Efficiency and sustainability: Increase World Bank Group support to medium-term expenditure planning to help ensure the adequacy of funding for operations and maintenance, and work with clients to ensure sustainable financingincluding cost recovery where appropriatefor irrigation, transport, and research and extension services. Take stock of experience in water management and crop technologies in rain-fed areas to inform future World Bank Group support. Ensure that gender concerns are adequately mainstreamed and monitored in World Bank and IFC agriculture operations. Expand the application of IFC Performance Standards to material biodiversity and other environmental and social aspects along the supply chain for primary suppliers (and for secondary suppliers to the extent the client has leverage), and enhance IFC support to the development and application of internationally accepted commodity certification systems.
Original Response:
Ongoing/Agree Management agrees with the need for medium-term expenditure planning and sustainable financing. In order to assist governments do so, the Bank is currently finalizing an agriculture public expenditure toolkit10 to help better guide medium-term expenditure planning.
Ongoing/Agree Management fully supports this recommendation. For example, the Bank has recently undertaken analytical work on Improving Water Management in Rainfed Agriculture,11 and carried out a portfolio review of rainfed agriculture projects. This ongoing stock taking has focused on gathering lessons learned from past experience to better inform future lending on rainfed agriculture. In addition, several analytical studies examining the impact of climate change on agriculture, including rainfed agriculture, are being undertaken by the Regions.
Ongoing/Agree Although the integration of gender equality into agriculture and rural development projects was already higher than in other sectors, and has improved since the period covered by the IEG report, management fully agrees that more needs to be done. The percentage of rural projects with gender responsive design (as defined by the PREM Gender Department) in the Africa Region, which already met the 50 percent target in fiscal 2008, increased even furtherfrom 59 percent in 2008 to 65 percent in 2009. In April 2010 the ARD Sector Board set a target of 75 percent for gender responsive design in agriculture and rural development projects in all Regions by fiscal 2014. After the period covered by the IEG review, the Bank compiled a good practice sourcebook with FAO and IFAD, the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook,12 and completed a study on access to extension services in India, Ghana, and Ethiopia13 (World Bank IFPRI 2010).These efforts complement the Gender Action Plan, which specifically provides operational support to agriculture. Going forward it is envisioned that these actions will significantly improve mainstreaming of gender into agriculture operations. Gender is mainstreamed across sectors and industries through explicit requirements in IFCs Sustainability Policy and Performance Standards (PS).14 The social assessment process required in PS1 provides guidance on disaggregating stakeholder groups by key social identities, including gender, and ensuring that any potential adverse impacts are addressed. Throughout the PS, there is explicit reference to addressing risks, ensuring opportunities, and providing appropriate consultation for women. As examples, PS2 addresses non-discrimination; PS4 addresses gender-disaggregated aspects of health and vulnerability; PS5 addresses womens tenure and livelihoods in cases of resettlement; and PS7 and PS8 both include specific attention to womens views in decision-making processes. As part of its PS review and update, IFC proposes to strengthen clients requirements not to employ trafficked persons as part of a revised version of the Performance Standards (version 1). IFC has been tracking the implications of its investments on employment by gender through its DOTS system. It agrees with IEG that more can be done to mainstream and monitor gender concerns in agribusiness. This will be done as part of the next revision of the sectors standardized indicators. Management agrees that IFC policies did not contain a requirement to examine supply chains in the early years of the review period; this was only addressed in the IFC Performance Standards (PS) which became effective April 30, 2006. PS 1 requires that the impacts associated with supply chains be assessed in two cases: (1) where the resource utilized by the project is ecologically sensitive (e.g., wood products) or (2) in the case where low labor cost is a factor in the competitiveness of the item supplied (e.g
Progress on implementing this recommendation remains substantial. The Practitioners toolkit for Agriculture Public Expenditure Analysis to be used to guide the preparation of Public Expenditure Reviews, as reported in past MARs, continues. In addition in FY15 a study was initiated to review options for Agriculture Public Expenditures in Africa furthering support for medium term expenditure planning. The Water Sector Board's prioritization of attention to financial sustainability in irrigation projects, noted in past MAR's, is expected to continue under the new Water Global Practice but it is too early to assess the results of this. Evidence of progress towards ensuring sufficient attention to sustainable financing for research and extension services is more limited. One piece of sector work was referenced that provides guidance on competitive and matching grants for agriculture research and two examples of select projects that incorporate such financing modalities. No evidence has been provided to show progress on ensuring sustainable financing of transport.
