IFAD social reporting blog

By Tomás Rosada, IFAD’s Regional Economist for LAC and Ed Heinemann, Lead Technical Specialist – Policy in PTA.

Policies have an impact on every dimension of poor rural people's lives. They shape economic opportunities, provide a ladder for people to climb out of poverty or can prevent them to make it to that ladder.

For IFAD, policy engagement is a core part of our business. It is the only way to create the conditions for larger numbers of rural people to move out of poverty, above and beyond the impact of individual projects.

IFAD-funded projects and programmes are increasingly becoming laboratories to test new ways of tackling rural poverty. When lessons and learning from our investment activities are scaled up and incorporated into policy framework at a national level, the projects achieve their ultimate goal and targets.

Policy engagement happens in many different ways:

• Supporting the creation and strengthening of public institutions working on rural development policies and rural people’s organizations
• Promoting fora for sharing experiences and concerns between governments, rural people and private sector players
• Operationalizing policy programmes at local, regional and national levels.

It is hard to tell when a change in policy will have a positive impact on the lives of rural people, and it is even more difficult to assess the overall contribution policy engagement. Yet answering these questions is key if we want to be able to assess our performance in this field.

Policy engagement: A central part of development work

Some days ago, IFAD hosted the event Assessing the Impact of Policy Engagement. This gathering provided a unique opportunity for IFAD and its partners to reflect on these questions.

IFAD’s Senior Policy Technical Specialist Lauren Phillips, – set the scene: "for IFAD, policy engagement is the process by which IFAD, and IFAD-supported projects and grants, work with governments and other national actors to create, reform, implement or monitor policies.

"The final goal is to influence policy (the combination of laws, regulations, institutional approaches and practices) and to shape it in a way that allows poor rural people to overcome poverty", said Phillips.

John Young, Head of the Research and Policy in Development Programme at ODI ©IFAD

John Young is Head of the Research and Policy in Development Programme at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a well-known British think tank. For him, policy engagement is a “central part” of international development work.

“Outright policy change is rare and the causes that lead to it are often unique and rarely able to be replicated.”

However, a number of frameworks and approaches can help to overcome conceptual and technical difficulties when it comes to assessing the impact of policy engagement. All of them involve developing a theory of change: a logical model or roadmap of how one envisages policy changes.

“The earlier and clearer you have your theory of change, the easier it is to check it against delivery.”

Review what works and what doesn’t

Ignacia Fernández, Lead Researcher at the Latin-American Centre for Rural Development (RIMISP), talked about a successful experience of policy engagement in four countries of Latin America. The IFAD-funded project Knowledge for Change has allowed RIMISP to set up Rural Dialogue Groups (GDR) in Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia and Ecuador.

The GDRs are fora where representatives of these countries’ authorities and smallholder organizations discuss how to create a political environment for poor people to overcome poverty. They have facilitated the adoption of policies in favour of family farming in the areas of biodiversity, adaptation to climate change and agricultural innovation.

Susana Márquez and Ignacia Fernández, first and second on the left ©IFAD

After three years of experience, RIMISP was able to set up an evaluation strategy for GDRs based on a model called steps of influence. Its aim is to identify which actors contribute to policy changes -and how.

“This has allowed us to learn more and better about which mechanisms led to positive outcomes and which mechanisms failed and have to be redesigned.”

Susana Márquez, Planning and Strategy Manager at the Unit for Rural Change (UCAR), Argentina’s national branch of the Specialized Meeting on Family Farming (REAF) illustrated some of their achievements of this policy dialogue body of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR, the free trade area formed up by Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela).

REAF has functioned as a political forum for representatives of family farmers’ organizations, academia, civil society and policy-makers from MERCOSUR countries to discuss public policies targeting family farming. REAF policy recommendations have been implemented at a national level, including both pro-family-farming legislation and financial support programmes.

Márquez made clear that REAF “has no crystal ball. Yet we know now some approaches work and some do not.”

And what does work? “The adoption of a strict methodology, the definition of clear but broad objectives and, above all, flexibility. To create policy engagement you have to be flexible, trusted by both governments and civil society.”

National strategies to define policy engagement targets

Óscar García, director of IFAD's Independent Office of Evaluation pointed to the Results-Based Country Strategies (COSOPs) as an essential pillar to build on policy engagement.

“The COSOP preparation process is where IFAD and governments agree on how they can collaborate to promote rural development. To evaluate what that collaboration brings about is impossible if we don’t know what we want to achieve.”

Left to right: Edward Heinemann, Óscar García, Paolo Silveri and Lisandro Martín ©IFAD

He also shared a proposed framework for evaluating policy engagement – one that recognises the complex policy cycle and the need to distinguish between policy dialogue, adoption, implementation and outcomes.

Lisandro Martín, IFAD’s Senior Portfolio Manager, reminded us of the strong correlation that exists between good policies and good project outcomes. “Thus, it is critical for IFAD to have a specific focus on policy engagement as part of its self-assessment system.”

Martín underscored that COSOPs are the natural space to capture policy engagement objectives and activities, but “we need to be conceptually clear as to what can be attributed to IFAD’s policy engagement and the outcomes and impact to which it contributes.”

