Multi-stakeholder Collaborative Advocacy Campaigns on Policy Linkages

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Description

Intro

The still infant agro-processing industry in East Africa has been earmarked as having huge potential for poverty reduction, growth and regional integration. The region’s success in realising this potential will partly depend on its ability to factor in the ever-increasing challenges posed by climate change, and incorporate them in its trade policies. From October 2015 till September 2019, CUTS International’s PACT EAC2 project brings together, informs, trains and moves to advocacy action hundreds of stakeholders towards more climate-aware, trade-driven and food security-enhancing agro-processing development in East Africa.

Objective of the practice

Holistic approach to agro-value-addition, which is climate friendly, trade oriented and promoting food security will contribute to poverty reduction. Climate change has a significant role to play in the consideration of agriculture-led industrialisation in the EAC where agro-value-addition takes the lion’s share in the region’s manufacturing sector. Agro-processing requires sustainable agro-inputs supply, which in turn ensures not only food security through sustainable agriculture practices in the face of climate change but also high volumes of exports and foreign currency earnings. More incomes and revenues both at individual and state levels mean more resources for social amenities and infrastructure which directly lead to reduction of poverty as well as better productive labour force in the economy. Innovative ways of climate adaptation, such as agro-forestry that opts for drought-resistant fruit trees rather than exotic trees, serve not only as insurance during crop failure but also lend an alternative source of income, particularly if they are linked to value addition. Therefore, there is a need to link trade along the value chain (income) to agricultural production and supply (employment and food security) to the manufacturing sector (income, employment and food security) that is cognisant of the realities of climate change, which, if not approached in a holistic manner, will deepen poverty particularly among the rural poor. In this context, it is critical for governments to design coherent policies and interventions that holistically address climate, agriculture, trade, and agro-value addition, building linkages across all areas. The policies need to be framed ensuring participatory equity, accountability and transparency, and the creation of partnerships and networks amongst different stakeholders for improved dialogue and decision-making in all stages of planning and implementation. Such policy linkages will be necessary to pull women, youth and small-scale farmers to the next higher value chain. This is why, from October 2015 till September 2019, CUTS International’s PACT EAC2 project is promoting more climate-aware, trade-driven and food security-enhancing agro-processing development in East Africa. The project brings together, informs, trains and moves to advocacy action hundreds of stakeholders, including through collaborative multi-stakeholder advocacy campaigns that aim to ensure that relevant policies take into account the necessary linkages between trade, climate change, food security and agro-processing development. Across the region, the project launched five stakeholders driven national advocacy campaigns which are engaging policy-makers towards ensuring relevant agro-industrial policies in the pipeline are climate-aware, trade-driven and food security-enhancing, including: (i) Buy Kenya, Build Kenya Strategy; (ii) Industrial policy and Implementation strategy for agro-industry in Burundi; (iii) Launch of a National Agro-processing Forum in Rwanda; (iv) Revision of the Tanzanian Sustainable Industrial Development Policy; and (v) National Industrial Development Policy in Uganda.

Partners

Stakeholder collaboration brings at the table all relevant state and non-state actors such as representatives of the government, agro-processors, farmers/producers, CSOs, researchers and the media constituting into National Reference Groups (NRGs). They meet at least twice a year and regularly interact online, under the leadership of a local CSO. The partner is the implementer of the advocacy campaign, partnering with the key ministries responsible for the target policy, with inputs from NRG members. By involving them right from the beginning and throughout the process, it goes beyond consultation and gives them space to influence the process’ outcome.

Implementation of the Project/Activity

At all stages of the advocacy campaigns, National Reference Groups (NRGs) have formed the backbone to promoting bottom-up deliberative and collaborative working relationships between the key stakeholders. NRGs were involved from the design phase of the campaign, by selecting a key recommendation from project research. A strategy was then developed by the national partner based on a standard template, which was then discussed and approved at NRG meetings. Advocacy activities were then undertaken accordingly with quarterly updates and even more frequent discussions between CUTS Geneva and national partners to monitor progress and deal with any arising issue. NRG meetings also included dedicated sessions on on-going national advocacy campaigns to monitor and advise as appropriate. In Burundi, following interactions with government officials, ADIR was part of the team tasked with elaborating the National Industrial Policy. There ADIR championed the inclusion of food security as a policy objective, synergies with existing climate policies on industry-oriented adaptation measures and leveraging trade capacity-building opportunities for agro-processing development. As the policy was pending adoption, ADIR teamed up with the Ministry of Trade and Industry to build its capacity to develop a sound implementation strategy for agro-processing under the policy when time comes. In this context, ADIR encouraged the Ministry to request UNIDO trainings on industrial strategy-making, and published a study proposing elements of an implementation strategy for selected climate, trade and food security aspects of the draft industrial policy. In Rwanda, ACORD proposed and supported the creation of a National Agro-processing Forum (NAPF), to be hosted by the Private Sector Federation (PSF). Activities included conducting a research study to outline the main features of the proposed NAPF, which later was thoroughly discussed between NRG members and PSF to develop a concept note towards establishing the forum. ACORD and PSF then joined hands in mapping relevant agro-processors across towards their inclusion in the forum. The Ministry of Trade provided insights and was kept informed throughout the process. In Kenya, CUTS Nairobi contributed to the finalisation of the Buy Kenya, Build Kenya Strategy (BKBK). Thanks to its excellent and long-standing relationship with key staff in the ministry, who regularly attends project meetings, CUTS was naturally consulted during the design phase of the policy and invited to provide comments of the draft document. In Tanzania, ESRF advocated for kick-starting the review process of the Sustainable Industrial Development Policy (SIDP), taking up relevant synergies right from the policy design phase. To do so, ESRF worked together with policy makers and NRG members to propose terms of reference for a baseline government study towards framing the review. In Uganda, the ongoing review of the National Industrial Development Policy (NIDP) was used as an opportunity to ensure agro-processing development becomes climate-aware, trade-driven and food security-enhancing. Towards this goal, SEATINI and the NRG have collaborated with policy-makers on several activities. This included a briefing paper as well as organising and attending government consultation workshops in 2017 and 2018, which provided inputs to the draft policy.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

