NAPAS:Malawi Annual Work Plan [FY2016]

These reforms aim to improve the agriculture investment climate and enable increased commercialization of Malawi's agricultural sector. NAPAS:Malawi has three work components: providing effective technical support for policy formulation, engaging in communication activities to inform debate on agriculture and food security policy issues, and ensuring that gaps in expertise constraining agricultural policy reform are filled. The project is implemented by Michigan State University (MSU) and is jointly implemented with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the University of Pretoria (UP) under the leadership of MSU. The Associate Cooperative Agreement between USAID/Malawi and MSU was finalized on 28 November 2014 and will run through 30 September 2017. US$ 3.14 million has been budgeted for the activity. The first year of the project involved working closely with the Department of Agricultural Planning Services of MoAIWD in engaging with stakeholders on several agriculture and food security policy initiatives. These included extensive district and national consultations on the National Agriculture Policy (NAP); production of the draft NAP for high-level review in September 2015; production of a brief on reform of the Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP) for use by senior management of the Ministry to lobby for FISP restructuring, production of a draft Contract Farming Strategy; and production of an agricultural zoning scheme to use as a spatial tool to guide agricultural development planning across the country. This is the work plan for the second year of NAPAS:Malawi corresponding to the 2016 fiscal year of the US government. The major expected outcomes, categorized by objective, will be: technical support for policy formulation, policy communications, and capacity strengthening. Technical support for policy formulation will involve analyzing eight policy commitments, drafting two new policy or strategy documents for stakeholder consultations, presenting one policy document or strategy for legislation, and facilitating the legislative approval of one policy on which NAPAS:Malawi has worked. Policy communications will focus on pressing agriculture, food security, and nutrition policy issues, and will involve working with partner institutions in Malawi involved in expanding the number of informed actors engaged in agricultural policy deliberations. Capacity strengthening will entail three types of training: that of journalists reporting on agricultural policy debates, improved policy communication for agricultural policy analysts, and policy analysis techniques. The exact set of policy issues on which the project will work cannot be identified fully at the start of the work year, as the policy priorities of MoAIWD are adjusted frequently by political leaders in Malawi. Consequently, the project will respond flexibly to any new demands from the Ministry for policy support that is aligned with its New Alliance commitments. NAPAS:Malawi staff will integrate their work with that of others working on the New Alliance initiative in Malawi or on strengthening agricultural policy processes. The project has three principal objectives that guide its work: to provide technical support for policy formulation, to engage in policy communications, and to strengthen capacity in agricultural policy analysis and communication. The project will work closely with the Department of Agricultural Planning Services of MoAIWD and other stakeholder institutions in agricultural development and in the G8 New Alliance initiative in Malawi. The budget for the second year of the project is just over US$ 1 million.