Toward Productive, Inclusive, and Sustainable Farms and Agribusiness Firms : An Evaluation of the World Bank Group’s Support for the Development of Agrifood Economies (2010–20)
The purpose of the evaluation is to assess how relevant and effective the World Bank Group has been in its support for agrifood system development (AFSD) —that is, in developing more productive, inclusive, and sustainable farms and agribusiness fir...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2022
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099603508292232536/SECBOS0a0aea3e0d70bd9006aa69c788243 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37931 |
| Summary: | The purpose of the evaluation is to
assess how relevant and effective the World Bank Group has
been in its support for agrifood system development (AFSD)
—that is, in developing more productive, inclusive, and
sustainable farms and agribusiness firms. The evaluation
finds that the Bank Group’s interventions (FY 2010–20) were
broadly relevant, although gaps remain in scaling up and
better targeting support to countries that need it the most.
Bank Group interventions were also effective overall in
improving productivity, inclusion, and sustainability, but
less so in LICs, particularly in West and Central Africa.
World Bank interventions that focused on supporting
production were less successful than interventions that
combined production and market approaches. World Bank
support for improving productivity was insufficiently
diversified toward higher-value products that offer multiple
benefits. IFC agribusiness investments faced challenges
meeting environmental and social (E&S) standards,
especially in LICs. IEG offers three recommendations to
enhance Bank Group support for AFSD. (i) To enhance its
effectiveness in developing agrifood systems, the World Bank
Group’s efforts to support production
technologies should be complemented by efforts to improve
market access, especially in LICs and in countries at the
traditional stage of agrifood system development. These can
be pursued through synergies in Bank Group interventions or
with partners; (ii) To achieve more sustainable agrifood
systems, where conditions permit, the World Bank Group
should support production diversification to meet the
growing demand for undersupplied high-value-added,
nutritious products while ensuring that smallholder farmers
and SMEs benefit from the diversification; and (iii) To
enhance the contribution of IFC support for AFSD, IFC should
pilot and adopt more effective ways to support clients to
better meet E&S Performance Standards, especially in LICs. |
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