Evaluating The Impacts Of The Fao S Cash Programme In Mali

This report presents findings from a study of the economic and food security impacts of the FAO project "Productive safety nets as a tool to reinforce the resilience in the Sahel" (hereinafter referred to as the project/programme Cash+) that took place from April 2015 to February 2017. The project aimed to strengthen the resilience of households vulnerable to shocks and heavily affected by food insecurity and was carried out in two countries: Mali and Mauritania. Unconditional in-cash and in-kind transfers were distributed to the most vulnerable households, which also benefited from other training and technical activities which aimed to strengthen their productive capacity. This report focuses on Mali, where the FAO Cash+ project targeted 36 villages in the Nioro Cercle (“Cercle de Nioro du Sahel”) of Kayes region. Two sets of intervention of equal financial value have been provided to the beneficiaries: i) one called "Cash Only" consisting primarily of a cash transfer and ii) another called "Cash+" associating a cash transfer with distribution of goats, training on good practices of livestock breeding and raising awareness of children's nutrition. The main objective of this report is evaluating the impacts of the FAO’s Cash+ programme in Mali and investigating eventual heterogenous effects of the two types of treatment. Using data collected nine months after the project ended, we analyse its lasting impacts across various livelihood aspects, namely food security, dietary diversity, hygiene practices, food and non-food expenditures, livestock production, non-farm activities, aspirations and expectations.

Using qualitative research and econometric analysis, this report analyses how unconditional cash transfer programmes impact crop production, agricultural inputs, labour allocation, risk management and social networks in seven sub-Saharan countries.

Impact evaluations must be embedded in the ongoing process of policy and programme design in order to be effective in influencing country policy. This is the primary lesson found in this book, which is based on the rigorous impact evaluations and country-case study analysis of government-run cash transfer programmes undertaken in eight Sub-Saharan African countries (Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa) evaluated as part of the Transfer Project and From Protection to Production Project. The impact evaluations employed mixed method approaches, including randomized controls trials (RCTs) and non-experimental designs, qualitative methods and village LEWIE-CGE modelling. Evidence presented in the book counteracts concerns around social protection creating dependency showing that unconditional cash transfers lead to a broad range of social and productive impacts, even though they are not tied to any specific behaviour.

Unless action is taken now to make agriculture more sustainable, productive and resilient, climate change impacts will seriously compromise food production in countries and regions that are already highly food-insecure. The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, represents a new beginning in the global effort to stabilize the climate before it is too late. It recognizes the importance of food security in the international response to climate change, as reflected by many countries prominent focus on the agriculture sector in their planned contributions to adaptation and mitigation. To help put those plans into action, this report identifies strategies, financing opportunities, and data and information needs. It also describes transformative policies and institutions that can overcome barriers to implementation. The State of Food and Agriculture is produced annually. Each edition contains an overview of the current global agricultural situation, as well as more in-depth coverage of a topical theme."

Gender-sensitive policy and programming have an integral role to play in fostering inclusive agricultural growth to meet the commitments of African countries to the Malabo Declaration goals. The 2019 Annual Trends and Outlook Report from ReSAKSS applies a gender lens to key issues that must be addressed to fully achieve these goals. Chapters examine the intersections between gender and (1) the context and institutions within which rural people operate; (2) the natural resources that men and women depend on for agriculture, sources of vulnerability, and resilience to shocks; (3) assets and income; and (4) livelihood strategies and well-being. The report serves as the official M&E report for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), tracking progress on over 30 CAADP indicators.

Public support mechanisms for agriculture in many cases hinder the transformation towards healthier, more sustainable, equitable, and efficient food systems, thus actively steering us away from meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and targets of the Paris Agreement. This report sets out the compelling case for repurposing harmful agricultural producer support to reverse this situation, by optimizing the use of scarce public resources, strengthening economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and ultimately driving a food systems transformation that can support global sustainable development commitments. The report provides policymakers with an updated estimate of past and current agricultural producer support for 88 countries, projected up until 2030. The trends emerging from the analysis are a clear call for action at country, regional and global levels to phase out the most distortive, environmentally and socially harmful support, such as price incentives and coupled subsidies, and redirecting it towards investments in public goods and services for agriculture, such as research and development and infrastructure, as well as decoupled fiscal subsidies. Overall, the analysis highlights that, while removing and/or reducing harmful agricultural support is necessary, repurposing initiatives that include measures to minimize policy trade-offs will be needed to ensure a beneficial outcome overall. The report confirms that, while a few countries have started repurposing and reforming agricultural support, broader, deeper, and faster reforms are needed for food systems transformation. Thus, it provides guidance (in six steps) on how governments can repurpose agricultural producer support – and the reforms this will take.

The FMM Annual Report for 2018 highlights the concrete results achieved through the continued support of key resource partners. This report details initiatives, innovations, impacts, outcomes and human-centred stories from the field. The report shows how deepening our engagement with resource partners and fostering new alliances is vital to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

In Africa, women are critical agents of change in the fight against rural poverty, hunger and malnutrition. They are the backbone of their households, communities, and rural economies covering important roles in food production, processing and marketing, and also in the nutrition of the family. However, with food systems rapidly modernizing and dramatic effects of climate change and environmental degradation becoming the “new normal”, they continue to face multiple challenges due to persisting gender discriminations. Over the years, remarkable political commitments to improve women’s condition and status have been made, but substantial gender gaps still remain in the access and control over productive resources and assets, services and markets. Overcoming these challenges will require addressing the root causes of gender inequalities through innovative and gender-transformative approaches. According to FAO’s latest estimates (SOFI, 2019), the number of people suffering from hunger has been rising. Just this trend - and the awareness that we lost a decade of progress - is sufficient to underscore the immense challenge of achieving the Zero Hunger target by 2030. The situation is most alarming in sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of undernourished people has steadily increased since 2014, to 237 million in 2018. These findings are in line with the 2019 SDG report. It shows that we are still lagging behind in achieving the SDGs as the global response has not been ambitious enough.