service delivery and accountability
DESCRIPTION
Service Delivery and Accountability. Regina Birner Kamiljon Akramov, Felix Asante, Nethra Palaniswamy and Leah Horowitz. Agricultural Services for Inclusive Growth. Agriculture for Development! To reach Middle Income Status, agriculture has to play a key role in the economy. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
INTERNATIONAL FOODPOLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTEsustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty Ghana Strategy Support
Program
Service Delivery and Accountability
Regina Birner
Kamiljon Akramov, Felix Asante, Nethra Palaniswamy and Leah Horowitz
Agricultural Services for Inclusive Growth
• Agriculture for Development!• To reach Middle Income Status, agriculture has to
play a key role in the economy.• To overcome increasing regional income disparities,
improving productivity is essentialstaple food production in the North
• Agricultural services key to reach this goal• How can agricultural services be provided more
effectively?• How to reach small-holders and women?• What have we learned from the past?
Outline
• Introduction• What is the problem with agricultural
services?• Some examples from Upper East
• How to solve the problem?• Strategies to improve agricultural service provision
• Empowering farmer-based organizations (FBOs)• Decentralization
• Questions for debate and further research
What is the problem?Crop yields in the Upper East (87-05)
-
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
1.20
1.40
ton
s/h
a
Millet
Guinea corn
What is the problem?Crop yields in the Upper East (87-05)
-
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
ton
s/h
a Rice
Maize
Groundnuts
Agricultural Service Provision
• What are the bottlenecks to improving staple crop production in the North?• Technology? Agricultural research and extension• Irrigation? Increasing access and efficiency • Risk? Instruments for risk management• Input markets? Access to inputs and finance • Output markets Important for food staples
• FASDEP II• Addresses all areas – priorities?• Focus on improved accountability and gender-
responsiveness
Strategies to Improve Agricultural Service Provision
• Demand-side strategies: Improving farmers’ ability to demand better services (feature strong in FASDEP II)
• Farmer-based organizations (FBOs)
• Research Extension Liaison Committees
• FBO Development Fund to access technologies
• Water User Associations (WUAs) for irrigation
• Political decentralization
• Elected representatives to hold service providers accountability
• Supply-side strategies: Improving the ability of the agricultural administration to provide better services• Administrative decentralization• Public sector management reforms, civil service reforms
Example: Small reservoirs
Preliminary results from a stock-taking survey
* Technical problems* Procurement problems
* Land rights issues* Gender issues
IFPRI – Water Challenge Program, 2006/7
Small Reservoirs in the Upper East
FBO-Approach
Can Decentralization Help?
• Political decentralization
• District Assembly Member as “doorstep politician”
• Where are agricultural issues on his/her priority list?
• Role not matched by discretion over funds and influence on public administration
• Will reforms help? (Election of DCE and all DA members?)
• Few women among the elected members
• What happens if all members are elected?
• Administrative decentralization
• Agricultural field staff “in between” line ministry and DA
• What will be the effect of Local Government Service
• Fiscal decentralization• Composite budget, District Development Fund
The untapped potential of districts- Index of time needed to access services -
0
1
2
3
4
Aman
sie W
est
Ahaf
o-An
o N
orth Ej
ura
Asha
nti A
kimAh
afo-
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Sout
hAm
ansie
Eas
tAd
ansi
East
Seky
ere
East
Asha
nti A
kimAf
igya
Sek
yere
Offin
soSe
kyer
e W
est
Boso
mtw
e/At
wim
aAd
ansi
Wes
tAt
wim
aKM
AEj
usu/
Juab
enAf
igya
/Kwa
bere
Cher
epon
i- Bole
East
Gon
jaZa
bzug
u-Ta
tale
Gush
iegu
-Kar
aga
Nanu
mba
Wes
t Mam
prus
i Yend
iW
est G
onja
East
Mam
prus
i Tolo
nSa
velu
gu-N
anto
nTa
mal
e
Districts
Com
posit
e in
dica
tor o
f acc
ess t
o se
rvice
s(1
=0-1
4, 2
=15-
29, 3
=30-
44, 4
=45-
59 m
inut
es,
resp
ectiv
ely)
AshantiRegion
NorthernRegion
Derived from CWIQ 2003
Open questions
• How to get better data on agricultural services?• “Farmers’ Investment Climate” – not known• What are the most binding constraints?• Collect data on access and satisfaction (like for health &
education)• How can decentralization reforms serve agriculture?
• Why does agriculture not focus more strongly in this debate?
• How to foster experimentation and learning• More emphasis on rigorous evaluation of reform
models, e.g., FBO approaches • What works where and why?