ASARECA launches Policy Manager Tool to support agricultural policy implementation

November 28, 2024 in Land & Agriculture, Science and Technology, Technology & Telecoms by Editor

Famous for originating some of the best policies in Africa, but notoriously poor at putting them into practice, Uganda has largely missed out on reaping the dividends from its policy innovations. Many times, peers have copied and pasted policies developed here, achieving results that validated their soundness.

Rising to the challenge, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) has responded by developing a trailblazing policy manager tool that helps to track policy implementation and effectiveness. The tool was introduced to stakeholders November 26, during a workshop where it was used to analyse and evaluate the implementation of Uganda’s National Agricultural Extension Policy 2016.

The tool eases policy monitoring by providing a virtual dashboard to track policy formulation and implementation. The tool was developed following a gap assessment conducted by ASARECA, which found a need for policy analysis and implementation.

Speaking during the validation workshop, Ms Julian Barungi, the program officer in charge of policy at ASARECA explained that the policy manager tool, is “basically a virtual dashboard that is going to help us to track the extent to which policies are well formulated and implemented.”

Target users of the policy manager tool include, but are not limited to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, the National Agriculture Research Organisation and District Production and Marketing Officers under the Ministry of Local Government.

According to Barungi, “agricultural and other policies have often failed in many parts of Africa due to lack of pragmatic decision-making tools that could help policymakers in designing and monitoring policy implementation and actions.”

Stakeholders were keen to learn if the tool could be applied to analyse and spot potential pitfalls in policy proposals, before they become policy. Workshop participants also aid the intervention was timely.

Dr Paul Mwambu, the Commissioner Crop Inspection and Certification in Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries MAAIF, observed that while the National Agricultural Extension Policy, was the centrepiece of Uganda’s agricultural development strategy; policy implementation has not been smooth. He believes the policy manager tool would help get implementation back on the rails.

According to Achilley Ssebwana the Programme Officer Information Systems at ASARECA, the tool’s unique value proposition lies in its automation and standardisation of key aspects of policy analysis, formulation, and evaluation.

“The stakeholders are able to identify a particular policy for analysis, assess how it was formulated, and gauge relevance of the policy objectives. It further delves into the policy implementation aspects of a particular policy,” he explained.

However, even as they lauded its promise, stakeholders observed that adequate human and financial resource allocation will be required to support effective implementation of policy.