Mission Strategic Plans: A Neglected Developmental Tool.

• Author: Wentling, Mark G.

US missions are required to prepare Integrated Country Strategies (ICS) every three years. In addition, missions with USAID programs are required to prepare Country Development Cooperation Strategies (CDSS) every five years. In developing countries, the strategies usually focus on increasing food crops and nutritional levels.

I found during fifty years of work in a dozen missions that few read these strategies and even fewer apply them in their work. Missions go through a stressful period of completing these documents, but once Washington approves them they are often forgotten in a flurry of competing action requirements. Missions are usually engaged with applying the latest U.S. policy or assistance directives. And work priorities and budgetary allocations can shift dramatically with the installation of a new US administration.

It is also possible that the strategies are ignored because they often do a poor job of dealing with issues related to food security, which should be a primary aim of assistance programs in developing countries. The reasons for this may be two-fold. First, the plans need to be comprehensive enough to cover the major issues that affect food security. Second, they need then to identify the key components within each country that a development program may be able to impact successfully. The formulation of effective food, agricultural, and nutrition strategies should cover at least five broad, but interrelated components:

1. agricultural productivity/nutrition;

2. trade/markets;

3. natural resource environment;

4. food aid; and

5. policy/advocacy.

Fleshing out these five components requires contending with a complexity of related factors, while staying up to date with a rapidly changing world. These are among the primary issues that need to be considered and addressed:

Agricultural Productivity and Improved Nutrition

* Falling soil fertility must be addressed in a country dependent upon agricultural production.

* Climate change and demography affect food security scenarios.

* Inadequate nutritional levels will hinder other development efforts.

Trade and Markets

* Durable poverty reduction requires functioning markets.

* To be competitive in the marketplace, smallholders must be able do a simple business plan.

* Policies that increase the cost of imported food may incentivize local food production.

* Crop diversification and growth for export are needed for a healthy agricultural sector.

Natural Resource Environment

* Sound...