Updated June 1997
A Joint FAO/SPAAR Research Project
Impact of foreign assistance on the institutional development of National Agricultural Research Systems in developing countries
Countries: 16 selected countries in the Developing World
Duration: 19 months
Budget: US$175,000
I. Background and justification
1. Agricultural productivity and development
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economic development of many developing
countries. It contributes an important share to the formation of the Gross
Domestic Production (GDP); on average, it contributes 40 to 65% of GDP,
more than 60% to foreign exchange earnings and constitutes the main source
of food and rural employment.
For the last three to four decades, agricultural production has increased
considerably in developed as well as developing countries. Much progress
has been made in increasing the yields and production of various crops,
especially cereals, in many food deficit countries, and food supplies have
grown faster than population growth. Per caput production of cereals increased
from 305 kg in 1970 to a peak of 342 kg in the mid-1980s, remaining at that
level until recently, when it declined slightly. These results have been
achieved thanks to the utilization of improved production technologies,
particularly high yielding varieties, irrigation, fertilizer and a range
of improved crop and resource management technologies, within an overall
enabling agricultural policy framework. This phenomenon has transformed
some net food importing countries into net food exporting countries - all
in only 10 to 15 years.
This food production increase has been the result of the sustained investment
in the agricultural sector which took place in the 1960s and 1970s. Although
accurate figures are not always available, FAO data indicate that net investment
in on-farm improvements were about US$ 26 thousand million per year between
1987 and 1992, this amount being largely private investment, to which should
be added public funding for research and extension, estimated at US$ 10
thousand million per year (World Bank estimates). The magnitude of these
investments highlights that the investment in primary agriculture and public
support systems has been a fairly modest share of all investment taking
place in developing countries. Relatively minor shifts of resources from
other sectors into agriculture, as a consequence of removing anti-rural
biases, could have a significant impact, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Investment in agriculture in many developing countries is largely dependent
on foreign assistance. Official development finance (ODF) to the agricultural
sector of developing countries rose from around US$ 11 thousand million
per year in the early 1980s to US$ 14 thousand million in 1988. It has since
declined to probably not more than US$ 8 thousand million annually. Within
these totals, multilateral lending shows broadly similar trends. World Bank
lending to agriculture as a share of total lending fell from 30% in the
1970s to 16% in the 1990s.
2. Agricultural research institutional development
Agricultural research has played a crucial role in food security and agricultural
development by increasing agricultural production to meet the food needs
of a rapidly increasing population. The major progress in yields of cereals
and other crops, livestock and farmed fish has been a key contribution to
the 80% increase in global food output since the mid-1960s.
Investment in agricultural research has more or less followed similar trends
to the overall agricultural sector. In the 1980s (1), public agricultural
research funding amounted annually to US$ 4.4 and 4.8 thousand million in
developed and developing countries respectively, representing a 260% increase
over the amount of two previous decades. However, increases in investment
in the sector slowed down afterward, and remained stagnant in the 1990s
(2).
Foreign assistance has played a key role in agricultural research development
in all developing countries, and particularly in Africa. Funding in the
form of loans and grants from international donors accounted for around
34% of total research expenditure in Sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1960s.
African NARS more and more have increasingly relied on foreign funding,
reaching about 43% of their total funding in 1991 (3). To the funding directly
channelled to NARS should be added the funding of the Consultative Group
on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) through its network of international
agricultural research centres (IARCs) to the tune of, at the last estimate,
US$ 270 million.
The role of foreign assistance has been prominent in the development of
NARS in developing countries. Recalling all this role in the historical
development of NARS in the Third World would be too long and beyond the
scope of this document. It suffices to summarize the status of NARS in developing
countries, highlighting their current constraints, and particularly as regards
their institutional development.
According to Idachaba (4), building agricultural research capacity means
developing the capacity to design rules for organizational forms that will
facilitate activities of people in organizing, supporting, conducting and
monitoring agricultural research. Among the elements which constitute institutional
capacity, he singles out, inter alia, (i) the set of institutions or organizations
within which people are expected to perform, as scientific researchers,
academic entrepreneurs, research administrators or political entrepreneurs;
and (ii) research management capacity within NARS, the components of which
include the capacity to:
- articulate medium- and long-term research plans and strategies for 10
to 15 years, to serve as a frame for priority research programmes and projects;
- identify appropriate research instruments for realizing research objectives;
- transform human, physical and financial resources of research institutions
into research outputs and practical technologies;
- mount and execute research agenda to accelerate sustainable agricultural
production consistent with minimum environmental degradation; and
- monitor and evaluate all the agricultural research system.
