Foreign economic-aid-related services

Description

DFID is seeking to select a lead supplier for a Research Programme on agricultural policy in Africa. The overall aim of the programme is to strengthen the evidence and analysis on what approaches and policies on agricultural commercialisation in Africa have the greatest impact on poverty reduction, women's empowerment and improving food security and nutrition. Given the profound changes taking place in African agriculture through increased private sector investment there is strong demand from decision-makers for better evidence on how best to promote inclusive economic growth. This research will be timely for DFID as it seeks to increase its support for commercial agriculture in Africa and will enable DFID country offices to be more effective in delivering inclusive economic growth through agriculture. This programme will undertake research on commercialisation in African agriculture to meet a strong demand from governments, DFID and other donors for better evidence on the impact on poor people of different pathways of agricultural commercialisation. This demand for better evidence is a result of a combination of factors including lack of access to available evidence, particularly among African policy makers, the need for ongoing policy analysis to use existing evidence to provide informed policy advice on the evolving policy context, and, in many countries, a lack of primary evidence on commercialisation. The programme will address these through the following: 1. Making relevant and available evidence readily accessible to decision-makers, particularly among African policy makers who have little access to existing evidence on commercialisation; 2. In-depth policy analysis of existing or potential policies, utilising existing evidence to assess the potential impact, opportunities and constraints of different policy options; and 3. Undertaking new research to build the evidence base where there are clear gaps in primary evidence on commercialisation in particular country contexts.