The Consumption Effects of Agricultural Policies: A Project Review and Evaluation

Excerpts: Forty-three participants from the United States and seven developing countries spent the week of November 7-10, 1983 discussing ways to understand better how agricultural and other economic development policies affect patterns of food consumption and the nutritional well-being of poor people in developing countries. This is one of the objectives of the Office of Nutrition's "Consumption Effects of Agricultural Policies" (CEAP) project. The purpose of the workshop was to evaluate project progress, summarize the lessons learned and develop guidelines for a second phase of activities. Representatives to the workshop came from AID Washington, AID field missions and host country governments in the countries in which the studies were undertaken, and from the contractors who carried out the studies. The workshop was organized by the Nutrition Economics Group in the Department of Agriculture, the Group that has responsibility for implementing the CEAP project under a RSSA agreement between AID and the Department of Agriculture. To provide a common basis for discussion, contractors were asked to describe briefly their study — its policy focus; the policy impacts identified, including the consumption impacts; their experiences collaborating with host country institutions and individuals; the dissemination of the results and reactions to the findings; and the data sources and analytical methods used.