Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy

Nic J.J. Olivier, Sheryl L. Hendriks, Elizabeth Mkandawire, Nico J.J. Olivier, and Clara Williams. Lessons for Effective Development Planning: Evaluation of the Pre-final Version of the Draft Malawi’s Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP2). Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Brief 50. East Lansing: Michigan State University

KEY FINDINGS

It is Essential that NAIPs:

• Focus on core strategic initiatives essential to achievedevelopment outcomes;
• Present the pathways to change;
• Align and consider international, African and regional instruments and declarations;
• Acknowledge that constitutional and transversal development frameworks are foundations of all development efforts and align M&E with these;
• Establish appropriate technical and political structures; and
• Ensure that clear coordination, supervision, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting structures and frameworks are setout in a coherent and integrated manner.

Key Messages Regarding the Second Draft MAIP:

• An appropriate alignment with Malabo architecture is lacking;
• The draft MAIP is largely a work (performance) plan to implement the 2016 NAP, and is not a strategy focusing on agricultural transformation, food security and nutrition;
• The MAIP’s conceptual framework, content, governance and implementation modalities, and monitoring and evaluation sections need significant improvement;
• Alignment with international, African and regional instruments and the Malawi constitutional and legal framework is needed;
• Benchmarks, pathways to change and appropriate indicators for monitoring and achieving progress on the Malabo commitments are missing;
• The elements on food security, nutrition and gender are inadequate to achieve the stated performance targets of the Plan; and
• The sector-coordination structure is inappropriate for a NAIP and needs to be broadened and located in the National Planning Commission.