Feed the Future Enabling Environment for Food Security | EBA Dissemination Plan

The project is overseen by the USAID Bureau for Food Security's Office of Market and Partnership Innovations (MPI) and has a budget of $13.5 million. The project's knowledge management component focuses on strategic communications and knowledge exchange on good practices around food security topics. The Enabling the Business of Agriculture Index (EBA) is a multi-country benchmarking tool developed by the World Bank, with funding from USAID and other international donors. The EBA index scores eight key topics critical to a more sustainable enabling environment in agriculture across 62 countries. These topics include seed, fertilizer, machinery, finance, markets, transport, water, and information communication technology (ICT). The EBA index provides original data that can inform implementation of the Feed the Future program under the U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) and complements the objective of USAID's Evaluation Policy in implementing quality evaluation practices and providing data-based evidence for improved programming. The primary objective of the EBA dissemination plan is to promote sustained awareness, engagement, interest, and uptake of the EBA index among key audiences and stakeholders in supporting the enabling environment in agriculture within the wider context of Feed the Future and GFSS. The plan identifies multi-pronged knowledge management, strategic communications, and learning approaches on how best to improve the understanding, applicability, and usage of EBA in USAID's program cycle. The plan also provides actionable, clear approaches for inciting and accelerating in-country policy dialogue on reforming key economic constraints for a more sustainable and resilient market system. The EBA tool is a valuable benchmarking instrument that provides concrete data to complement and support efforts to achieve the GFSS agenda. As a driving force behind the creation of the EBA tool, USAID has a vested interest in seeing it be used appropriately to create a more holistic, interdependent, and cross-cutting approach for generating efficient, effective, and sustainable agricultural programs and policies. In tandem with host country governments, private sector, and civil society, USAID holds a key position to deepen and widen the enabling environment dialogue around agriculture by encouraging evidence-based data such as EBA. The EBA dissemination plan aims to raise awareness of the relevance and utility of the EBA index to USAID/MPI, USAID Missions, and in-country stakeholders. The plan also seeks to provide outreach and build capacity within Missions to understand the value and application of the EBA methodology. Additionally, the plan aims to develop tools and services to help USAID take fullest advantage of this new enabling environment data set in the context of Feed the Future programming. The plan further seeks to facilitate knowledge and learning on this topic within USAID and feedback to the World Bank to help shape the EBA methodology to better reflect the expressed needs of USAID Missions.