Bruce Byiers, ECDPM 30 November 2015

1. Bruce Byiers, ECDPM
30 November 2015
Agricultural Growth Corridors
An Overview and Key Research Areas for
Impact

2. • Independent non-partisan knowledge broker
• Informing and facilitating EU-Africa relations
• EU external action
• African change dynamics
• Peace & security
• Economic transformation & trade
• Food security
• From Policy to Practice…
• Bridging different policy communities
ECDPM
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3. Implications of the rise of corridors as a tool
for inclusive agricultural development…?
1. Context
2. Dimensions:
• Geographical scope
• Objectives
• Governance
3. Risks & opp.s for agricultural transformation
4. Future research areas?
• Impact
• Implementation
• Institutions
Overview
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4. Malabo declaration 2014
“to triple intra-African trade in
agricultural goods and services by
2025 and to establish public-
private partnerships to develop
strategic agricultural value chains
with strong linkages to smallholder
agriculture.”
The challenge:
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5. Rise of the corridors!
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6. • ‘Africa Rising’
Next investment frontier, risks & rewards
• 'Win-win-wins in a post-2015 world’ ☺
Development, econ. & comm. diplomacy
• Exploitative neocolonialism
Land-grabs, human rights abuse,
• 'Jobs-jobs-jobs’
Economic transformation, more and
better jobs, agricultural transformation,
indust. policy, + value added
…competing narratives
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7. A conceptual, programmatic and
investment framework to develop a
territory and/or link regions and
countries along a physical backbone
of transport infrastructure (e.g.
Healey 2004)
What is a corridor approach?
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8. • Structural features
• Corridor Objectives
• Corridor Governance
Key characteristics
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9. Building on historical linkages to connect:
• Hinterlands to ports (& global markets)
Wealthy ports to poorer hinterlands (AOC, SAGCOT)
Poorer ports to wealthy hinterlands(e.g. MDC, WBC)
• Different agro-ecological zones
Surplus to ports and/or deficit regions
Minerals to ports
• Domestic and regional hinterlands
1 or several countries (shares may be
important)
Networks (e.g. Greater Mekong Sub-region, Indonesia
MP3EI, CAREC, Asia, NSC…?)
Structural features
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10. • Hard infrastructure investment
• Soft infrastructures – policies, regulations,
controls, tariffs and NTBs
• Investment promotion
• Multi-use, multi-user
• Multi-stakeholder partnerships
• Activities to overcome:
• Transit costs, time-delays, mkt structures
• Invest. information & coordination failures
• Isolated markets – linking small-scale
producers to input and output mkts
• Policy barriers – targeted or holistic piloting,
joint approaches
Objectives & breadth of
activities
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11. Objectives: From transit
corridors…
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• 70% of African population >2km from all-
season road (Raballand & Trevaninthorn, 2009)
• 6-12kmph effective speed of SADC road
transport (Ranganathan & Foster, 2011)
• USD300 per day delay costs for 8 axle truck
• 4kmph rail from Durban to Kolawesi

12. …to agricultural corridors…
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13. …to transformational corridors?
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14. • Where and why?
• Who leads?
• Who manages? (in which phase?)
• Who watches?
• What results framework/targets?
• How to adapt to the political-economy of the
context?
• Financed by…?
• Beyond?
Governance
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15. Governance – who leads?
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16. Governance – organisation roles
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17. Risks and opportunities
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18. Indirect
• Corridor vs non-corridor areas
• Corridor competition vs cartels
• Lower transport costs = + imports?
• Competing with or connecting smallholders
Direct
• Farming systems - Large-scale vs land-grabs
• Impact, accountability & enforcement
• Measurable, scalable, replicable success…?
• Aligned political-economic interests?
• Habitats impacts
Balancing risks & opportunities
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19. • Corridor implications for transformation
• Rural Poverty
• Improving food security
• Nutrition and health
• Sustainably managing natural resources
• Impacts – type, scale, distrib’n/ inclusivity
• Implementation means – partnerships etc
• Institutions – approaches and policies
Research needs
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20. ECDPM Page 20
farming systems in Africa along with existing and planned corridors. These also clearly overlap with CGIAR
research countries (Figure 2), suggesting that for certain CGIAR programmes, corridor-related research is
unavoidable.
Figure 1 - Farming Systems and Development Corridors in Sub-Saharan Africa
Source: Weng et al. (2013)
Impact research

21. • Impact distributions – risks & opportiunities
• Productivity
• Market accessibility
• Food security
• Land rights, policies farm sizes
• Contract relations
• Habitat & resource use
• Nutrition – availability, access, awareness…
• Gender
• Innovation systems & technology piloting
• Investment targeting for pay-offs e.g.
productivity vs post-harvest loss reduction
• Information asymmetries
• Transformative & Sustainable?
Research: Impact
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22. • A holistic, systems-based approach
• Partnerships
• Private sector engagement
• Production vs consumer focus
• Different business models: PPPs, BoP,
business-CSO partnerships etc
• Stakeholder engagement
• Shared visions - ss-chain security & de
• Impact of private vs public led?
• Costs of smallholder engagement?
• Corridor-connected innovation systems?
Research: Implementation
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23. • Crop-specific NTBs e.g. rice or livestock in
West Africa
• Investment policies and guidelines
• Land tenancy and land rights
• Business policy environment
• Standards enforcement
• Research uptake
• CAADP-CGIAR role?
Research: Institutions
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24. Thank you
www.ecdpm.org
www.slideshare.net/ecdpm
Twtter: @brucebyiers
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