Research management capacity development is at two levels: macro, at the
national level, and micro, at the institutional level. Each level has its
specific functions and needs.
3. Constraints of national agricultural research systems
What are the present constraints that most NARS of developing countries
face in the process of their institutional development? Constraints analyses
of NARS are quite abundant and in general there is some sort of consensus
on the following, presented according to their seriousness.
- Poor research management. The lack of managerial skill and leadership
is widespread, and permeates all levels of institutional development; the
reasons are numerous and most have been identified and programmes mounted
to address them.
- Institutional instability. This is a characteristic of NARS in
developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where, instead
of thorough analysis of institutional inefficiency, the easy way of institutional
reform is always chosen, very often on the advice of a donor.
- Human resources instability. Staffing instability plagues most
of NARS, and the turnover rate in many NARS in Africa reaches 10%. Reasons
include: poor management, unattractive conditions of service, lack of job
satisfaction, lack of funding, etc.
- Inadequate funding. NARS in developing countries face a pervasive
shortage of resources, particularly of operating budgets. Real expenditures
per researcher declined considerably in the 1980s in all developing regions.
Research intensity is currently at about 0.5% or less in developing countries.
- Funding instability. NARS managers would be able to cope with
limited resources disbursed in a timely manner but, in addition to the inadequacy
of the amounts, they are disbursed in an erratic manner and rarely at the
level promised.
- Research programme instability. As a result of the constraints
mentioned above and a lack of proper planning and priority setting, coupled
with frequent changes of leadership, research programming is characterized
by a high degree of instability.
- Limited relevance of research. Deficiency in priority setting,
lack of proper linkages with end-users and extension, and weak networks
of out-stations and on-farm experiments all lead inevitably to limited relevance
of research activities and results.
- Defective linkage with the world knowledge system. Insufficient
linkages within the NARS themselves (Universities, private sector, non-governmental
organizations) and with outside partners, such as IARCs, regional institutions,
advanced research institutions in developed countries, etc., reduce markedly
the effectiveness and efficiency of a research organization. This situation
occurs quite often in developing countries, and particularly in Africa.
- Weak monitoring and evaluation of research. In most developing
country NARS the monitoring and evaluation system is weak or lacking, a
situation which generally leads to routine and poor quality work.
4. The challenges for agricultural research
The world food supply has more than tripled during the past three decades
but this green-revolution-increased production has not solved the problem
of chronic undernutrition for hundreds of millions of poverty-stricken people
around the world. World population will probably reach 8 300 million by
2025. If present per caput consumption remains unchanged, population growth
will necessitate that world food production increases by 2 600 million tons,
or 57%, between 1990 and 2025. However, if diets were improved among the
hungry people, estimated to be 1 000 million people living mainly in Asia
and Africa, world food demand could double to some 9 000 million tons by
2025. This tremendous increase ought to be achieved in an environmentally
sustainable way. This is a major challenge for agricultural development
and research in the coming decades (5).
The agricultural research agenda must respond to this challenge. It will
be shaped by the choices of research investments and strategies made by
governments and institutions both in developed and developing countries.
NARS are and will continue to be the cornerstone of the global agricultural
research system. They alone can be responsible for addressing the range
of productivity and sustainability issues in their own countries. Given
the diverse nature of agro-ecological conditions, the location-specificity
of small-scale production and the pervasive natural resource management
problems, NARS must play an even larger role as the interface between the
global agricultural research system, of which they are a component, and
producers. The success of the global agricultural research system in responding
to the challenge facing it is dependent upon a strong national research
capacity to do productive research, complemented by an effective technology
transfer mechanism. Strong partnership among NARS, between them and the
regional and international research institutes, particularly those of the
CGIAR, constitute the second condition for increasing the efficiency of
the global research system (6).
5. Impact of foreign assistance on institutional development
Given the situation described above, particularly as regard NARS constraints,
what has been the impact of agricultural research on agricultural development?
