Outline of the Project

Project Name

Technical Cooperation in Strengthening the Backstopping Capacities for DADP Planning and Implementation under ASDP, Phase 2

Target Area

Tanzania mainland (All the districts)

Period

Aug 2012 to June 2016 (4 years)

Counterpart

Institution in charge: Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFC) Department of Policy Planning

Operational counterpart: DADP Planning and Implementation (P&I) TWG, National Facilitation Team (NFT)

Overall Goals

Higher agricultural productivity, profitability, and farm incomes are achieved.

Purpose

LGAs effectively plan and implement strategic DADPs.

Outputs

1. Backstopping activities for the planning, implementation and monitoring of strategic DADP are improved.
2. DADPs of pilot LGAs become strategic and comprehensive with special focus on collaboration with private sector including NGOs.

Activities

1-1	To revise the TOR and annual work plan of DADP P&I TWG, including Annual Backstopping Activity Plan;
1-2	To prepare a guidance document to explain the concept and contents of “strategic and comprehensive DADP” based on the in-depth analysis of “DADP good projects” and the results of DADP Quality Assessment;
1-3	To revise DADP Guidelines
1-4	To conduct TOT for DADP planning, report writing and data analysis
1-5	To conduct Annual Backstopping Activities
1-6	To conduct DADP Quality Assessment
1-7	To develop guidelines on reporting and data management of DADP projects
1-8	To organize activities to share information, findings and lessons learnt on DADP planning, implementation and reporting;
1-9	To compile recommendations to create the enabling environment for private sector involvement into DADP; and
1-10	To conduct other relevant activities for DADP P&I TWG and PMO-RALG ASU when necessity arises

2-1	To select pilot LGAs for intensive support (including establishment of selection criteria);
2-2	To plan and conduct backstopping activities in planning "strategic and comprehensive" DADPs in the pilot LGAs, covering followings a) DADP panning, focusing on growth aspect, food security aspect, priorities on commodity, baseline data, etc. b) Facilitation and coordination of private sector participation in DADP planning c) Need and potential assessment on private sector d) Project write-up of pilot projects enhancing collaboration with the private sector e) Formulation of "strategic and comprehensive" DADPs
2-3	To plan and conduct backstopping activities in implementing pilot projects focusing on empowering FOs and involving private sector;
2-4	To plan and conduct backstopping activities for reporting & data management of pilot projects; and
2-5	To summarize good practices and lesson learnt in the pilot LGAs

Inputs

Japanese side

JICA Experts (Chief Adviser/ Agriculture Development Planning, Deputy Chief Advisor/ Private Sector Promotion, Project Management/ Monitoring, Training Coordination, Farmers Organization Support)

Provision of machinery and equipment for DADP Planning and Implementation (P&I) TWG, RS and LGAs that facilitate the DADP activities.

Tanzanian side

Counterpart assignment

Provision of facility: Office space for the Project team

Project Overview

The Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) is an overarching development programme for Tanzanian agricultural sector. It was formulated by the Government of Tanzania (GoT) in close consultation with development partners (DPs), and has been put in full operation since July 2006 once the basket fund was established for its financial support. The disbursement and execution of the ASDP basket fund follow the government public expenditure cycle.

ASDP has two primary objectives: (1) to realize enabling environment for the increase of productivity and improvement of profitability of the agricultural sector; and (2) to reduce the poverty and to realize food security by the increase of the farmers' income. ASDP consists of three sub-programs, i.e. A) agricultural sector support and implementation at district and field level, B) agricultural sector support at national level and C) cross-cutting and cross sectoral issues. In the sub-program of A), Local Government Authorities (LGAs) are responsible for promoting agricultural development by planning and implementing the District Agricultural Development Plan (DADP). DADP receives 75% of ASDP basket fund and is the most important component of ASDP.

Since the launch of ASDP, GoT has provided various technical backstopping to LGAs. Aiming at facilitating LGAs for their DADP preparation, the "DADP Planning and Implementation Guidelines" (DADP Guidelines) have already been formulated and circulated as an official guide. The guidelines describe the DADP preparation and implementation cycle, procedure, contents of the document, activities to be chosen and DADP funds to be used for the activities. For the purpose of improvement of DADP, the Agriculture Sector Lead Ministries (ASLMs) continue training and technical backstopping to LGAs on an annual basis. The DADP Quality Assessment has also been carried out annually since 2007/08 to measure the quality level of DADP documents. As for DADP Progress Report, the quarterly report format was introduced and training to RS officers has been carried out.

Despite these technical supports, various challenges were observed in the DADP planning and implementation. Hence, the GoT requested in December 2008 the Government of Japan (GoJ) to implement a Technical Cooperation (TC) in Strengthening the Backstopping Capacities for DADP Planning and Implementation under ASDP (to be called "the Project" hereinafter), phase I. The phase 1 Project was implemented together with the DADP Planning and Implementation Thematic Working Group (DADP P&I TWG) and the Agricultural Sector Unit (ASU) of PMO-RALG. The Project supported various backstopping activities by the TWG including seminars and training for central, regional and district officials, improvement of the guidelines and improvement of budget and project implementation progress reporting so as to improve the quality of DADP planning and implementation as well as to strengthen the capacity of the central and local government.

Towards the end of the phase 1 Project, however, the challenges remained. They included the insufficient practice of mid- to long-term planning, improvement of strategic nature of DADP with respect to the value chain development on certain selected products. Moreover, limited is the comprehensiveness of DADP considering not only the ASDP resources but also other public funds as well as private (including NGOs) supports for the implementation of DADP projects.

Responding to this situation, the GoT once again sent a request to the GoJ for the second phase of the Technical Cooperation Project. This second phase started since 2012, August, aiming at further strengthening of the DADP planning and implementation in terms of its strategy, comprehensiveness and private sector involvement, hence facilitating accelerated growth of the agricultural economy of the country. Following the previous phase, this Project continues strengthening the backstopping capacity of the central government for the DADP planning and implementation, while implementing supporting activities (pilot activities) in pilot LGAs and gather useful experience and knowledge for dissemination to other LGAs across the country with additional contribution to strengthening the central government capacity.

Conceptual diagram of the Project