Sector Approaches in Agriculture and Rural Development

As awareness builds up of the contributions that agriculture and rural development (ARD) can make to poverty reduction, ARD is again becoming central to national and international development agendas.

In line with this, European Commission (EC) support for these sectors has increased substantially. Where possible, the EC favours the use of sector approaches in support of nationally owned sector development programmes. Whereas good results have been recorded in health and education, sector approaches in ARD have proved more challenging, in particular because of the importance of private investment and the essential role private/non-state actors play in the field of input and service provision and ARD’s inherent dependency on natural resources. By building further on the EC Guidelines on Support to Sector Programmes this Reference Document offers guidance on how to introduce the necessary flexibility in the use of sector approaches in ARD and on how this may benefit sector development and outcomes.