Policy coherence for agriculture and rural development

The Global Donor Platform for Rural Development commissioned three studies to capture Platform members-knowledge on key issues affecting the delivery and impact of aid in agriculture and rural development (ARD). This study is part of the series. The study traces progress toward greater coherence between agricultural and rural development policies and explores whether mounting interest in food prices, food security, water scarcity, energy and climate change has giving rise to a global agenda which makes it more difficult to achieve coherent policies. It finds that:

• Ensuring policy consistency is more important than planning and coordination
• Rural civil society must be strengthened to hold leaders and public agencies accountable
• No substitute for capacity building Included are interviews with staff at the headquarters of seven leading development agencies and sixteen policy and programme case reviews from Cambodia, Honduras, Mali and Mozambique.