The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is an international grant-making nongovernment organisation promoting evidence-informed development policies and programmes. We are the global leader in funding and producing high-quality evidence of what works, how, why and at what cost. We believe that better and policy-relevant evidence will make development more effective and improve people's lives. 3ie working papersThese papers cover a range of content. They may focus on current issues, debates and enduring challenges facing development policymakers and practitioners and the impact evaluation and systematic review communities. Policy-relevant papers draw on relevant findings from impact evaluations and systematic reviews funded by 3ie, as well as other rigorous evidence to offer insights, new analyses, findings and recommendations. Papers focusing on methods and technical guides also draw on similar sources to help advance understanding, design and use of rigorous and appropriate evaluations and reviews. 3ie also uses this series to publish lessons learned from 3ie grant-making.
The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is an international grant-making NGO promoting evidence-informed development policies and programmes. We are the global leader in funding, producing and synthesising high-quality evidence of what works, for whom, how, why and at what cost. We believe that using better and policyrelevant evidence helps to make development more effective and improve people's lives.3ie scoping papers 3ie develops its thematic grant programmes in a particular development area or sector through an organised scoping process. This multifaceted exercise helps ensure that new windows address priorities for evidence production where evidence is limited and gaps have been identified. 3ie scopes the demand for evidence through surveys of and consultation with potential users, including policymakers, programme managers, researchers and civil society. Scoping exercises usually include producing an evidence gap map to help identify where more or better evidence is needed and where evidence is sufficient for producing systematic reviews. Other scoping can include reviewing existing programming and funding. The results include priority research questions for which there is demand for answers. This information then informs a new thematic grant programme. About this paper AcknowledgmentsWe are thankful to DFID for supporting this background paper. We are also thankful to the numerous interviewees and stakeholders with whom we spoke and from whom we took advice. Arundhati Srinivasan and Megha Nath provided excellent research assistance. We are grateful for review comments from Hugh Waddington and Beryl Leach, which helped improve the paper. Last, but not least, we thank Ombeline de Bock, Jesse D'Anjou and Tatiana Goetghebuer from ADE Consulting, who contributed to the sections on theory of change.ii Summary Ninety-eight per cent of the world's hungry people live in low-and middle-income countries, and four in five of them are involved in food production. Key obstacles preventing the rural poor from escaping poverty -the majority of whom are involved in agriculture -are their vulnerability to risks and their inability to cope with shocks. Governments around the world have proposed, piloted and implemented many financial agricultural risk management (FARM) instruments to help smallholder farmers cope with these risks. However, it remains unclear whether risk mitigation and coping policies, such as insurance mechanisms, have improved the welfare or overall well-being of smallholder farmers.This background paper examines what we know about the efficacy and effectiveness of FARM instruments for smallholder farmers in low-and middle-income countries. We had four main objectives:• Identify areas where high-quality evidence exists on the efficacy and effectiveness of FARM instruments, including if and how they help smallholder farmers mitigate, diversify and transfer agricultural risk; This scoping work helped inform the development and focus of 3ie's grant-making window on agricultural risk. We use...
The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is an international grant-making NGO promoting evidence-informed development policies and programmes. We are the global leader in funding and producing high-quality evidence of what works, how, why and at what cost. We believe that better and policy-relevant evidence will make development more effective and improve people's lives. 3ie evidence gap map reports 3ie evidence gap maps are thematic collections of information about impact evaluations or systematic reviews that measure the effects of international development policies and programmes. The maps provide a visual display of completed and ongoing systematic reviews and impact evaluations in a sector or sub-sector, structured around a framework of interventions and outcomes.The evidence gap map reports provide all the supporting documentation for the maps, including the background information for the theme of the map, the methods and results, protocols, and the analysis of results. About this evidence gap map reportThis report provides the supporting documentation for the 3ie evidence gap map on financial risk in agricultural production for smallholder farmers in developing countries, developed as part of a project funded by UK aid through Department for International Development. All of the content of this report is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not represent the opinions of 3ie, its donors or its Board of Commissioners. Any errors and omissions are also the sole responsibility of the authors. Any comments or queries should be directed to the corresponding author Bidisha Barooah at bbarooah@3ieimpact.org. AcknowledgementsWe are thankful to the UK Department for International Development for supporting this study through 3ie's agricultural risk window. We are also thankful to the numerous interviewees and stakeholders to whom we spoke and from whom we took advice. Arundhati Srinivasan and Megha Nath provided excellent research assistance. Last but not least, we thank Ombeline de Bock, Jesse D'Anjou and Tatiana Goetghebuer from ADE Consulting, who contributed to the sections on theory of change.ii SummaryRisks in agricultural production pose a major threat to the economic well-being and development of households in rural areas of developing countries. Indeed, 98 per cent of the world's food-insecure people live in developing countries, and four in five of them are involved in small-scale food production (Food and Agriculture Organisation et al. 2015). A key reason for this is the inability of the smallholder farmer to mitigate, diversify and transfer risks.To deal with shocks and risks that lead to crop and livestock loss, many organisations around the world have proposed, piloted and implemented financial agricultural risk mitigation (FARM) programmes. In this paper, we identify such programmes and strategies and assess the evidence on their effectiveness. Despite the increasing popularity of these programmes, it is unclear whether FARM instruments improve farmer welfare, provide rea...
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