By: Dwight Links
The Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) tabled a report in the National Assembly illustrating how the Ministry of Agriculture, Water & Land Reform (MAWLR) was not track to meeting targets in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Two (SDG 2): Zero Hunger by 2030.
These targets are listed under 2.3 and 2.4 for the three financial years from 2020 to 2023.
Target 2.3 stipulates that a nation should have doubled the agricultural productivity and incomes of the small-scale farmers.
“These include women, indigenous people, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers. The measures should include the securing and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment,” the target states.
Target 2.4 indicates that sustainable food production systems should be achieved by 2030.
This “includes the implementation of resilient farming measures or agricultural practices that increase productivity and production. These have to help maintain ecosystems, strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, and other disasters,” the second target outlines.
OUR PATH
The Auditor-General’s office outlined that the aim was to understand to which extent the Ministry had been making strides in reaching the targets stipulated under SDG 2: Zero Hunger.
“The findings indicate that the ministry ensures inter-sectoral synergy policies to implement the two targets of 2.3 and 2.4. However, the ministry lacks the coordination and cross-sector synergies. This lack of horizontal coherence creates a risk of duplication of efforts and hampers the achievement of SDG targets,” the report indicates.
On the aspect of the implementation ability of the ministry, the report looked into the quality of the data used to meet the SDG targets.
“Data analysed by the Namibia Statistics Agency, MAWLR, and key stakeholders did not improve the quality of a government-led statistical system for developing periodic targets for SDG 2.3 and 2.4, and developing data management systems for accurate reporting,” the findings noted in the report.
The AOG went on to report that data extracted from relevant stakeholders also did not show alignment with the targets.
“Documentary reviews revealed that SDG target 2.4 on sustainable food production systems was not reflected in the baseline, and the National Planning Commission’s Voluntary National Review Reports were silent on the implementation of these targets. The MAWLR also failed to provide evidence of accurately reporting strategic objectives to food security and productivity,” the OAG indicated in their findings.
PERFORMANCE BASED
Looking into the overall performance of the ministry in accordance with the strategic plan, the report indicates that the various initiatives that the directorates and divisions of the ministry were part of were surveyed.
“The audit reveals that the Directorate of Agricultural Production, Extension and Engineering Services (DAPEES) and the Directorate of Agricultural Research and Development (DARD) failed to provide evidence of performance improvement in achieving targeted seed production, adaptive research activities, advisory services, and conservation agriculture practices,” the report noted in its findings.
The responses provided by the ministry noted that there was an ongoing initiative for the increment of seed producers, noting:
“DARD, with the support from NAMSIP trained and increased the number of seed growers, secured additional hectares (30) of land at Sikondo Irrigation project for seed multiplication and fixed irrigation systems and other related electrical works on irrigation system.”
In turn, the OAG responded by pointing to the lack of evidence of efforts to achieve the set targets outlined in the SDG.
“A revised table of figures was provided on the targets by the ministry, however, the audit found that the revised figures did not reconcile with the figures reported in the government accountability reports,” the OAG indicated.