Douglas Horton (7) considers that research investment produces two kinds
of technology: production technology and research and development (R&D)
technology, and the corresponding impacts are respectively production impact
and institutional impact. Production technology refers broadly to all methods
which end-users use to cultivate, harvest, store, process, handle, transport
and prepare food crops and livestock for consumption. R&D technology
refers to the organizational strategies and methods used by research and
extension programmes in their work. Production impact refers to the physical,
social and economic effects of new technology on crops and livestock production,
distribution and use, and on social welfare in general. Institutional impact
refers to the effects of the R&D technology on the capacity of research
and extension programmes to generate and disseminate new production technology.
There is ample scientific evidence for the production impact phenomenon,
and it is well documented. Rates of return to investment in agricultural
research have been impressive and are generally estimated to range from
20 to 190% in developing countries (8). In contrast, the institutional impact
of investment in agricultural research is very limited, particularly foreign
assistance investment.
Analysts of foreign assistance to agricultural research, particularly in
Africa (Idachaba, 1991 (4), Eicher, 1990 (9)) are very critical of the role
of foreign assistance. Idachaba's assessment is that "a fundamental
flaw of external donor aid and assistance in the last two decades has been
their high tolerance for defective institutional structures, which were
supported with loan and grant funds but yielded little dividend. Many external
donors have massively funded fatally defective institutional structures
on the faulty assumption that these institutions would be reorganized, revitalized,
revamped, etc. Many years and many millions of donor dollars after, African
countries are still saddled with defective institutional arrangements that
have continued to hamper the growth of institutional capacity in agricultural
research".
For Eicher (9) "what flows from the records of donor-funded projects
for African NARS during the 1980s is the inescapable conclusion that the
interrelated issues of the size, performance and sustainability of NARS
are not being addressed by African policymakers, NARS leaders and donors.
Today, most NARS do not have the institutional, managerial and financial
capacity to absorb current levels of project aid "with integrity"
and to sustain the project activities after foreign aid is phased out. The
present donor-financed project-by-project and country-by-country approach
to building African scientific capacity is seriously flawed". Eicher
goes on, and concludes "The challenge for donors in the 1990s is to
move beyond the resource transfer model of financing the construction of
buildings and purchasing equipment and vehicles for NARS and pursue a human
capability-institutional building model that is geared to the specific needs
of the African nations at this stage of their development".
The present joint FAO/SPAAR study aims to address the issue of the impact
of foreign assistance on the institutional development of NARS, with regard
to the challenge mentioned above.
II. Objectives
The literature review highlighted in the preceding sections indicates the
contribution of foreign assistance to agricultural research. However, the
analysis is scanty and inadequate. The proposed project is important on
three accounts. First, it will illustrate, in selected countries, the exact
amounts of foreign assistance to agricultural research as a measure of donor
commitment to research. Second, it will assess the impact of this foreign
assistance at the two levels: output of research (relevant technology and
information) and institutional capacity (efficiency) of research institutions.
Third, it will provide mechanisms for improving the capacity of research
and enable NARS make better use of future foreign assistance. It will specifically
address the following aspects:
- development and implementation of research policy and strategy;
- research planning, priority setting and resource allocation;
- linkages with the world knowledge system;
- research performance, effectiveness and efficiency;
- adequacy and stability of budgets;
- sustainability; and
- monitoring and evaluation systems.
It will provide also a comparative analysis of various examples of foreign
assistance with a view to drawing on the experience of their specificities,
strengths and weaknesses. The study should, furthermore, provide criteria
for ex ante and ex post evaluations of foreign assistance programmes and
projects.
III. Expected outputs
The study should provide:
- a conceptual framework for the assessment of foreign assistance;
- data and information on the performance of various foreign assistance
interventions on capacity building of NARS;
- guidelines and recommendations for foreign assistance, greater impact
and sustainability addressed to recipients and donors themselves; and
- insight on the present and future strategies of some major donors.
IV. Implementation strategy
The study will have a two-pronged approach:
A. Case studies
Case studies of selected Third World countries will be prepared, with the
following criteria:
- importance of the agricultural sector in the economy;
- performance of the agricultural sector;
- government support for the agricultural sector;
- foreign assistance support to the agricultural sector;
- national and foreign assistance support to agricultural research;
- growth and development of the NARS;
- performance of the agricultural research system; and
- political stability.
The regional distribution of the countries (16 in all) will be: Sub-Saharan
Africa: 7; WANA: 3; Asia and the Pacific: 3; Latin America: 2; Caribbean:
1.
