Public Policy and Expenditure Mailing List Archive

["PROCTOR FELICITY J" <<address removed>>]

Welcome message from Stephen Akroyd

Firstly, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all the participants in this e-consultation who 
have taken the time to register and participate in what we sincerely hope will be a productive and 
successful discussion on the role of public policy and expenditure in agriculture and its 
implications for growth and poverty reduction.  

Agriculture has traditionally been a key sector of state involvement but in recent years the trend 
shows a reduction in the provision and support of agricultural production and marketing and a 
shift of focus to rural markets operations and basic services provision.  Key areas for discussion 
in the next few weeks hence hope to examine the two core areas of agricultural policy reforms 
and the efficiency and management of public expenditure. With regard to agricultural policy, as 
well as identifying the impact of recent agricultural policy reforms, we hope the discussion will 
give impetus to the issues surrounding how best DFID can address and prioritise policy reforms 
and address the vast differentials that exist between rural economies.  Additionally, we hope to 
address distributional issues, the role of subsidies, participation processes, and the effect of 
decentralization in service delivery.

The discussion involving public expenditure hopes to focus on the critical roles of management 
and co-ordination in public expenditure.  Weak systems of public expenditure management and 
accountability hinder delivery of services by agricultural ministries.  Can decentralization be the 
solution in making resource allocation more efficient and increasing accountability?  DFID 
identifies that effective expenditure management is imperative to accomplishing policy objectives 
and there is the need to build within this framework participation, transparency and 
accountability.  We hope that this discussion will incorporate these key questions into our 
debate as well as raise new ones on the future of public policy and expenditure in agriculture and 
its implications for growth and poverty reduction.  Whilst some of the above points may just be 
the starting points for discussion, we may find that other topics and ideas may evolve into much 
longer debates.  This site will hope to draw upon your ideas, thoughts and discussions and to 
then draw to some conclusion on the forthcoming role of DFID in agriculture.  We hope to host a 
lively discussion and I look forward to your comments and contributions.     

Stephen

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