The ACF was established in June 1998 following the Mid-Term Review of the Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (ASIP). This was after realising that the implementation of ASIP was fraught with certain weaknesses. These included (i) over-emphasis on public sector; and (ii) flaws in the design of ASIP's organizational and management structure.

The ACF was thus formed mainly to engage stakeholders in the processes of policy formulation and to refocus ASIP on fostering private/public sector partnerships.

After the initial eighteen months Pilot Phase, the ASIP Consultative Forum was , under the Second Phase, transformed into the Agricultural Consultative Forum in order to ensure that it discussed long-term agricultural development issues that transcended the short-term issues. Both the Pilot and Second Phases were financed through a Basket Funding, involving the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Following the conclusion of the Second Phase, (2000-2002), it was agreed that a three-month Transitional Phase, running from January to March, 2003 be implemented to facilitate the transformation of the Forum into a legal entity and to broaden private sector representation on the Forum. The Transitional Phase was subsequently extended to run till the end of May 2003. The Transitional Phase was funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy. Consequently, the Forum was transformed into an Association, registered under the Registrar of Societies Act to further consolidate it as a neutral body for facilitating dialogue and monitoring of the agricultural component of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).

Broadened Representation on the ACF

A number of private sector instittutions have expressed willingness to be members of the Forum. The ACF is also in the process of incorporating a representative from the Legislative wing of government. This would serve to sensitize the honourable Members of Parliament on key agricultural development issues.

Consequently, the membership of the Forum under the third phase has been adjusted upwards from twenty-four to thirty-seven members. The adjustment in membership serves to bring out the emphasis on commercialization of Zambian agriculture. This will entail having a wider spectrum of stakeholders involved in the consultative process facilitated by the Forum.

The intra-diversity and mutual dependency among the membership of the ACF is quite high and emphasises the Forum’s operating theme that every stakeholder group’s input is important and critical to the development of Zambia’s agricultural sector.

In addition, the consultation should cover agricultural development issues that transcend beyond production but incorporate processing and marketing. The ACF membership also comprises of a number of key Associate members. These include programmes/projects such as the Food Security Research Project (FSRP), the Support to Farmers Association Project (SFAP), the Agricultural Support Programme (ASP), Fertilizer Support Programme (FSP) and the Smallholder Enterprise and Marketing Programme (SHEMP). The attendance of the Associate members is not mandatory but is tied to specialist discussion topics to which it is felt their contribution is especially relevant.

The structure of the Forum allows interactions across and within different stakeholder constituent groups. This allows the Forum to facilitate consultation among key agricultural stakeholder groups without interfering with the ability of stakeholders to lobby Government directly.

The Forum plays a key role in assisting the different stakeholder groups lobby Government from an informed basis. Institutionalized stakeholder consultation will result in less abrasive meetings between Government and the different lobby groups, resulting in more public-private partnerships as opposed to unproductive counter-accusations.

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