In the past decade, there has been over $7 billion worth of private-sector investments into Nigeria’s agriculture sector. Why, and what is the impact of these investments? What does it mean for Nigerian farmers? Just under 95% of those investments came from the fertilizer sector ($6.6 billion). Historically, fertilizer was considered the government’s turf where the Ministry of Agriculture was the buyer (through tenders or contracted suppliers), and the state governments were the primary customer. Thus, in most cases the private sector did not have a strong connection to the smallholder farmer and fertilizer was typically a scarce commodity when the rains began to fall.

But the market in Nigeria is changing. Throughout the past decade, the government ceased announcing fertilizer tenders. During this period, the private sector invested in large-scale urea nitrogen plants in the country (urea is a nitrogen-based product which is one of the three key nutrients — phosphorus and potassium being the other two — needed for plant growth). This has transitioned Nigeria from being a net importer of nitrogen-based fertilizers to becoming a net exporter.

Domestic urea plant capacity has grown from approximately 500,000 MT per annum to current capacity of over 6,000,000 MT per annum. In the past, fertilizer consumption would spike around the national election cycle as the supply would be tied to government issued tenders. Since 2016, nitrogen consumption has realized a consistent increase in domestic consumption peaking at 1,303,423 in 2021 as shown in the chart below. 

As the timeline highlights, the roles of the private sector and the public sector are shifting. Since the 1960s and through recent times, the government has been heavily involved in the supply of fertilizer to farmers through tenders, subsidies, and importations. During this time, the private sector was often considered a middle-man that did not add value in the supply chain.

Representatives from Development Gateway: an IREX Venture (DG) will be attending the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) from September 5-9 in Kigali, Rwanda to highlight two projects: the Visualizing Insights on African Agriculture (VIFAA) project and the Farmer-Centric Data Governance Models project.

DG has worked in agriculture since 2015, but it was only in our last strategy cycle that Agriculture was specifically elevated as a strategic area of focus. That decision was largely shaped by several projects, where our experience as data experts allowed us to support partners to map agricultural data ecosystems, collate and unify data sources, and support specific sector policy and service delivery objectives using data and digital tools. Additionally, we saw agriculture as an under-served sector in data and technology, as compared for example to health and education. We felt that we had a unique contribution to make in agriculture at the beginning of our 2018-2021 strategy, and based on the rapid growth and successes of our work, are continuing to scale our work in agriculture through this new strategy.

Building Trust in Data

Our work in agriculture has made clear that, with the right partnerships, our expertise in data and technology does not require us to become experts in the sector in order to add value. Our success has come from our expertise in data and digital combined with our ability to build trust between partners. For example, through Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) program, we worked with Africafertilizer.org and other partners to combine and then validate separate datasets from the private sector, government, and civil society. That collated data has been visualized on dashboards to provide a fuller picture of the entire sector. 

We have also built trust in the cashew and seed sector supply chains through improved data governance including MoU’s and data sharing agreements. A focus on improved data governance has allowed us to reduce fragmentation and data silos, which in turn has made data beneficial for decision makers in the private sector as well as those making policy decisions. 

What is the Future of Data & Digital in Agriculture?

There is tremendous opportunity for innovation in the agriculture sector, but a few that we are particularly interested in are:

• Ethical Use of Remote sensing and Machine Learning – We have seen significant advances in remote sensing and machine learning, which we have harnessed to provide cropland maps in Nigeria and Ghana for the first time since the 1970s. Innovation can drive down costs and allow for more consistent data collection, which we have seen clearly through the cropland mapping.
• Responsible Data Use – In general, we have increased our focus on responsible data use and data governance and this focus will include the agricultural sector as well. This means looking at data sharing agreements between stakeholders, but also increasingly looking at data governance models that protect smallholder farmers and include them more directly.
• Creating Partnerships and Combined Approaches – We have also seen that there are many paths to impacting smallholder farmers. Historically we have focused more on upstream policy interventions and support to the private sector that have the trickle-down effect of helping the farmer. As we move further into digital innovations, we anticipate that there will be more opportunities for DG to work directly with smallholder farmers.