On rainfed agriculture, no additional evidence has been provided to demonstrate progress over what was reported in past MARs.
Management notes the Watershed Management Thematic Group continues to play a role in sharing good practices and encourage innovation in rain-fed agriculture and there are examples of projects that have been informed by this support. More information is sought to understand what processes are in place continue to ensure that stock taking exercises carried out at the beginning of the MAR do not become outdated and what if there is anything in place beyond relying on the Thematic Group inform future lending.
Gender. As noted in past MARs the following targets were established for mainstreaming gender into the design of agriculture projects: by FY2015, 100 percent of projects will include gender analysis, and 75 percent will also have gender actions and gender-disaggregated ME. This year's MAR reports that the percent of projects that addressed all three aspect of gender in design (analysis, actions, and disaggregated ME) rose from 46 percent over FY10-12, to 76 percent in both FY13 and FY14, to 93 percent in FY 15. However, it is not possible to verify if the Action Plan targets were meet because overall percentages are reported and the data provided is not broken down by projects with gender analysis, those with gender actions and disaggregated ME. Additional progress was made in tracking the extent to which projects report on gender disaggregated indicators during implementation. Available data shows that 67 percent of projects approved between FY10 and FY11 that included gender disaggregated indicators at design reported on them in FY14, and in FY15 69 percent of the projects approved between FY10 and FY12 did so. The World Bank Corporate Scorecard includes the indicators; Farmers reached by agricultural assets and services; and Farmers adopting improved agricultural technology; and the IDA 17 Results Measurement System reports on; female beneficiaries of agriculture and rural development projects. Management notes that the inclusion of these gender indicators in corporate level documents indicates Management's commitment at the highest level to monitor mainstreaming of gender issues in agricultural projects. None the less the absolute number of female beneficiaries is not a meaningful indicator.
Increase World Bank support to medium-term expenditure-planning to help ensure the adequacy of funding for operations and maintenance, and work with clients to ensure sustainable financing-including cost recovery where appropriate-for irrigation, transport, and research and extension services. As outlined in previous MARs progress has been made to enhance public expenditure planning in the sector. The practitioners toolkit for Agriculture Public Expenditure Analysis is being used to guide ongoing public expenditure reviews.Following the extensive number of agriculture PER undertaken in AFR through a Gates Foundation Partnership, there is an ongoing study initiated in FY15 on options for Agricultural Public Expenditures in Africa. On sustainable financing, the Water Sector Boards prioritization of financial sustainability as one of the key themes that projects in the water sector, as reported in previous MARs, including in irrigation, continues under the Water Global Practice in the reorganized Bank.Although no new study was undertaken to report on the share of largely irrigation and drainage projects that address cost recovery issues (80 percent in FY13/14), the Bank continues to prioritize this issue. Examples include: New and additional financing projects approved in FY15 in Tajikistan (PAMPII), Myanmar (Agricultural Development Support Project), Tanzania (Expanding Rice Production), and Pakistan (Sindhu Irrigated Agriculture Productivity) respectively are directly supporting water use associations, farmer and irrigation organizations to improve operations and maintenance of irrigation infrastructure. Our analytical work is also giving attention to this issue. For example, the Banks study on irrigation pricing for the Jordon valley aimed to obtain a better understanding of the cost of, and demand for irrigation water. The results of this study can help guide the Jordan Valley Authority in decisions on the level of cost recovery that can be achieved, the pricing of irrigation services through a combination of suitable tariffs and (if any) required long-term subsidies (in particular for poor farmers). Similarly, the sector work Designing and Implementing Agricultural Innovation Funds: Lessons from Competitive Research and Matching Grant Projects continues to provide guidance on the use of competitive and matching grants for agriculture research and innovation and promote sustainable financing of agricultural research and extension services. Examples of FY15 projects that included such financing modalities are: the Bangladesh National Agricultural Technology Program and the Vietnam Second Northern Mountains Poverty Reduction Project. - Take stock of experience in water management and crop technologies in rain-fed areas to inform future World Bank Group support. Further to the stock taking exercises indicated in previous MARs, the Watershed Management Thematic Group continues to support operational quality, including sharing of good practices and encouraging innovation in relation to rain-fed agriculture.In FY15 several new projects in rain-fed areas were informed by this support.Examples include - on water management: the Myanmar - Ayeyarwady Int
(Substantial)
Increase World Bank Group support to medium-term expenditure planning to help ensure the adequacy of funding for operations and maintenance, and work with clients to ensure sustainable financingincluding cost recovery where appropriatefor irrigation, transport, and research and extension services.
