Stakeholders and the Agriculture Policy Processes in Zambian Agriculture

Dr. Anthony Mwanaumo

 The launch of the National Agriculture Policy (NAP) in 2004 was the beginning of a challenging policy process. A policy process is purposive course of actions by actor(s) beyond documents or legislation to include activities on the ground relating to agenda setting, policy formulation, decision-making, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. Zambia’s agricultural stakeholders have been and should continue to be an integral part of the spectrum of the policy process.

 The stakeholders in Zambian agriculture are: agro-based Non-governmental Organisations, Private sector, farmers and farmers organizations, government and donors.  Different stakeholders have varying abilities in influencing the policy process. Stakeholders advise through PANs, advocate and lobby. For this to be credible they require evidence-based research results.

 Because of their on-the-ground activities, sector stakeholders as a group, are up-to date with issues and constraints that affect the poor and vulnerable people, whose voices may not otherwise be heard effectively in the policy process. However, the extent to which the evidence can be presented and integrated into the policy process to respond to the needs of the target group is a function of the political context, the linkage between policy makers and other stakeholders and the external influences as presented in Figure below.

 Figure: The RAPID framework: evidence-policy links

Source: ODI Research and Policy in Development project (www.odi.org.uk/rapid)

 In order to effectively influence policy there is need for a two-way process shaped by multiple relations and reservoirs of knowledge. Emerging research evidence suggests that political context seems to be the most important influence on the extent policy making is evidence based. But how can evidence based research more likely contribute to policy? This happens when evidence based research results fit in the political and institutional limits of policy makers, is credible, convincing, relevant, specific and not generic by providing practical solutions to current policy problems. The other important attributes of useful evidence-based research results are that it is packaged to attract policy-makers’ interest and that there exists a network between researchers and policy makers characterised by mutual trust honesty and openness.  This would be one sure way to guarantee collaborative engagement.

 Agricultural sector stakeholders in Zambia are challenged to fully participate in the entire policy circle from agenda setting to policy evaluation. They should become the core source of information and should thus participate in methodologies and conceptualisation of issues. The stakeholders should thus play a key role in translating the NAP into plans and programmes. Through synergy of working together stakeholders generate evidence that feeds into the policy cycle. Innovativeness forms an integral part of the collaborative engagement. The Working Group or Task Force approach frequently being used in the sector in formulating programmes to implement the NAP provide an opportunity for effective collaborative engagement. The formulation of the Agricultural Market Development Plan (AMDP), the National Irrigation Plan (NIP) and the Agricultural Inputs Marketing (AIM) Plan and the ongoing formulation of the National Development Plan (NDP) all entail stakeholder involvement. Stakeholders will remain relevant to such processes in as long as they provide useful evidence.