New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the African
Union, other multilateral organizations, and a number of
individual donor and African governments continue to
work to coordinate support and identify funding gaps.
Another example of American support for partnerships
with developing countries and communities is the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government
agency established in 2004. This was the first U.S. development program to use a country-led approach; partner
governments propose projects that reflect their needs to
the MCC. To receive funding, governments must consult
with key stakeholders in their country, including civil society groups, the private sector, and beneficiary communities.
Early signs of progress in MCC projects led the administration to adopt a country-led approach for its Feed the Future
global food security initiative as well.
since they were often not part of a well-thought-out plan
and the people who were supposed to benefit were rarely
consulted. The governments of developing countries missed
opportunities to develop the skills and experience needed
to reach their national development goals independently.
In addition, governments had to devote significant staff
time and resources to fulfilling the varied requirements of a
host of donors. Two examples of this: Vietnam received 752
missions from donors in 2007, while a study in Tanzania
found that some district health officials spent 25 working
days each quarter (100 working days every year) writing
reports for donors—time that could have been spent
delivering services.
The “aid recipient” approach is being replaced with more
collaborative forms of development assistance, often called
the “country-led” approach. Since the goal of development
assistance is ultimately to help countries reach the point
where they no longer need outside assistance, country-led
programs make perfect sense. When countries are in charge
of their own development plans, they can also take advantage of opportunities to work with emerging economies and
other developing countries toward development goals.
Such cooperation is becoming increasingly frequent. For
example, former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva—a 2011 World Food Prize laureate for his leadership
in reducing hunger in his nation—visited Africa more than
two dozen times in three years, supporting efforts to build
food security. India is also active in Africa, through both
public and private sector initiatives.
In keeping with the idea of country-led programs, the
United States is also supporting multilateral initiatives
created by developing countries. One of the strongest
is the Comprehensive All Africa Development Program
(CAADP), an entirely African-led effort to significantly
reduce chronic hunger, malnutrition, and poverty through
coordinated work in agriculture. The pillars of CAADP’s
work include supporting agricultural research in Africa and
extending the area under sustainable land management.
CAADP member countries recently set the goal of a 6
percent average annual growth rate in agriculture. Since
CAADP’s inception, development partners have worked
together closely to facilitate its policies and programs. The
10
A Wider Influence
Todd Post
U.S. leadership has proven essential to global action
on food security. When the United States cut back on its
support for agricultural development at the end of the
1980s, the efforts of most other developed countries waned
as well. This was then followed by reduced investments in
agriculture by developing countries themselves—after all,
Bangladesh, despite poverty and routine extensive flooding, now
grows nearly enough rice to feed all its people and is making
good progress in improving child nutrition.
:
More than triple:
About
percent
Amount of donor assistance dedicated
to food, agriculture, and nutrition.
Rate of school enrollment in Ethiopia
in 2009 compared to 1991.
3