Progress has been made to enhance public expenditure planning in the sector. Notably, a practitioners toolkit for Agriculture Public Expenditure Analysis has been developed and is being used to guide ongoing public expenditure reviews in the LCR and AFR regions. In FY10 and FY11, agriculture public expenditure reviews were completed for 5 countries. A public website was also launched as part of a process to improve the analysis of public expenditures in agriculture and raise awareness of the linkages between spending in agriculture and outcomes. Less evidence is provided on efforts to work with clients to ensure sustainable financing. In FY10 an ESW was completed on Designing and Implementing Agricultural Innovation Funds which provides guidance on the use of competitive and matching grants for research on agriculture innovations. Competitive and matching fund grants are being used in some projects in the Africa Region. However, no evidence is provided of effective efforts to ensure sustainable financing (including cost recovery) for irrigation or transport. Adoption of this sub-recommendation is rated medium.
Take stock of experience in water management and crop technologies in rain-fed areas to inform future World Bank Group support.
Two stock-taking excises have been carried out to gather lessons on rain-fed agriculture: an analytical work on Improving Water Management in Rain-fed Agriculture and a portfolio review of rain-fed agriculture projects. An additional effort to enhance knowledge of rain-fed agriculture is underway through WBI's three year program on climate smart agriculture. This program includes sustainable management of agriculture water and land-water management components as well as South'south learning modules on rain-fed agriculture. However, it is not clear how this information will inform future lending. Adoption of this sub-recommendation is rated substantial.
Ensure that gender concerns are adequately mainstreamed and monitored in World Bank and IFC agriculture operations.
Several steps have been taken to operationalize the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook. The anchor has hired a gender specialist to support the gender mainstreaming process and a gender in agriculture focal person system has been developed comprising Bank and IFC staff. New tools to assist with gender mainstreaming have also been developed: a gender in agriculture e platform and an e-learning course based on the gender sourcebook. The Bank has also made progress in monitoring agriculture projects with respect to gender responsive design (as defined by the PREM Gender department). In FY08 the AFR region met its target of 50 percent. In April 2010 the ARD set a target for 75 percent of all ARD projects Bankwide to have a gender responsive design. Management reports that the percent of ARD projects with a gender responsive design has increased to 72 percent in the period FY10-11, from a baseline of 46 percent in the period FY06-08. The IEG evaluation noted that greater attention has been paid to gender issues during the design of projects than in their implementation, and both need to be stepped up. IEG acknowledges the positive steps taken with respect to gender design but progress on implementation is less clear. Adoption of this sub-recommendation is rated substantial.
