Assessing development strategies and Africa's food and nutrition security

This policy brief outlines recommendations for African governments and other agencies with respect to hunger alleviation.

Recommendations include:

• more progress in key areas such as in reducing social and economic discrimination against women, particularly in improving their access to land, credit, and input and output markets, and in fostering the education of girls
• more progress in areas such as employment creation, natural resource protection, and governance reform
• the most successful reformers have been countries without war or civil unrest and with reform processes characterised by strong political leadership and a commitment to reforms with wide domestic participation and ownership
• political will and the commitment to reform within a framework of good governance are crucial features of successful reform and development
• the PRSP implementation demonstrates that capacity building requires more attention and more resources
• agriculture should be returned to the top of the development agenda, given the critical role it plays in African livelihoods
• countries need to act on the Maputo Declaration’s target of allocating 10 percent of each country’s budget to agriculture
• donors should agree on a coordinated and unified monitoring and evaluation system that serves primarily to improve policy implementation in recipient countries
• adequate attention should be devoted to micro-level activities and development strategists should reaffirm the value of the project approach
• the design and implementation of good policies are dependent on clear, relevant, and consistent policy objectives, financial resource availability, and human and institutional capacity