How Do We Improve Public Expenditure in Agriculture?

Abstract

This paper synthesizes lessons learned
 from the Department for International Development-World Bank
 (DFID-WB) partnership, to provide guidance on ways to
 improve the allocation and efficiency of public spending for
 agricultural growth and poverty reduction. It includes
 lessons on how to improve data quality, the composition and
 impact of spending, budget execution, and the integration of
 off-budget expenditures. The paper synthesizes recurring
 lessons that have emerged from the commissioned work, to
 highlight key challenges that still remain to improve the
 efficiency of public expenditure planning and implementation
 in the agriculture sector, as well as offering options for
 improvement. The paper is accompanied by a separate
 document, the Agricultural Public Expenditure Reviews
 (AgPER) toolkit, which is a practical guide for
 practitioners tasked with carrying out AgPERs in the future.
 The paper is structured around the Budget Cycle Framework
 (BCF), to facilitate the identification of entry points to
 improve expenditure outcomes.