Agriculture and Aid for Trade (AfT)

13 December 2018. Webinar. The Global Donor Platform for Rural Development organised a webinar on aligningpolicies and programmes on agriculture and Aid for Trade.

Speaker: Paul Engel 

• Welcome and introduction – 10 min
• Presentation – 15 min
• Q and A and discussion – 20 min

Agriculture and Aid for Trade (AfT) are two key areas of development cooperation that share many synergies, but are still falling short of coordination. This gap is even larger if we compare agriculture and trade per se. The DONOR PLATFORM’S WORK STREAM ON INCLUSIVE AGRIBUSINESS & TRADE has been committed to address these gaps and increase the dialogue between the trade/AfT and agriculture departments of donor agencies, resulting in the inclusion of trade issues into agriculture and rural development (ARD) programming and vice-versa.

To enrich this dialogue, the Donor Platform commissioned a study (in press) that looks into areas and opportunities to enhance alignment and cooperation between the ARD and Aid for Trade (donor) communities. 

• The study was based on consultations with different informants from donor agencies and knowledge institutes, as well as review of documents. 
• It aims to set the stage for practical, evidence-based exchanges about how to deal with the challenges of implementing policy coherence and complementarity between these two communities. 
• It provides examples of where alignment is already taking place, such as in the project Alliances for Action (by the International Trade Centre), FAO's Aid for Trade Africa programme, or the COMESA Regional Agricultural Investment Plan. 

This webinar (video recording forthcoming) shared the results of this study and invited participants to share their own experiences in this field. 

The study in currently in press and will be available shortly.

Related

Paul Engel 2017. Aligning ARD and trade policies to improve sustainable development impact. (Discussion Paper 221). Maastricht: ECDPM and GDPRD.

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