TCP-funded policy advice from FAO to member countries can help countries make well-considered choices between different options, enabling them to prepare national development plans and programmes for the medium- and long-term future of their agricultural, forestry and fisheries sectors. TCP's initial assistance is frequently taken up and sustained by external donors - for instance, in Tonga, where the completion of an integrated agricultural and rural development plan led to follow-up support from UNDP and the European Community (EC). TCP funding has proved valuable in providing countries with assistance, often associated with legal advice, in the formulation of forestry policies and strategies in locations as diverse as Brazil, Fiji, Mexico, Morocco, Slovenia and Viet Nam.
Because legal and regulatory advice often concerns sensitive political issues, countries value FAO as a neutral source of technical support. TCP has provided expert advice on a variety of subjects such as water rights and landownership, legislation for the effective management of forestry and fisheries resources and for environmental protection. Catalytic effects can be seen in greater investment, higher returns from public resources, reduced conflict over access to resources, and increased production, trade and revenue.
TCP PROJECTS AND THEIR CATALYTIC EFFECTS... |
TCP has often provided short-term assistance, using specialist FAO expertise, to help governments set up urgently needed policy and legal frameworks that enable sustainable development. In Cuba, for example, a TCP project formulated and reviewed the national forest law. This is now being followed up by a UNDP project for the drafting of forestry regulations. In Brazil, TCP funded a project to establish policies and strategies concerning access to public forests, the marketing of wood products, the strengthening of state and municipal forest institutions and the management of priority watersheds. Complementing TCP's work project is a parallel unilateral trust fund project, for which further financial and technical support is being discussed with UNDP and the EC.
A TCP project in Viet Nam greatly assisted the government in its transition to a market economy and had a catalytic role in formulating appropriate market-oriented policies. This assistance contributed to the formulation of legislation defining land property rights - a necessary institutional framework for a market economy.
In Estonia, TCP provided assistance to enhance the government's ability to formulate and evaluate agricultural development strategies, policies and programmes in the context of the state's changing role in the transition to a competitive market economy. Project objectives included the design of a long-term strategy for sustainable development of the agricultural sector, including agro-industry, and a programme to strengthen national capacity for policy analysis. The project played a useful catalytic role not only in addressing key policy issues and recommending options for policy reform, but also in initiating and promoting policy dialogue between the Ministry of Agriculture and the country's leading academic and research institutions. |
