research, including impact evaluations and longitudinal studies, compared to other development fields; a lack of longitudinal studies on long-term LRG impact, especially in Africa, less so in Latin America and Asia and only few studies employ mixed methods approaches that use qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.Finally, based on this review of the evidence, coupled with insights from multiple LRG experts, section VI of this report highlights various research priorities and are organized by thematic and sectoral areas.

  DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

STDF Annual Report 2019 — Facing the future: shaping safe trade outcomes for developing countries
The Standards and trade Development Facility (STDF) has recently published their 2019 Annual Report. This report “Facing the future: shaping safe trade outcomes for developing countries,” highlights how STDF’s partnership champions the UN Global Goals and responds to emerging trends.

Case stories and graphics in the report capture the results and lessons from across STDF’s global platform, knowledge hub and safe trade projects worldwide, thanks to donor support.

From the tools transforming agriculture to technologies facilitating business at borders, the report shares how the STDF helped to generate jobs, raise incomes and secure livelihoods, with 71% of funds going to assist least developed and other low-income countries in 2019.

  DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

STDF Strategy 2020–2024 — Safe and Inclusive Trade Horizons for Developing Countries
The Standards and trade Development Facility (STDF) has recently published their new STDF 2020–2024 Strategy, with a reception to mark the launch held at the WTO in Geneva.

This five-year Strategy shows the commitment of STDF’s global partnership to a roadmap for facilitating safe, inclusive trade outcomes for the developing countries in support of the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

The strategy highlights:

• Why STDF’s vision, goal and outcomes driving catalytic SPS improvements in developing countries matter in today’s changing global trade landscape
• What STDF’s theory of change aims to do through its approach to: convene & connect; pilot & innovate; learn & disseminate; influence & catalyse
• How STDF’s global platform, knowledge work and projects/PPGs will benefit the public and private sector in developing and least developed countries

Results under the 2020-2024 Strategy will be jointly delivered by STDF’s partners, donors, global and regional members including the private sector and developing country experts.

  DOWNLOAD THIS PUBLICATION

EVENTS

Wed 15 July 2020 | Virtual Meeting
GDPRD Board Meeting

Connection details will be shared soon.

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ABOUT US

May 2020: Informal Board Meeting

The Platform Board held its virtual informal Board meeting on the 19 May 2020. The meeting reflected on the Platform’s pending activities including the Annual General Assembly, Secretariat transition and direction going forward.

Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, preparations for the next AGA have been suspended. The Platform Board and the Secretariat will continue deliberating on date and format on the next AGA, and decisions reached will be communicated soon.

New Co-Chairs

• Paul van de Logt, Head of the Food and Nutrition Security Team in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Conrad Rein, Policy Officer in DEVCO C1, European Commission

One key outcome was the election of two new Co-Chairs:

To ensure continuity during the final stages of the transfer of the Secretariat from GIZ to IFAD, David Hegwood (USAID) has agreed to continue as a Co-Chair for an interim period. This means that effective immediately the Platform will operate with three Co-Chairs.

  DOWNLOAD THE MINUTES

Secretariat staff changes

Beginning in 2020, the hosting baton was passed to IFAD in Rome, Italy, and by the end of June 2020, GIZ will step back from the Secretariat. The necessary steps for the transition have been taken, and IFAD will fully take over the Secretariat functions, effective 1 July 2020. IFAD’s GDPRD Secretariat Acting Coordinator is Maurizio Navarra (maurizio.navarra@donorplatform.org).

The staff of the Secretariat at IFAD will consist of:

1. A Senior Partnership Officer, who will coordinate the Secretariat;
2. A Communication Coordination Analyst, who will act as Communication Advisor and will implement the Platform’s Communication Strategy, working on the maintenance of the website, the eUpdates, as well as the Platform’s social media strategy;
3. A Programme Assistant.

The Secretariat will implement the work plan, reviewed and cleared by the Board members, and will respond operationally to the Platform Board. Within IFAD, the Secretariat will be located in the Global Engagement, Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Division.