Background
The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) defines and represents the position of German development cooperation in dealings with partner countries, the German public and, in many international political processes, the international community. It formulates German development policy, produces strategy papers, guidelines and position papers and responds to requests for information from policy-makers, the general public and the private sector.
Objective
The key task of the Sector Project Sustainable Agriculture is to advise BMZ on issues of policy formulation and strategy development in the field of sustainable agriculture, so that Germany’s position and approaches can be incorporated into the coordination processes and exchange fora of international cooperation. The Sector Project serves the needs and objectives of the BMZ special initiative ‘One World, No Hunger’. The main framework is provided by the strategy papers on promotion of sustainable agriculture, on biofuels and on the development of rural areas and their contribution to food security.
Approach
The advice provided to BMZ builds on lessons learnt from practical experience. Therefore - in addition to providing policy advice per se - the Sector Project also cooperates with the implementing programmes of German development cooperation in the partner countries. Lessons learnt from these activities are analysed and documented by the Sector Project; at the same time, strategies and instruments of sustainable agriculture developed from these learning experiences are used for knowledge management and the provision of advice to other projects and are incorporated into the advice provided to BMZ. Existing networks and supra-regional structures (sector networks, etc.) are used for cooperation with the implementing programmes in the partner countries. Internally there is intensive cooperation with planning officers and other sector projects. The intensive internal and external communication enables sustainability aspects of agriculture to be given greater prominence in German development cooperation and in the partner countries.
The project operates supra-regionally in three fields of action: (1) Advising BMZ: this involves providing technical input and professional expertise on a wide range of issues (soil, water, climate change, agro-genetic resources, post-harvest protection, plant and animal production, renewable resources). (2) Collaboration with programmes in partner countries: upon request, programmes are advised on matters relating to the analysis and evaluation of the sustainability of farming systems, the development of advisory material relating to improvements to farming systems, integrated resource use and adaptation to climate change, and on gender and agricultural extension systems. Lessons learnt are analysed and new instruments and approaches are developed, tested and disseminated. The experience of the programmes is in turn incorporated into the advice provided to BMZ. (3) Refinement of strategies in German development cooperation: in collaboration with other sector projects and organisations, issues of sustainable agriculture are debated and taken forward through presentations, expert meetings, publications and the internet. The resulting recommendations are also incorporated into the advice provided to BMZ and made available to projects.
Results
The project can be expected to deliver results for, in particular, BMZ and technical cooperation projects. The advice provided assists BMZ in shaping policy discussions and processes relating to sustainable agriculture at national level and in international committees and processes. In addition, it helps BMZ to design its own projects.
The intensive knowledge management, the provision of advice to programmes in partner countries and the participation in networks all promote the upscaling of approaches that are resource-efficient and sustainably productive and that foster resilience. The capacities of the staff of GIZ and its partners are improved.
Sector projects have the task of advising and supporting BMZ on technical issues. In contrast to programmes in partner countries, the results of sector projects often benefit the partner countries only indirectly rather than directly.