We are taking a two week break from the podcast to take this conversation about our work in agriculture to in-person presentations and conversations at AGRF. If you are there, please connect with DG! Otherwise, we will be back in a few weeks for our final episode in this series where we will discuss digital transformation.

Since 2005, one of our primary points of entry into working in new countries has been DG’s Aid Management Program (AMP). The AMP program has been a way to meet partners and better understand the country and context, and new opportunities have flowed from there. However, that approach has historically been more opportunistic than strategic. We have learned a lot from working in 75 countries, but in the last strategy cycle we made an intentional effort to narrow our regional scope and focus on areas where we had existing team members and we thought we could make a deeper, sustained impact. We have found that the ability to work repeatedly with the same government partners builds trust, understanding of the context, and makes it easier to deliver results. In our new strategy we plan to deepen and expand our work in East and West Africa, but also through our partnership with IREX to start working in Central America too.

Expanding into Central America

In the past 20 years, there has been a shift in international development funding in Central America as some donors have sought to limit their funding and others have doubled down. Additionally, the region is experiencing a degradation of democracy and various factors influencing instability. At the same time we see significant opportunities to support the region. First, through our partnership with IREX, which already has a presence in the region and programs in many Central American countries. Second, the combination of Central America’s still emerging tech sector and portions of DG’s tech team that are fluent in Spanish (based in Argentina) creates an opportunity to put DG’s expertise in digital and data to use. Finally, from our previous work globally, we have learned how to invest in institutions and people in a way that survives political instability.

Building on Our Work in West & Francophone Africa

We hear from partners and funders that DG is unique for our work in West Africa, as many peer organizations have struggled to work sustainably in the region. We attribute a significant portion of our success to having a team based in West Africa that is fluent in French and local languages. Understanding the local context and being able to scale, flex, and adapt our work to each country and sector has been crucial.

Going Deeper in East & Southern Africa

In East and Southern Africa, DG has been at the forefront of digital transformation, through our AMP program, but also through our work in procurement and open contracting. We have found success through our sustainable approaches including investing heavily in subnational data use and local level capacity building. DG has always designed our tools and approaches with the end-user in mind and now the broader development community is making that shift as well.

Tying it All Together 

Our global team members are both curious and eager to learn from one another. While each region has its own unique circumstances, we look for lessons that are cross-applicable. My conversation with Carmen, Vanessa, and Charlene highlighted just how universal some concepts are – for example, data governance, data usability, and sustainability. Additionally, while a team member may be based in Dakar, they often have worked in East and West Africa in addition to other regions globally. All of these experiences combined with our expertise give DG a solid foundation for building a new portfolio in Central America. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned as we expand our regional footprint in the coming years.

Last year, we wrote about some of the issues and discussions around data governance. As data and technology remain increasingly central to how governments, institutions, groups, and individuals all interact with one another and among themselves, we wanted to update our conversation and outline some of the best practices that Development Gateway (DG) has learned through our data governance work.

Best Practices in Developing Data Governance Frameworks

At DG, we have helped organizations think through how they manage their data and supported them to develop data governance frameworks that work in their specific contexts. We have similarly developed frameworks of our own in our projects. Through our Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) program, we worked with partners to develop a governance framework that improves trust in data sharing by clarifying how sensitive data would be protected. The Tobacco Control Data Initiative (TCDI), as one of the first DG projects to include primary data collection, has developed program-wide data management protocols to guide end-to-end data management. These latest efforts are built on a deep history of supporting data strategies more broadly and have helped us identify several best practices when it comes to data governance. Below are a few highlights.

1. Map the structures, and mirror pre-existing processes

In creating data governance frameworks, DG begins by understanding existing roles, responsibilities, and tools using interviews to fill in the gaps. After all, there is little use proposing a governance system that is not fundamentally practical for those who will use it and be guided by it. DG has seen the importance of creating data governance processes that mirror an institution’s pre-existing processes when possible; doing so increases the likelihood that individuals at the institution will follow the new processes and security procedures. In 2020, DG and partners worked with the WHO to identify gaps and opportunities to strengthen implementation of their data sharing policies. By mapping the existing structures, we were able to provide clear practical guidance at different levels of the institution that reflected an understanding of the need to build on, rather than add to, existing data management responsibilities.

