Strengthening Data Systems to Spur Development
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As it embarks on a review of progress toward implementing the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), an African-led agricultural transformation agenda, the African Union is driving a continent-wide effort to strengthen local data systems in its 55 member states. This score-carding exercise, called the Biennial Review process, is a defining example of a locally led process to increase ownership of data, inclusivity of data structures, and learning about agricultural progress among key stakeholders. Coordinated by the AU, the process also serves as an accountability mechanism for member states in a way that aligns with local incentive structures for policy change.
Data reported by individual countries is scored at the continental level to track progress against the Malabo Declaration, the 2014 agreement that established continent-wide goals for “accelerated agricultural growth.”
The AU’s biennial effort—its third in six years—draws on data self-reported by individual countries and then scored at the continental level to track their progress against the Malabo Declaration, the 2014 agreement that established continent-wide goals for “accelerated agricultural growth.” As the AU’s Godfrey Bahiigwa writes, "Most importantly, the scorecard is a transparency mechanism to drive transformation. It encourages heads of states and governments to assess original commitments made versus performance. Available to all stakeholders in agriculture — government ministries, private sector companies, civil society, farmer organizations, development partners and citizens — we hope the report will stimulate dialogue, collaborative problem solving and a more inclusive African-led process to increase investment in agriculture."
Six years into the effort, the AU aims to bolster its current biennial review with an interactive toolkit that can help visualize the data for a broader audience of policymakers and agricultural stakeholders. Developed with assistance from USAID’s Policy LINK program, the purpose of the toolkit is to help users engage more meaningfully with the biennial review data through visualizing and interacting directly with it.
That transparency and accessibility, said Policy LINK Regional Director Robert Ouma, will be key to identifying agricultural development trends, especially as the biennial review can now draw on more than five years of data. Speaking at a March 3 online gathering of USAID staff and implementing partners, Ouma encouraged donors to support country-level data systems, which include technical capacity for data collection, validation processes and communications support to dissemination of data, as well as the government institutions that support them.
With funding from Feed the Future, USAID’s global hunger and food security initiative, Policy LINK provides “backbone” support to CAADP. Among the AU program’s seven commitments is for member states to “critically review” their ‘actions and results’ from implementing ambitious agricultural development goals contained in the Malabo Declaration every two years. The current biennial review is set to enter the country-level data collection stage beginning late March. Thereafter, countries will carry out multi-stakeholder participatory data validation process, before then data is further validated at regional level. Policy LINK, in collaboration with other partners, will continue to provide design, technical and facilitation support to this AU-led process.