For each region, consultations will be held for the appropriate selection
of countries. Tentatively, the following countries are proposed:
- Sub-Saharan Africa: Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Senegal,
and Tanzania;
- WANA: Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan
- Asia and Pacific: India, Malaysia and the Philippines;
- Latin America and the Caribbean: Chili or Bolivia, Colombia or
Venezuela and Guyana
For each of the selected countries, two well-experienced research scientists
will be selected, in cooperation with the relevant NARS leader, and will
be given author's contracts to jointly prepare a national case study from
a sample of key foreign assistance projects in the past 30 years; five to
ten projects would be a good sample. The authors will be expected to:
- collect data and information on the sample projects;
- analyse and interpret the collected data and information; and
- report on the findings and results.
B. Donor assessments
Key external donors who have been active and very supportive of investment
in agricultural research will be asked to make their own assessment of the
impact of their assistance on the institutional development of NARS. They
will also be asked to provide a statement on their present and future strategies
for investment in agricultural research.
C. Standardization of reports
A guideline provides the format for collection and presentation of the data
and information in a homogeneous manner with an outline check-list.
D. Leadership
A team leader will be contracted on a part-time basis for supervision of
the study, and for dialogue with the authors of the national case studies
and donors. S/He will analyse the case studies, look for complementary documentation,
and cross check data with donor countries and institutions to ensure accuracy
of information.
Finally, s/he will have responsibility for preparing the final draft report
with the major conclusions and recommendations.
A Steering Committee, composed of FAO, SPAAR and other interested partner
representatives, will be vested with responsibility for overall supervision
of the exercise, and to whom the team leader will report. It will review
the draft and endorse the recommendations and conclusions.
Bibliography notes
1. Anderson, J.R., P.G. Pardey and J. Roseboom. "Sustaining Growth
in Agriculture: A Quantitative Review of Agricultural Research Investments",
Agricultural Economics, Vol.10, No. 2 (April 1994): 107-123
2. Roseboom, J. and P.G. Pardey: "Survey of Agricultural Research Investments
in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Achieving Greater Impact from Research Investments
in Africa", SAA/Global 200/CASIN, Proceedings of the Workshop Developing
African Agriculture, Addis Ababa, September 26-30, 1995; Steven A. Bresh,
editor, pp.74-88
3. FAO, "The National Agricultural Research Systems of West and Central
Africa", Rome, 1995
4. Idachaba, F.S.: "Building Institutional Capacity for Agricultural
Research in Sub-Saharan Africa"; In "Enhancement of Agricultural
Research in Francophone Africa", African Academy of Sciences, 1991,
pp.87-116
5. Borlaug, N.E.: "Mobilizing Science and Technology in a Green Revolution
in African Agriculture, in Achieving Greater Impact" from "Research
Investments in Africa, Proceedings of the Workshop Developing African Agriculture",
held in Addis Ababa, September 26-30, 1995, Steven, R. Berth, editor, pp.201-217
6. FAO, World Food Summit Technical Papers: "Role of Reseasrch in Global
Food Security and Agricultural Development"
7. Horton, D.E.: "Assessing the performance of R&D programmes:
Assessing Impact, the General Framework, the Social Sciences at CIP",
Report of the Social Science Planning Conference, held at CIP, Lima, Peru,
September 7-10 1987; 1988
8. Evenson, R. "Extension, Technology and Efficiency in Agriculture
in Sub-Saharan Africa, Achieving Greater Ïmpact from Research Investments
in Africa", Proceedings of the Workshop Developing African Agriculture
held in Addis Ababa, September 26-30, 1995
9. Eicher, Carl K.: "Building African Scientific Capacity for Agricultural
Development", Agricultural Economics, 4 (1990) pp. 117-143, Elsevier
Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam
10. Oehmke, J.I and E.W. Crawford, 1994, "The Impact of Agricultural
Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa", Department of Economics, Michigan
State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA, Duplicated
11. Birkhauzer, D.; Robert E. Evenson and Gershan Feder, 1991: "The
Economic Impact of Agricultural Extension: A Review on Economic Development
and Cultural Change", 39: pp.607-50
12. Bonte-Friedheim, C., Steven R. Tabor and J. Roseboom. "Financing
National Agricultural Research: The Challenge Ahead", 1994, 8 page
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