In Burundi, ADIR’s appointment to the team tasked with finalising Burundi's National Industrialization Policy (NIP) enabled the inclusion of synergies with existing climate policies on industry-oriented adaptation measures and leveraging trade capacity-building opportunities for agro-processing development. CUTS’ partner also championed the inclusion of food security as a policy objective. According to Assistant to the Minister of Trade, "the project's ambitious advocacy work towards an implementation strategy for agro-industry has made ADIR and CUTS privileged partners for the Ministry." In Rwanda, ACORD and PSF’s National Agro-processing Forum (NAPF) is set to fill the current lack of platform for agro-processors to bring their common voice to IDEC, which is less aware of some key climate, trade and food security challenges. The move was supported by the Ministry of Trade and Industry Acting Director-General of Industry said that “The Ministry supports the formation of the project's proposed NAPF, whereby PSF will be able to channel inputs from agro-processors to IDEC and efficiently impact the government’s decisions in the sector." The Buy Kenya, Build Kenya Strategy (BKBK) on which CUTS Nairobi was consulted, now integrates elements of trade, climate and food security to varying degrees. Trade features prominently, as BKBK identifies both key opportunities and threats posed by multilateral and regional trade agreements on Kenya's industrial growth. The strategy also recognises the need for synergies with the Agricultural Policy where food security is a key objective, provides for better corporate reporting on environmental performance, and considers Kenya's climatic conditions as favourable to quality agriculture production. In Tanzania, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment used the terms of reference proposed by ESRF for a baseline government study aimed to frame the review of the SIDP, which SADC has recently pledged to finance. The launch of the formal review process is imminent, with a lead consultant hired in September 2017 based on ESRF’s ToRs. In line with the ToRs, Industrial Development Director at the Ministry, reaffirmed that “Missing links with cross-cutting issues of climate change, food security and trade raise the need to review the SIDP. In doing so, the country will have an industrial policy that considers the climate-vulnerability of different sectors, prioritising agro-processing industries that are affected by climate negative impacts, while addressing issues of food security and trade to ensure a holistic approach.” In Uganda, the current draft of the National Industrial Development Policy (NIDP) now draws synergies across trade, climate change and agro-industry. Its strategic objectives prioritise: (i) food processing and value addition in agro-industry; (ii) boosting export competitiveness in value added niche products, supported by trade openness and integration; and (iii) environmental sustainability, e.g. through supporting clean production, investment in pollution controlling technologies, and incentives to recycling industries. Its implementation mechanism seeks to promote a coherent and synergetic institutional framework steered by a National Industrial Council (NIC) and its National Industrial Consultative Committee (NICC).

