This note first discusses the differences between the general government sector and the public corporations sector, and then presents the rationale for when to add and separate expenditures in the two sectors in the accounting of government expenditures. It then presents revised estimates for Ghana on the share of GAE in GTE from 2001 to 2015, which exclude expenditures of Cocobod and expenditures on nonagricultural functions from GAE, in accordance with the official AU guidance note.2 The formula for this is given by GAE*100/GTE. It proposes another formula for obtaining parallel estimates if the Cocobod expenditures are included in the calcu-lations, as attempted in the agPER studies. This revised formula adds the expenditures of all of Ghana’s public boards and corporations (PBCs) to GTE in the denominator to make it comparable to adding expenditures of Cocobod to GAE in the numerator. The new formula therefore would be (GAE+PBCAE) *100/(GTE+PBCTE), where PBCAE denotes PBCs’ agriculture expenditure and PBCTE denotes PBCs’ total expenditure. The data used are from the two agPERs (MOFA 2013; 2017) and annual reports on the accounts and statements of the government (CAGD 2018), public boards, corporations, and other statutory institutions (AG 2018), and the Co-cobod (Ghana Cocoa Board 2018).

This paper is part of four country case studies that take a detailed look at public expenditures in agriculture, and at how the data on expenditures are captured in government financial and budget accounts. The objective of these studies is to unpack the black box of public expenditure statistics reported in various cross-country datasets, and ultimately to enable the use of existing government accounts to identify levels and compositions of government agriculture expenditures, with better understanding of what these data are in fact accounting for.

This paper conducts a political economy analysis to understand the factors that affect provision of and access to reliable agricultural statistics and data systems in Niger. A conceptual framework that identifies selected political economy aspects including political will, transparency and accountability, state capacity, and international commitments is developed. The predictions of the framework are tested using information collected through informal and formal interviews with professionals and staff of different institutions and organizations that provide or use agricultural statistics to analyze how different components of agricultural statistics and the underlying capacity and systems are differentially influenced by various political-economy factors. Implications for Niger and at the global level for developing an effective strategy to improve agricultural statistics and data (availability, quantity, and quality) that go beyond technological and methodological fixes are drawn.

Poverty remains a pervasive and complex phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa. Part of the agenda in recent years to tackle poverty in Africa has been the launching of social safety nets programs. All countries have now deployed safety net interventions as part of their core development programs. The number of programs has skyrocketed since the mid-2000s though many programs remain limited in size. This shift in social policy reflects the progressive evolution in the understanding of the role that social safety nets can play in the fight against poverty and vulnerability, and more generally in the human capital and growth agenda. Evidence on their impacts on equity, resilience, and opportunity is growing, and makes a foundational case for investments in safety nets as a major component of national development plans. For this potential to be realized, however, safety net programs need to be significantly scaled-up. Such scaling up will involve a series of technical considerations to identify the parameters, tools, and processes that can deliver maximum benefits to the poor and vulnerable. However, in addition to technical considerations, and at least as importantly, this report argues that a series of decisive shifts need to occur in three other critical spheres: political, institutional, and fiscal. First, the political processes that shape the extent and nature of social policy need to be recognized, by stimulating political appetite for safety nets, choosing politically smart parameters, and harnessing the political impacts of safety nets to promote their sustainability. Second, the anchoring of safety net programs in institutional arrangements †“ related to the overarching policy framework for safety nets, the functions of policy and coordination, as well as program management and implementation †“ is particularly important as programs expand and are increasingly implemented through national channels. And third, in most countries, the level and predictability of resources devoted to the sector needs to increase for safety nets to reach the desired scale, through increased efficiency, increased volumes and new sources of financing, and greater ability to effectively respond to shocks. This report highlights the implications which political, institutional, and fiscal aspects have for the choice and design of programs. Fundamentally, it argues that these considerations are critical to ensure the successful scaling-up of social safety nets in Africa, and that ignoring them could lead to technically-sound, but practically impossible, choices and designs.

Edible insects have always been a part of human diets, but in some societies there remains a degree of disdain and disgust for their consumption. Although the majority of consumed insects are gathered in forest habitats, mass-rearing systems are being developed in many countries. Insects offer a significant opportunity to merge traditional knowledge and modern science to improve human food security worldwide. This publication describes the contribution of insects to food security and examines future prospects for raising insects at a commercial scale to improve food and feed production, diversify diets, and support livelihoods in both developing and developed countries. It shows the many traditional and potential new uses of insects for direct human consumption and the opportunities for and constraints to farming them for food and feed. It examines the body of research on issues such as insect nutrition and food safety, the use of insects as animal feed, and the processing and preservation of insects and their products. It highlights the need to develop a regulatory framework to govern the use of insects for food security. And it presents case studies and examples from around the world. Edible insects are a promising alternative to the conventional production of meat, either for direct human consumption or for indirect use as feedstock. To fully realise this potential, much work needs to be done by a wide range of stakeholders. This publication will boost awareness of the many valuable roles that insects play in sustaining nature and human life, and it will stimulate debate on the expansion of the use of insects as food and feed.

The report offers a simple framework for policy analysis by identifying three forest types: frontiers and disputed lands; lands beyond the agricultural frontier; and, mosaic lands where forests and agriculture coexist. It collates geographic and economic information for each type that will help formulate poverty-reducing forest policy.