Ed Rackely’s post on Congo’s recently launched National Investment Plan for Agriculture offers a realistic analysis of some of the country’s challenges in modernizing the agriculture sector. He mentions correctly that there is not enough funding to reach targets. I would add that the little money that is available is largely spent on salaries in Kinshasa with minimal trickle down into the field.
But it is not only a money problem.
On the institutional landscape, there is an overall lack of
professionalism and capacity in terms of human resources and material. Government
offices responsible for agricultural priorities are under-funded, under-staffed
and in need of competent experts with up-to-date professional skills and vision.
They also lack data management systems and basic equipment such as phones,
copiers and computers.
An additional hurdle is the number of Ministries involved in
managing the sector. The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Rural
Development, the Ministry of Environment Conservation, Water and Forests, the
Ministry of Scientific and Technological Research and the Ministry of Women and
the Family all share rural development and agricultural objectives. In theory,
the Ministry of Planning coordinates the financing of these five ministries but
is, in reality, overwhelmed with other urgencies.
The problem here is that when priorities are supposed to be dealt
with by multiple partners, no one really does anything. There is an absence of
coordination, tasks get passed on to someone else, disagreements over costs
surface and there tends to be a generalized absence of accountability or
ownership.