Unlocking the irrigation potential in sub-Saharan Africa: are public-private partnerships the way forward?
Author: Scheumann, Waltina / Annabelle Houdret / Michael Brüntrup
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Opportunities for Private Sector Participation in Agricultural Water Development and Management Author: F. W. T. Penning de Vries, H. Sally and A. Inocencio
Securing decent work for young people in Africa is critical given the large numbers of young people entering the labour force each year (about 11 million). With few opportunities for formal employment in manufacturing and services, agribusinesses offer young people the opportunity to earn income in rural areas. If others emulate them, there is the potential for positive regional spillovers. One institutional innovation that enables young people to mitigate financial and knowledge handicaps is contract farming.
Public Private Partnerships for irrigation and other development is becoming a widely accepted model for financing future agricultural and overall economic development, and was part of the toolkit of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development's (July 2015, Addis Ababa) to approve a framework for financially supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the post-2015 Agenda.
As the impact of climate change on food production for both developed and emerging economies shapes a new set of demands worldwide, there is a need to look at how water resources and irrigation can be optimized to meet the requirements of coming generations. This handbook explores one possible route: the use of public private partnerships (PPPs). PPPs have the potential to facilitate an expanded role for the private sector in irrigation, mobilize expertise in the sector, and ensure medium- to long- term sustainability.
Irrigated agriculture projects, especially those involving smallholder farmers, are difficult to fund on a commercial basis from day one because they cannot deliver short-term predictable financial returns. Unlike other sectors, irrigation projects, are self-contained investments which are linked solely to the local off-take, i.e. the viability of the agricultural activities using the water. Infrastructure providers are thus exposed to market and commodity risks.