Future Agricultures provided evidence, policy framing and analytical input into three civil society organisations (CSOs) in Malawi – the Civil Society Agricultural Network (CISANET), the Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) and the National Association of Smallholder Farmers of Malawi (NASFAM) as well as the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources (PCANR).  

Working in partnership with these organisations enabled FAC members to concentrate on their comparative advantage of research and analysis, with the CSOs able to use their much larger advocacy capacity and political weight to use evidence and analysis from FAC for policy influencing. This approach is in line with the engagement strategy of ‘encouraging others to be catalysts in policy debates and alliances’, but goes further than encouragement in the provision of evidence and analysis.

Although assessing attribution in this multi-actor process is difficult, the approach was deemed effective and significant policy influencing opportunities are underway, including the National Agricultural Policy.

Source: FAC Evaluation, December 2014