Medium-term expenditure planning and sustainable financing. A Practitioners Toolkit For Agriculture Public Expenditure Analysis was developed and finalized by the World Bank with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as part of the partnership on Public Expenditures for Pro-Poor Agricultural Growth. The toolkit contributes to a broader effort to enhance the focus, quality, and appropriate scaling of public spending in the sector. More specifically it provides checklists for practitioners conducting various kinds of agriculture public expenditure analyses, and presents selected examples on aspects of the checklist to help guide analysis. Specific examples on cost recovery for different sectors were included to promote a more efficient use of limited resources and to promote practices that contribute revenues to sustain public expenditures. A related public-website was also developed as part of a process to improve the analysis of public expenditures in agriculture and to increase awareness of the process and political economy of public spending in the sector to enhancing understanding of the linkages between spending in agriculture and outcomes. In FY10 and FY11, agriculture public expenditure reviews were completed for Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Lebanon, Kazakhstan and Uganda, and is underway in for Nicaragua. The toolkit is being used to guide ongoing agriculture expenditure reviews in Latin America and Africa. In addition, a review and good practice guidance note on Forest Sector Public Expenditure Reviews was published in FY11 in collaboration with the Program on Forests (PROFOR.)
The 2010 ESW Designing and Implementing Agricultural Innovation Funds: Lessons from Competitive Research and Matching Grant Projects provides guidance on the use of competitive and matching grants for agriculture research on innovations. These instruments can promote partnerships, leverage significant resources and help develop a more efficient and pluralistic research system. These instruments are being used for example in the FY11 Ethiopia Agricultural Growth Program project and the FY11 West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program APL .
Water management and crop technologies in rainfed areas. As noted in the original management response, the Bank undertook analytical work on Improving Water Management in Rainfed Agriculture and carried out a portfolio review of rainfed agriculture projects. This ongoing stock-taking has focused on gathering lessons learned from past experience to better inform future lending on rainfed agriculture.
The World Bank Institute has recently established a three year program to support "climate-smart agriculture", of which sustainable management of agriculture water and land-water management are an integral component. The program will work through knowledge instruments such as south-south knowledge sharing, structured learning with 3-4 days in short courses, and coalition building on the subject areas. The South-South learning topics and learning modules will cover both irrigated and rainfed agriculture.
Gender concerns are adequately mainstreamed and monitored. Management continues to emphasize this issue. The percentage of agricultural projects with gender responsive design (as defined by the PREM Gender Department) in the Africa Region, met the 50 percent target in FY08 and in April 2010 the ARD Sector Board set a target of 75 percent for gender responsive design in agriculture and rural development projects in all regions by FY14. From a baseline of 46 percent over FY06-08, satisfactory gender responsive design of agriculture and rural development projects has increased to 72 percent over FY10-11.
Since the last response, the Bank has focused on operationalizating the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook which has proven to be a very effective tool used by Bank staff and development practitioners globally. A Sr. Gender Specialist has been recruited by the Agriculture and Rural Development anchor to support the mainstreaming process, and a gender in agriculture focal person system has been instituted comprising Bank staff from the regions and staff from the IFC. Some large investment projects (for example in Azerbaijan , Ethiopia and Zambia ) have been strategically selected and support has been provided to mainstream gender in the project design, implementation and M&E. In addition the Bank has developed more tools to assist in the gender mainstreaming process. For instance a Gender in Agriculture e-platform was launched in early FY12 -- the site has approximately 150 visits weekly from all over the world. In addition, preparation of a 16-17 module e-learning course based on the Sourcebook has been initiated.
