• Non-state provision

Non-state provision

A pluralistic advisory service system is already a fact of life for many farmers in Africa. Over the last few years, outsourcing has become increasingly important in several sub-Saharan African countries and this bulletin takes the opportunity to learn lessons that can further guide this process. It analyses some of the recent experiences with outsourcing agricultural advisory services from an Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) perspective, and documents the best practices and other lessons that can be learned.

The bulletin begins by giving an overview of the existing literature on experiences with outsourcing agricultural advisory services. It then moves on to examine the methodology and analytical framework used and presents case studies on outsourcing in Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. The lessons learned from these cases provide input for a focus on guidelines for outsourcing advisory services for agricultural development, as well as the consequences in terms of the need for capacity-strengthening programmes as part of public sector reform programmes. Key conclusions include:

• the main reason for introducing an outsourcing mechanism for agricultural advisory services to effectively contribute to enhanced agricultural innovation is to achieve interactive learning at the local level
• in order for the system to function, all relevant parties and stakeholders (i.e. local government authorities, farmers’ organisations, plus public and private agricultural service providers) need to be involved from the very beginning in establishing the purpose, objectives, roles and implementation guidelines

The second section of the bulletin provides more detailed descriptions of policies and practices, as well as the lessons learned within the context of the four case studies on outsourcing experiences in sub- Saharan Africa.

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