“Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development.” - former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan

WELCOME to food security policy month on Agrilinks!

WHY we care: Public policy guides the development and use of resources. Effective policy formulation and implementation is a hallmark of self-reliance. Properly undertaken, it can incentivize private sector investment; civic agency and accountability; and encourage and accelerate good development outcomes. As development practitioners, we ignore or underinvest public policy at our own peril.

WHAT we are doing: Feed the Future has acknowledged the critical importance of policy to our success from inception by prioritizing country ownership. Our experience and program evaluation have only reinforced this over time. Our investments in policy research and programs are helping us better understand how Feed the Future can contribute to good policy, and this month we have an opportunity to highlight lessons learned and best practices that are helping us to support better approaches to policy.

This month, we want to help you:

• Explore the three basic interrelated elements of a successful policy approach: (i)  the policy agenda, (ii)institutional architecture and (iii) mutual accountability
• Ask experts about agricultural transformation and policy in troubled contexts
• Hear from our policy partners on policy and changing land ownership, agricultural input policy and other policy topics
• Better understand policy institutional architecture and how important it is to improve policy outcomes.

Meet some of our outstanding partners while you are waiting…

• The Global Food Security Strategy Technical Guidance on Policy Programming.
• Africa Lead. Africa Lead II builds on the success of the predecessor capacity building program (Africa Lead) and works with countries and regions to develop strategic long-term activities to strengthen African decision-makers, institutions and non-state actors, including the private sector, at the forefront of increased agricultural productivity and food security.
• The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy. This Innovation Lab strives to increase countries’ capacity to generate policy-relevant evidence and analysis. It does this in two ways: by generating and disseminating new knowledge on targeted policy issues to inform policy planning and implementation at country, regional and global levels, and by strengthening the policy process by promoting evidence-based stakeholder dialogue on critical policy issues.
• Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System. ReSAKSS supports the successful implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) by providing policy-relevant data, facilitating dialogue among stakeholders, monitoring progress in reviewing goals and strengthening mutual accountability processes at continental, regional and national levels.
• The Rutgers University Feed the Future Policy Research Consortium. A consortium of researchers based in the U.S. and Feed the Future target countries that conduct a series of impact and agricultural transformation studies related to agricultural and food security policy.

Looking forward to the month ahead!