IFC RESPONDING SEPERATELY ON GENDER ISSUES
IFC Performance Standards to material biodiversity and other environmental and social aspects. IFC RESPONDING SEPERATELY
Increase World Bank Group support to medium-term expenditure planning to help ensure the adequacy of funding for operations and maintenance, and work with clients to ensure sustainable financingincluding cost recovery where appropriatefor irrigation, transport, and research and extension services: In addition to the progress made to enhance public expenditure planning in the sector and cost recovery in research projects noted in last year's update several measures have been undertaken to ensure cost recovery in irrigation projects. The Water Sector Board has prioritized financial sustainability as one of the key themes that projects in the water sector, including in irrigation, need to pay more attention to. As of FY13 Water Anchor staff will discuss with TTLs of projects under preparation how financial sustainability aspects could be better incorporated in project design. 92 percent of irrigation projects approved in FY11 addressed cost recovery issues, though many aimed at only partial cost recovery. Efforts are ongoing to review attention to cost recovery in the FY12 water portfolio. The inclusion, and annual monitoring, of cost recovery issues in newly approved irrigation and drainage projects is expected to help to draw more attention on the need to better address the topic during project design but it is too soon to assess how this expectation will bear out. Adoption of this sub-recommendation remains medium. Take stock of experience in water management and crop technologies in rain-fed areas to inform future World Bank Group support: In addition to the stock taking exercises to gather lessons on rain-fed agriculture reported in the 2012 MAR, examples have been provided of six projects approved in FY12 that include components that address water management and rain-fed agriculture. More information is sought to understand how the stock taking efforts are linked to these projects and what processes are in place that they will inform future lending. Adoption of this sub-recommendation remains substantial. Ensure that gender concerns are adequately mainstreamed and monitored in World Bank and IFC agriculture operations: The IEG evaluation noted that greater attention has been paid to gender issues during the design of projects than in their implementation, and both need to be stepped up. Further efforts have been undertaken to ensure that gender concerns are mainstreamed into the design of agriculture programs beyond the Bank-wide standard in addition to the positive steps reported in the 2012 MAR. The Agriculture Action Plan 2013-15 designates reducing gender inequality as one of its areas of emphasis and has established a target for 100 percent of projects will include gender analysis by FY2015, and 75 percent will also have gender actions and gender-disaggregated ME. Additional evidence has been provided of steps toward ensuring attention to gender during project implementation. Several measures are now in place to monitor attention to gender during implementation through the monitoring of Core Sector Indicators and by review of project Implementation Status and Results reports (ISRs) and related aide memoirs. Monitoring of gender disaggregated Core Sector Indicators established for irrigation and drainage, research and extension, forestry and, land management and administration projects. Efforts are also ongoing to develop methodology for reviewing ISRs and aide memoir in order to track implementation, though it is too soon to assess the effectiveness of these measures. Adoption of this sub-recommendation remains substantial.
The results of Bank support for medium term planning described in the 2012 MAR, through support for agricultural public expenditure reviews and sub-sector specific analytical work is evident in projects approved in FY11 and FY12. A detailed review of Project Appraisal Documents found that of the irrigation projects approved in FY11 (specifically, of the projects with 51% or more of the total commitment allocated to irrigation and drainage), 92% addressed cost recovery issues. However, the projects did not necessarily intend to fully recover operation and maintenance costs.In many cases, the aim was only partial cost recovery; in some instances, the documents outlined steps to be taken for achieving cost recovery. Currently the water portfolio approved in FY12 is under review using the same questionnaire.It is expected that the inclusion, and annual monitoring, of cost recovery issues in newly approved irrigation and drainage projects will help to draw more attention on the need to better address the topic during project design. Furthermore, the Water Sector Board has prioritized financial sustainability as one of the key themes that projects in the water sector, including in irrigation, need to pay more attention to.As part of the outreach efforts to the Regions starting in FY13, Water Anchor staff will discuss with TTLs of projects under preparation how financial sustainability aspects could be better incorporated in project design. TheESW, Designing and Implementing Agricultural Innovation Funds: Lessons from Competitive Research and Matching Grant Projects continues to provide guidance on the use of competitive and matching grants for agriculture research and innovation.In addition to the projects listed in the 2012 MAR that are using these instruments, the following projects are examples of those approved in FY12 that do so: the Bolivia Agricultural Innovation and Services; the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program 2A; the Haiti Re-launching Agriculture Project, and; the Indonesia, Sustainable Management of Agricultural Research and Technology Dissemination (SMARTD) project.
Activities related to rain-fed agriculture described in the MAR 2012 are contributing to informing new lending. For instance the following projects approved in FY12 have components that address water management and rain-fed agriculture: the Brazil, Pernambuco - Rural Economic Inclusion Project and the Ceara Rural Sustainability and Competitiveness Project; the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project, the Pakistan Punjab Irrigated Agriculture Production Project, the Ethiopia Productive Safety Nets Program (APL III) Additional Financing Project, the Chad Agriculture Production Support Project and the Djibouti Rural CDD and Water Mobilization Additional Finance Project.
