Managing the change process

In the real world the transformation from a system wholly dependent on low-productivity
agriculture and a weak agricultural sector to one that is diverse and dynamic and that
presents broader opportunities to poor people is not entirely virtuous. The main challenge
is that poverty persists in communities with poor market access, poor natural resource
endowments and little political capital. Many rural households remain vulnerable to
shocks of various kinds, and their livelihoods are exposed to high levels of risk. Pro-poor
policies must remove and relax the barriers and constraints faced by poor households as
well as provide new incentives and support for their sustainable participation in more
equal, market based relations and exchanges. This does not mean that policies in and for
agriculture should become social policy. But it strongly suggests that economic policy,
including agricultural policy, should be consistent with social objectives and, where
possible, address them directly.
Against this background, donors will need to find ways to work effectively with their
partners to promote sustainable, country-driven and programme-based development that
recognises the important contribution of agriculture to pro-poor growth. Donors can help
build research and institutional capacity to underpin and inform the change processes.
They can facilitate the involvement of rural stakeholders in shaping these policies,
institutions and investments to ensure that they respond to livelihood needs. They can
foster dialogue and support efforts to establish open, participatory monitoring
frameworks. And they will need to do this in a way that responds to the partner country’s
long term vision for agriculture in a pro-poor growth context.