G20 Development Working Group Submissions
for agricultural innovation, and the Seoul MYAP's
Food Security Pillar, the AgResults initiative was
launched at the Los Cabos Summit in June 2012.
Ag Results aims to enhance food security and
food safety, increase smallholder incomes and
promote better health and nutrition in developing
countries by stimulating private sector agricultural
innovation. This is being done through a pay-on-
results approach, or "pull mechanism", which only
pays out once results have been demonstrated in
targeted areas.
Alignment with Core G20 and DWG Mandate
Economic growth does not always lead to reduction
in poverty. By stimulating private sector agricultural
innovation and increasing smallholder incomes,
AgResults can meet its goals and enhance G20
efforts to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced
economic growth in LICs.
COMMITMENT 19: IOs to examine and
recommend potential innovative results-
based mechanisms and advanced market
commitments to enhanced agricultural
productivity
Implementation:
1 2 3 4 5 6
"Pull" mechanisms involve the ex post provision of
economic incentives (such as a prize or an advance
market commitment) for innovations where the aim
is to solve a specific well-defined problem, without
preferences for the market participants, strategies
and technologies that might be involved in achieving
them. The incentives serve to reduce market
uncertainty and make it more attractive to private
sector investment in order to achieve innovative
outcomes. In the case of AgResults, the objective
is to incentivize participants to pursue solutions to
food security challenges by overcoming market
failures that impede the establishment of sustainable
markets for developmentally-beneficial agricultural
innovations and technologies.
Saint Petersburg Accountability Report on G20 Development Commitments
26
Chapter 2
Implementation of G20 Commitments
on Development
Since its Los Cabos launch, significant progress has
been made in setting up AgResults' financial and
administrative structure. The AgResults financial
intermediary fund, through which donors make
their contributions, was established by the World
Bank in March 2013 along with the AgResults Fund
Framework, which sets out the initiative's operating
framework. Some contributors have already
processed contributions through the financial
intermediary fund. In addition, an external impact
evaluator will follow the development of AgResults
over the next 5 years.
The competitive process launched to hire a
Secretariat for Ag Results was completed in July
2013. The Secretariat will be directly accountable
to the Steering Committee, which is comprised of the
contributors listed above and the World Bank, and
will be responsible for: (i) program management,
oversight and administration; (ii) sourcing and
development of new project proposals; (iii)
coordinating the expert review of project proposals;
(iv) oversight and monitoring of approved projects;
and (v) external communications and outreach.
To date, US$100 million of contributions have been
pledged by Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom,
the United States and the Gates Foundation.
Three pilot projects focused on maize cultivation in
Africa are expected to be launched in 2013:
incentivising the adoption of on-farm storage
technology for smallholder farmers in Kenya;
encouraging innovative distribution of a
breakthrough technology to reduce aflatoxin
contamination in Nigeria; and
building a market for new vitamin A-enhanced
varieties of maize in Zambia.
Lessons Learned:
Since the launch of Ag Results at the Los Cabos
Summit in 2012, the focus has been on setting up
the initiative's financial and administrative structure.
Now that the structure is in place, the focus is shifting
to the program-based implementation of AgResults.
Working with the Secretariat, the Steering CommitteeView entire presentation