The Agriculture Action Plan 2013-15 designates reducing gender inequality as one of its areas of emphasis and raises the targets for mainstreaming gender into agriculture programs beyond the Bank-wide standard. The target is that, in the design of agriculture and rural development projects, by FY2015, 100 percent of projects will include gender analysis, and 75 percent will also have gender actions and gender-disaggregated ME. For a relatively small set of projects, after doing the gender analysis it may reasonably be decided that gender-specific actions and related ME are not appropriate. This target raises the bar for agricultural projects beyond the overall Bank standard where the satisfactory treatment of only one of the three dimensions is required for a project to be deemed as gender informed. At the implementation stage, gender mainstreaming will be measured through the monitoring of Core Sector Indicators and by review of project Implementation Status and Results reports (ISRs) and related aide memoirs. The Bank has released three sets of Core Sector Indicators related to the following agricultural sub-sectors and one theme: irrigation and drainage, research and extension, forestry and, land management and administration.All of the indicators, where meaningful, are disaggregated by gender. Close monitoring of these indicators against targets specified in appraisal documents will provide information on implementation of gender issues. In addition, as part of its gender mainstreaming plan for the agriculture and rural development sector, the Bank is developing a methodology for reviewing ISRs and aide memoir in order to track implementation.
Adoption of this recommendation remains substantial. This recommendation comprised three sub objectives. Additional progress was reported to show enhanced attention to tracking gender throughout project implementation. For the additional two sub objectives, no new progress is demonstrated over efforts noted in previous MARs.
Increase World Bank support to medium-term expenditure-planning to help ensure the adequacy of funding for operations and maintenance, and work with clinets to ensure sustainable financing-including cost recovery where appropriate-for irrigation, transport, and research and extension services. As outlined in the previous MARs progress has been made to enhance public expenditure planning in the sector. The practitioners toolkit for Agriculture Public Expenditure Analysis is being used to guide ongoing public expenditure reviews. In addition to agriculture components of general public expenditure reviews (PERs), agriculture sector specific PERs have been completed in FY13 and FY14 in Brazil, Nicaragua, Senegal and Vietnam. On sustainable financing, the Water Sector Board's prioritization of financial sustainability as one of the key themes that projects in the water sector, including in irrigation, need to pay more attention to, as well as the annual monitoring of cost recovery issues in newly approved projects, has shown results. A detailed review of Project Appraisal Documents found that of the largely irrigation projects approved in FY13 (projects with 51% or more of the total commitment allocated to irrigation and drainage) 80 percent addressed cost recovery issues with all of these projects covering at least some operation and maintenance costs (OM). Similarly, the sector work Designing and Implementing Agricultural Innovation Funds: Lessons from Competitive Research and Matching Grant Projects continues to provide guidance on the use of competitive and matching grants for agriculture research and innovation and promote sustainable financing of agricultural research and extension services. Some examples of FY13/14 projects that included such financing modalities are: the Agriculture Productivity Program Southern Africa; the Indonesia Sustainable Management of Agriculture Research Project, and the Peru National Agriculture Innovation Program.
