The African Development Bank’s Support for Agricultural Value Chains Development: Lessons for the Feed Africa Strategy

In 2017, IDEV undertook an evaluation of the Bank’s support for agricultural value chains development (AVCD), assessing the agricultural portfolio during the period 2005-2016, amounting to approximately UA 3.1 billion. The objectives of the evaluation were to: i) assess the relevance, inclusiveness, effectiveness, and sustainability of the Bank’s support to value chains development; and ii) provide lessons and recommendations for the implementation and design of agricultural value chains interventions associated with the Feed Africa Strategy.

Evaluation findings

The evaluation found that the agricultural value chains development has been a growing and evolving approach for the Bank, and is the cornerstone of the current Feed Africa Strategy. The evaluation also identified five fundamentals and five enablers for AVCD interventions.

The five fundamentals include: (1) careful context-specific value chain analysis to ensure value-added along the Value Chain (VC); (2) inclusiveness for poor farmers, women, youth and other vulnerable groups in both participation and benefits sharing; (3) flexibility and responsiveness to changing contexts and market needs; (4) focus primarily on profitability and efficiency of the value chain; and (5) apply strategies to ensure the sustainability of outcomes.

The five enabling factors that are context-specific to ensure the success of AVCD include: (1) availability of appropriate infrastructure and technology; (2) conducive policy and regulatory environment pertaining to the targeted VC; (3) availability of appropriate business support services to strengthen the skills of VC actors; (4) access to finance for VC actors to make required investments to achieve increased profitability; and (5) private sector engagement and working relationships among VC actors. In addition, while the key enablers for AVCD are evident throughout the Bank’s interventions, the evaluation indicates on opportunity to strengthening the VC fundamentals.

The evaluation findings and recommendations were presented at the African Development Bank 2018 Development Evaluation Week in Abidjan, Cote d' Ivoire and 2018 American Evaluation Association in Cleveland, Ohio.

The theme of agricultural value chains as part of integrated infrastructure projects was discussed during the learning event held on 06th October 2021 on the theme of  Fostering integrated solutions for sustainable development impact: Lessons from IDEV’s evaluations.