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Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies

New updates on the data hub!
Updates include new data on key commodities for Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal, as well as new data on public expenditure on food and agriculture in Malawi and Rwanda up to 2023.
Norwegian Economist Kjersti Nes joins the MAFAP programme

Kjersti recently joined the MAFAP team and will provide support on technical analyses and methodologies.


Bangladesh and FAO chart new course for nutrition-friendly public spending to support healthy diets
Workshop in the capital Dhaka engaged national stakeholders in validating public expenditure data to support more effective “nutrition-sensitive” investments in Bangladesh’s agrifood sector to promote healthy diets.
Gates Foundation and MAFAP programme convene for annual update
A yearly meeting to review of progress, challenges, and future strategies for inclusive agricultural policy reform took place on 12 and 13 March 2025
MAFAP and Government of Bangladesh join forces to make public spending a key driver of agricultural productivity and prosperity
Policymakers and experts gather in Dhaka to track public expenditure and investments in food and agriculture and understand pathways to optimize them for agricultural transformation
Nineteen officials meet to sharpen skills at policy monitoring and data validation workshop in Burkina Faso
Find out more on the the 4-day workshop, organized by the MAFAP programme, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Animal and Fishery Resources and the FAO Representation in Burkina Faso to upskill officials on policy monitoring and to validate datasets on public spending and price incentives for 9 commodities.
FAO showcases policy optimization tool developed by the MAFAP programme at Global Environment Facility's technical advisory meetings
Marco V. Sánchez joined environmental experts in Washington, DC to table the tool as powerful way to support countries in tracking and optimizing public spending on agrifood systems, climate action, and biodiversity in drive for better policy coherence.
Zewdu Dechasa joins the MAFAP team as Focal Point for Ethiopia
Get to know Zewdu
How nutrition-friendly is Ghana's agrifood budget: A new analysis by MAFAP kicks off in Accra
The project, under FAO’s Flexible Voluntary Contribution mechanism, brings together FAO, the Government of Ghana, and academia to analyse spending for better nutrition 
MAFAP introduces Policy Optimization Tool at FOLUR wheat and maize dialogue in Istanbul
Around 60 international experts gathered in Istanbul, Türkiye, to discuss challenges and innovations in wheat and mazie production systems, as part of the World Bank's Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Programme regional dialogue.
Meizal Popat joins the team to drive Mozambique engagement
The MAFAP team welcomes its new Policy Analyst and Focal Point for Mozambique, Meizal Popat, who will be leading the programme's policy support and country engagement.
New Working Paper out now!
A new FAO Working Paper, 'The opportunity cost of not repurposing public expenditure in food and agriculture in sub-Saharan African countries' , has been published by the MAFAP team!
Uganda reviews public spending and price incentives with MAFAP at Mukono workshop
Ugandan officials trained on policy-monitoring indicators as stakeholders shape key findings on public spending and price incentives for 7 strategic commodities.
All about MAFAP's policy optimization tool (PolOpT)

Check out the new brochure'Spending smarter on food and agriculture – Making public spending more effective with FAO's policy optimization tool (PolOpT)'

MAFAP and Uganda’s Labour Ministry tackle labour productivity in the country's agricultural sector
Labour productivity in the agricultural sector faces a number of binding constraints including land access, uncertain markets, volatile prices, inadequate farmer training, limited infrastructure, and technology uptake.
New agricultural marketing strategy under talks at MAFAP-Uganda workshop
FAO and Ugandan government ministries meet in Mukono to discuss a new agricultural marketing strategy for the country under the Parish Development Model
Rome meeting between MAFAP and Ugandan State Minister for Animal Industry focuses on agricultural policy advancements

The MAFAP programme is currently working on five agrifood reforms in the country

The Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme, within the Agrifood Economics and Policy Division at FAO, is a leading policy support initiative that has been working since 2009 with mainly African countries to strategically prioritize, reform and implement agrifood policies for inclusive agricultural transformation. 

MAFAP does this by supporting governments with agrifood policy monitoring on public expenditure on food and agriculture and price incentives for key country commodities, with policy prioritization to optimise their public budgets and prioritize their investments in commodities, and with agrifood policy reforms to address issues on food and nutrition, pricing, marketing, strategy development and trade. 

Countries where MAFAP is providing support
Videos
Nineteen officials meet to sharpen skills at policy monitoring and data validation workshop in Burkina Faso
26/02/2025

Le Faso covers MAFAP's policy monitoring upskilling workshop in Burkina Faso

All about agrifood policy monitoring in 1 minute with Valentina Pernechele
06/05/2024

Find out in 1 minute from Economist Valentina Pernechele how the MAFAP Programme is helping countries through policy monitoring and data analysis on...

All about agrifood policy prioritization in 1 minute with Marco V. Sánchez
06/05/2024

Find out in this 1-minute video with Agrifood Economics and Policy Deputy Director Marco V. Sánchez how the MAFAP Programme is partnering with countries...

All about agrifood reform in 1 minute with Thibault Meilland
06/05/2024

Find out from Policy Advisor Thibault Meilland how the MAFAP Programme is supporting countries through a 4-step process to repurpose and reform their...

MAFAP Policy Monitoring E-learning Series
24/06/2022

Upskill your agrifood policy monitoring through an interactive, in-depth e-learning series on globally recognized methodologies on public expenditure...

News
MAFAP releases new data updates on commodity price incentives and public expenditure
30/04/2025
Updates include new data on key commodities for Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal, as well as new data on public expenditure on food and agriculture in Malawi and Rwanda up to 2023.
Norwegian Economist Kjersti Nes joins the MAFAP programme
14/04/2025

Kjersti Nes, from Norway, joins the MAFAP team as an Economist and will be supporting the team on technical analyses and methodologies. She will be reporting to ESA Deputy Director and MAFAP programme Officer-in-Charge, Marco V. Sánchez.

Kjersti obtained a master’s degree and a PhD in Ag...

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Publications
The opportunity cost of not repurposing public expenditure in food and agriculture in sub-Saharan African countries – Background paper for The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024
20/12/2024

Repurposing public support to food and agriculture has gained significant global attention. In this paper, an innovative policy optimization modelling...

Spending smarter on food and agriculture – Making public spending more effective with FAO's policy optimization tool (PolOpT)
11/12/2024

FAO’s Policy Optimization Tool (PolOpT) empowers governments to reallocate their public budgets on food and agriculture, repurposing limited resources...

Optimizing public spending on food and agriculture: A gamechanger in lower-income countries
02/12/2024

While transforming agricultural policies is a key priority for lower-income countries, there is still a long road ahead to optimize their tight budgets...

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E-Learnings
Monitoring public expenditure on food and agriculture: the MAFAP method
02/11/2021

Learn how public spending on food and agriculture is a critical to better understand agricultural public expenditure and how it affects agricultural...

Monitoring price incentives for food and agriculture: the MAFAP method
02/11/2021

Learn how policies influence prices at different stages of the value chain, such as at producer, wholesale and retail level, is fundamental to determine...

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Contact

Marco V. Sánchez

Deputy Director

Agrifood Economics and Policy Division & Officer-in-Charge MAFAP

[email protected]