Enabling factors and constraints

A number of conditions and practices have contributed to the success of collaborative advocacy. Among the enabling pre-conditions, pre-existing working and informal relationships of national partners with key staff in the target Ministry proved to be an invaluable asset. At the campaign design stage, high relevance of the policy change objectives pursued by the campaign was ensured by: (i) Previously undertaking a scoping study which identified missing policy linkages to be addressed in the future; (ii) Regularly inviting Ministry staff to appraise multi-stakeholder National Reference Groups about upcoming policies in the pipeline and their expected development timelines; (iii) Convening NRG meetings in selecting a clear change objective based on study findings and policy development pipeline, to ensure relevance and momentum of the campaign as well as their ownership throughout; (iv) Guiding local coordinator in campaign design, e.g. by providing a template for the campaign implementation strategy. During campaign implementation, the following elements were key in the success of CUTS’ approach: (i) Facilitating a shared understanding of shared societal problem (i) adopting a collaborative approach with policy-makers rather than confrontational; (ii) Developing short Action Alerts to explain policy makers on the changes advocated for, especially to be leveraged during initial contacts; (iii) be adaptive and flexible to the policy calendar; (iv) draw synergies with other project activities for financial efficiency, e.g. inviting advocacy target persons in other planned meetings where side discussions can be held; (v) Set up an online forum e.g. Google group, to allow for continued exchanges in addition to physical meetings. (vi) regular follow-up by partners with responsible policy makers to identify the next opportunity to contribute to the policy; (xiii) seeking to comment on the draft policy document itself, so as to provide language that can be directly integrated by responsible policy-makers; (xiv) Identifying capacity development needs among key stakeholders to convene problem-solving discussions. In terms of constraints that needed to be overcome, turnover of staff within the ministry as well as within the local CSO partner was among the main challenges. Indeed, such campaigns require building personal trust and follow-up over several months; which may be lost when staff changes. To mitigate this risk, it is important to request the contact policy maker to duly bring the successor on board and put him/her directly in touch with the campaign coordinator. As another challenge, policy timelines may sometimes change in an unpredictable manner, making advocacy planning difficult. For instance, Burundi NIP adoption was planned for December 2017 but was then put on hold until another higher-level policy was approved, which forced the campaign coordinator to revise its objective timeline. Finally, Tanzania presented a specific challenge as the government moved to Dodoma during the campaign implementation whereas the campaign coordinator was based in Dar-es-Salaam. This made follow-up with ministry contacts more challenging, and campaign budget had to be slightly increased to cover extra travel costs.

Sustainability and replicability

The inclusive and participatory nature of the method resulted in a greater sense of ownership over its outcomes and consequently strengthened its sustainability. The policies influenced by the campaigns will remain in place for several years, five on average, and be used as framework to guide a wide range of priority interventions in each country in line with the objectives pursued by the advocacy campaigns of addressing trade, climate change and food security linkages in agro-processing development. Moreover, advocacy skills have been built among key stakeholders and CSOs which they will be able to leverage to better influence relevant policies in the future under other initiatives, including by nurturing contacts made within ministries. On a related note, transparent and inclusive decision making, strengthened stakeholder networks, accountability, and a sense of empowerment, resulted in improved governance that may remain in place long after the project is over.

Conclusions

To ensure that agro-processing development in East Africa is climate-aware, trade-driven and food security-enhancing, it is critical for governments to design coherent policies and interventions that holistically address climate, agriculture, trade, and agro-value addition, building linkages across all areas. Such policy linkages will be necessary to pull women, youth and small-scale farmers to the next higher value chain. Lessening the impact of climate change on food production and thereby inputs for agro-processing will have a positive impact on food security, income, employment as well as industrial development. In order to achieve the desired result, it is important to create relevant knowledge, capacities and experiences. Strong leadership and motivation is required to effectuate necessary policy reforms. CUTS international, through PACT EAC2 project, is promoting such holistic approaches including through collaborative multi-stakeholder advocacy campaigns. These campaigns aim to ensure that relevant policies take into account the necessary linkages between trade, climate change, food security and agro-processing development. Results so far have included a number of policy changes and improvements. For instance, Uganda’s new draft National Industrial Development Policy (NIDP) now draws synergies across trade, climate change and agro-industry. Similarly, advocacy in Tanzania allowed for kickstarting the revision of the Sustainable Industrial Development Policy (SIDP) based on ToRs directing for consideration of synergies across climate change, trade and food security in agro-industrial development. The main keys to the success of the campaigns were multi-stakeholder ownership and taking a collaborative approach with policy-makers. This goes beyond the stakeholder consultations techniques, ensuring serious engagement of different groups to help articulate those very plans and programmes to begin with, so that they are framed in multi-sectoral development content and processes. Pre-existing relationship of campaign coordinators with key staff in the target Ministry were indeed an important asset. The relevance of the campaign objective was informed by both scoping research studies and multi-stakeholder dialogues in meetings and online. The project also put special emphasis on capacity reinforcement of key stakeholders especially local leaders and CSOs - to engage effectively in policy making process. Trust between different actors and confidence building through capacity enhancement served as a mechanism for providing transparent and inclusive decision making, strengthened stakeholder networks, accountability, and a sense of empowerment, contributing to improved governance in the long term. While challenges were faced in implementation, many could be mitigated thanks to the campaign’s adaptability to changing policy timelines. Finally, staff turnover both within the campaign coordinator and the target ministry were found to be the most common risk associated with such campaigns, which mitigation requires ensuring adequate communication between outgoing and incoming staff. Overall, by putting the stakeholders in driver’s sit, the project managed to give them space to influence the policy outcome. We hope this mode of participatory process will develops into a larger social movement and result in improved governance in other fora.

Other sources of information

http://www.cuts-geneva.org

SDGS & Targets