As we closed this half-day event, the following lessons emerged: First, there is no single right method to assess the impact of policy dialogue. Second, and more importantly, every path starts by knowing where you want to go. Otherwise, is impossible to know whether you have arrived or not.

Slow Food and Terra Madre videos shared at the Salone del Gusto Internazionale and Terra Madre Event in Torino highlight the opportunity to connect family farmers, local chefs and regional cuisine with the rest of the world.

Spotted!

Edwin Viña, a young chef from Tarija, Bolivia (left), had the honor of carrying his country's flag into the event. Edwin is taking part in the Paths of Excellence Program. The young entrepreneur represents Tarija Aromas y Sabores, a public-private initiative designed to promote the rich gastronomic offerings from the Tarija region - including agro-tourism, hams, cheeses, wines and Bolivia's signature grape brandy Singani. The Tarija Aromas y Sabores Program is part of a program supported by Discovering Territories through Products and People Program, Rimisp, the IFAD-supported Scaling-up of Rural Innovations Program that is working in Bolivia and Peru, IDRC-Canada and the Ford Foundation.

Juliette Taco Viza is a young enterpriser from the Colca Valley in Peru. Juliette also participated in the Scaling-Up Rural Innovations Program. Also in this photo, Dario Fo, Nobel Prize winner in literature, Carlo Petrini, Slow Food President, and FAO President José Graziano da Silva. (Photos Slow Food)






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Small producers highlight their work at the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre event in Turin
By Terra Madre
Etson is a young Peruvian from the Colca Valley. Edwin is a chef in southern Bolivia. Fernando collects a sought-after shellfish, the loco, in Chile. Saleheddine cultivates fields in a northern Moroccan biosphere reserve. What do these four have in common?

They are all working to try to guarantee sustainable and socially inclusive development based on the value of biological and cultural diversity in their countries, a huge challenge. They all believe in the value of the natural and cultural heritage that makes their land, their history and their way of life unique, a heritage that is the result of thousands of years of interaction between nature and migrating populations, millennia of overlapping and integrating people, products, customs and beliefs.

They all want to preserve this identity, and above all to promote it. They want to turn the uniqueness that originates from diversity into an economic and social resource.

Regina, who promotes social gastronomy in Rio de Janeiro, and Pavlos, whose family has been producing excellent olive oil in the hills of Thrace for centuries, have the same objectives. They have joined many other farmers, fishers, cooks, food experts, young leaders and representatives from local organizations in setting out on an ambitious and innovative path, leading towards local development and the spread of fair work conditions.

They are all the protagonists of a pilot project run by Slow Food and the Rural Territorial Development with Cultural Identity program of Rimisp – Latin American Center for Rural Development.

The project, run by Slow Food and support of the Ford Foundation, is called “The paths of excellence: Discovering Territories through Products and People”. It will be presented at the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre in Turin, the first stop for a traveling exhibition about the project.

The exhibition will present 12 different areas often characterized by inequality and marginalization, in both developed and developing countries in Latin America, North Africa and Europe. The public will be able to meet the custodians of each area’s gastronomic and cultural traditions, taste their excellent products and experience a true journey of discovery via images, sensations and flavors.

From October 25 to 29, the people who live and work in these areas will be sharing the beauty of their land and the wealth of their culture with the visitors and producers of the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre.

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http://pathsofexcellence.org
www.rimisp.org
www.slowfood.com
http://salonedelgustoterramadre.slowfood.com/
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Rural Territorial Dynamics Program – Final Report 2007-2012

Between 2007 and 2012 the Rural Territorial Dynamics Program worked with more than 50 organizations in 11 Latin American countries to explain why some rural territories have achieved greater economic growth, environmental sustainability and social inclusion, while others have demonstrated notable lags in development. With the knowledge from this work, the program collaborated in the design and implementation of public strategies, policies, programs and projects throughout the region. The program benefited from the support of IDRC Canada, IFAD and the New Zealand Aid Programme. The final report prepared by the implementation agency, the Rimisp Latin American Center for Rural Development, highlights the lessons learned from this innovative program. Learn more by visiting the Rural Territorial Dynamics web portal.


Informe Final del Programa Dinámicas Territoriales Rurales 2007-2012


"El programa Dinámicas Territoriales Rurales (DTR) está llegando a su término. Han sido muchos sus aportes a lo largo de cinco años de trabajo. El más importante de ellos se resume en un concepto: 
ha contribuido a poner en la agenda del desarrollo de América Latina la idea de que el territorio 
importa, tanto porque se observan persistentes desigualdades territoriales que permanecen opacadas 
bajo los promedios, como porque la ceguera respecto de la dimensión territorial genera ineficiencia 
económica al desperdiciar las oportunidades localizadas en los territorios. Éste programa aporta 
un concepto más comprensivo y complejo del desarrollo rural, y constituye una contribución a las 
políticas públicas latinoamericanas sobre desarrollo territorial rural, que es resultado del trabajo de 
un amplio arco de cerca de 50 organizaciones que forman parte de la red de socios del programa..." - Claudia Serrano, Directora Ejecutiva de Rimisp. 



Learn more
www.rimisp.org/dtr

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