OUR ACTIVITIES

Facilitating leading-edge donor consensus-building and information exchange on pressing issues in ARD; Streamlining information flows on NEPADs Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) among development partners as well as between development partners and key CAADP constituencies in Africa; Strengthening outreach to CSOs, the private sector, foundations and non-traditional donors in the ARD sector; Identifying and closing information gaps with the preparation of technical and good practice briefs and interactive discussions on critical issues; Contributing to the organisation of relevant high-level global and regional conferences and dialogues.

OUR MEMBERS
Asian Development Bank (ADB), Austrian Development Agency (ADA), Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation (DGDC), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Department for International Development UK (DFID), European Commission (EC), German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), French Development Agency (AFD), German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Global Mechanism of UNCDD (GM), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Irish Aid, KfW Development Bank (KfW), Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The World Bank (WB).

Global Donor Platform for Rural Development

Tackling rural poverty, together

Platform publications
Sharpening the Rural Focus of Poverty Reduction Strategies (2009) Joint Donor Principles for ARD (2009) A Sourcebook of ARD Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluation (2008) A 13-Country Consultation on CSOs and Aid Effectiveness in ARD (2008) Policy Briefs on The Future of Smallholder Agriculture (2008) and Rural-Urban Linkages (2007) Synthesis Report on Sector-wide Approaches in ARD (2007) Joint Donor Concept on Rural Development (2006)

CONTACT
Secretariat Global Donor Platform for Rural Development c/o Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Dahlmannstrae 4 53113 Bonn, Germany Phone:+ 49 228 24934 166 Fax: + 49 228 24934 215 Email: secretariat@donorplatform.org www.donorplatform.org Publication date: August 2009

On the web www.donorplatform.org

A JOINT DONOR INITIATIVE

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

dapting the underlying principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and the Accra Agenda for Action (2008) to the realities of rural development, we the members of the Platform have adopted a set of key principles to guide the processes and modalities of more effective ARD programming at sector level: Ownership: Support government leadership in ARD and promote effective participation and capacity development of key agricultural stakeholders, including remote agrarian communities and women farmers, in the design, delivery, and monitoring of ARD strategies. Alignment: Contribute and sign up to partner countries existing national poverty reduction strategies, while enhancing cross-sectoral approaches to ARD and strongly considering decentralised government institutions, civil society and the private sector. Harmonisation: Improve complementarities between national development strategies, agricultural sector policies and common funding mechanisms via programme-based and sector-wide approaches in ARD. Managing for results: Support effective resource management through measurable and sector-specific tracking and reporting indicators that highlight the contribution of smallholder agriculture toward equitable growth. Mutual accountability: Work with partners and key stakeholders to promote and develop sector-level accountability frameworks for assessing mutual progress in reaching ARD targets. We believe that these principles are the key to more efficient donor collaboration and improved dialogue between donors and partner countries, and the foundation of a new aid architecture.

OUR WORK
Striving for increased and more effective aid in ARD
While encouraged by the progressive rise of agriculture on development agendas, we continue to advocate for increased political and programmatic attention to ARD. In all our advocacy, we seek to highlight the role that effective investment in ARD must play in the achievement of the MDGs.

hree-quarters of the world's 1.4 billion extremely poor people live in rural areas in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Worldwide, over 950 million men, women and children are undernourished. With only a few years to go until the 2015 MDG target date, increasingly volatile food prices threaten to push those figures even higher. Addressing the root causes of poverty and food security should be the concern of all policy makers in developing and developed nations. Created in 2003, the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development is a network of bilateral and multilateral donors and international financing institutions that share a common vision of the role effective aid to agriculture and rural development (ARD) plays in reducing poverty. They are committed to strengthening the impact of aid in agriculture and rural development. Through the twin pillars of ADVOCACY and KNOWLEDGE SHARING, the Platform seeks to achieve: Increases in the share of donors official development assistance going to ARD; Tangible progress in the implementation of the Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda for Action at country level; An increase in the use of programme-based and sectorwide approaches in ARD programming; and, A rationalisation of ARD support by member agencies in selected countries.

Developing member agencies capacity to effectively support ARD

By developing and implementing improved knowledge management mechanisms, we aim to enhance the quality and impact of ARD investments. By facilitating shared learning and the consolidation of better practices, we help ARD practitioners stay abreast of latest knowledge, thereby enhancing their expertise and capacity.