Take stock of experience in water management and crop technologies in rain-fed areas to inform future World Bank Group support. Further to the stock taking exercises indicated in previous MARs, the Watershed Management Thematic Group organized a set of BBLs have been used to disseminate findings from the stock taking exercise, highlighting water management and crop technologies in rain-fed areas especially on watershed management practices in each region. This knowledge sharing is informing Bank support. Project examples include: the China Integrated Modern Agriculture Development Project; Papua New Guinea Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (Additional Financing); the Productive Alliance project in Guatemala, the Ceara Rural Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Project, the Pernambuco Rural Economic Inclusion, Rio Grande do Norte Regional Development and Governance Project, and the Santa Catarina Rural Competitiveness Program in Brazil. In India the PPAF-III project has significant presence in rain fed areas, for which specific interventions include, community managed small scale watershed management and drought preparedness, crop selection for arid areas, crop insurance, live weight-indexed livestock insurance, micro-credit services, enterprise development, solar energy. The Himachal Pradesh Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project and the Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Development II Project are working with Farmer Interest Groups and Producer Organizations under a landscape approach to harvest rainwater and put it to use in currently rainfed areas to increase cropping intensity and overall agricultural productivity. The India National Dairy Support Project in India, with coverage in fifteen states nationwide, seeks to increase fodder production and productivity in rainfed areas, in the context of an overall program (National Dairy Plan) that aims to boost dairy productivity in response to ever-increasing consumer demand. The Karnataka Watershed Development Project-II is providing technical support to increase productivity and agricultural incomes for communities in selected watersheds through innovative, science-based watershed management approaches and program integration, for both traditional rainfed crops and horticulture. The Neeranchal National Watershed Project (Board approval July 2014) will strengthen the effectiveness of the national Integrated Watershed Management Program in rainfed areas across eight states and improve program planning and implementation capacity at the central level. The Rajasthan Agricultural Competitiveness Project focuses on integrated value chain development under rainfed conditions. The project is working in both watershed and ground water clusters, emphasizing on crop water productivity and sustainable market linkage for various services. The Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Project and Bihar Rural Rural Livelihoods Project have invested in community managed sustainable agriculture, which focuses on small and marginal farmers in rainfed areas with ecologically sound, low cost-high return techniques that reduce the cost of cultivation and make the most of water resources. The Agriculture and Food Security Project (AFSP) in Nepal is being implemented in rain-fed areas of the mid and far-western regions. The project is carrying out field trials of improved varieties and drought resistant cultivars, as well as on-farm validation of promising varieties for various crops. In addition, the project is developing crop management practices that will conserve moisture, enhance soil fertility, address pest problems, and increase overall productivity of major food crops and vegetables. The World BankGEF Sahel and West Africa Program (SAWAP) in Support of the Great Green Wall Initiative, is an umbrella program, that supports the implementation of a country-driven vision for integrated natural resource management for sustainable and climate-resilient development in 12 countries in West Africa and the Sahel (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan, and Togo), using a landscape approach. The Program's investments cover technologies to improve agricultural productivity, food security, disaster risk management, rural development, erosion management and watershed function. Physical investments are backed by work to modernize information and institutions, such as through better watershed planning, natural resource and carbon monitoring.
Ensure that gender concerns are adequately mainstreamed and monitored in World Bank and IFC agriculture operations. As noted in the previous MAR, the Agriculture Action Plan 2013-15 designates reducing gender inequality as one of its areas of emphasis and raises the targets for mainstreaming gender into agriculture programs beyond the Bank-wide standard. The target is that, in the design of agriculture and rural development projects, by FY2015, 100 percent of projects will include gender analysis, and 75 percent will also have gender actions and gender-disaggregated ME. This target raises the bar for agricultural projects beyond the overall Bank standard where the satisfactory treatment of only one of the three dimensions is required for a project to be deemed as gender informed. Eighty-seven percent of agricultural projects approved in FY13 included gender analysis, compared to 68 percent over FY10-12. FY13 agricultural projects met the second target with 76 percent also including gender actions and gender disaggregated ME, compared to 46 percent over FY10-12. Related FY14 data is not yet available. Since the last MAR, the Bank has developed a pilot methodology to track gender implementation in agricultural projects which complements the analysis at entry and tacks gender mainstreaming throughout the project cycle. As part of methodology development 55 active projects and 14 closed projects were sampled. Overall 76 percent of these projects were rated Gender Implemented. In addition, the World Bank Corporate Scorecard includes the indicator Farmers adopting improved agricultural technology in the second tier (client results supported). This indicator is disaggregated by gender, the scorecard reports a baseline (FY13) value of 1.8 million farmers of which 0.6 million were female. Similarly, the IDA 17 Results Measurement System includes the Tier 2 indicator; female beneficiaries of agriculture and rural development projects with a baseline of 4.5 million and a projection of 8 to 11 million female beneficiaries by 2017. The inclusion of these indicators in corporate level documents indicates Management's commitment at the highest level to monitor mainstreaming of gender issues in agricultural projects.