2. Put stakeholder relationships at the center

Putting stakeholder relationships at the center of data governance frameworks helps connect the dots between mapping existing structures and figuring out how to transform them. DG worked with organizations to help them identify and design risk mitigation strategies through the co-development of data management protocols or memorandums of understanding which safely manage data and maintain trust with data sharing partners. For example, through VIFAA, we developed a data management plan with stakeholders which helped the private sector feel comfortable sharing their data. This plan also doubled as an opportunity to support our partners in strengthening their data management practices. 

3. Follow data privacy law or, in its absence, create best practices based on exemplary laws in other contexts

From Kenya to India, countries are adopting national data privacy laws at great speed. However, when there are no local, national, or regional laws that address data governance, DG recommends identifying such laws in other contexts that provide the highest level of privacy protection and security as well as incorporating key guiding principles outlined in these laws. For example, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one of the most detailed laws and can act as a guide on how to approach storage, sharing, and disposal of data to help frame a rigorous governance approach that satisfies partners worried about their data falling into the wrong hands. Importantly, when the actors create best practices based on GDPR or similar legislation, they must adapt these best practices to the context in which they are working, as certain aspects in the model legislation might not fit.  

4. Stay local

When an international organization, governing body, or other institution is gathering data, our recommended best practice is to emphasize keeping the governance of data at the local government level in order to promote data use and strengthen local data ecosystems. DG recommends that this localized ownership of data is planned from the beginning of the data gathering process. Through our work on the Cashew-IN platform in partnership with Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) and the US Department of Agriculture, we are working to improve the availability of data for the cashew sector in West Africa. The data governance plan includes working through a steering committee in each country made up of sector stakeholders and MOUs with detailed data gathering/retention guidelines to underscore government ownership of final products. Keeping data decisions at the country level rather than the regional/program level has made stakeholders feel more comfortable to share their data.

5. Build protections into tech

In developing specific technological tools, DG has built location fuzzing into dashboards upon request. For example, understanding the need to protect vulnerable individuals, we designed our ​​Premand Neonatal and Maternal Dashboard to protect sensitive location data while still providing enough data to inform decision-making among stakeholders.

What’s Next in Data Governance? 

Creating for Context

Conversation around data governance is moving toward how to create “fit for context,” sector-specific approaches in data governance frameworks. For example, the health sector has historically seen a wealth of detailed protocols (in part because of the high stakes nature of sensitive health data).  One of the next major frontiers for sector-specific data governance frameworks is in agriculture. A proliferation of mobile and web-based applications are increasingly collecting farmer data. Guidance is still evolving on how to ensure farmers gain the most benefit (i.e., improved efficiency in supply chains) and not the downsides (i.e., risks to land ownership, exploitation, etc.). 

We are starting to explore this in work with USAID that maps farmer-centric data governance models and with IFAD, as they seek to scale digital agriculture approaches across their programs. We are hoping to “watch this space” to see whether and how these program-by-program approaches scale into national and regional policy frameworks. (Learn more about our farmer-centric data governance work here.)

Protecting the Local while Informing the Regional and Global

Thanks to the way corporations work across borders, it is no longer uncommon to see data collected in country A and stored in country B while influencing decision-making in country C. However, because of data localization policies, barriers are often created in sharing this data, and these barriers stymie the subsequent decision-making and policy-making this data could inform. (There is a robust conversation in the private sector about how these barriers to data flows can impact innovation.)

What does the existence of these barriers mean in the open data/development space? After all, in this space, we think about improving regional linkages (e.g., regional crop supply chains such as fertilizer or cashews) which could increasingly require combining data across borders in order to get a fuller picture. However, sharing data across borders also, rightfully, provokes concerns around privacy.

Kenya has started to tackle these thorny issues in the development of accompanying regulations for its data privacy law. DG has worked with the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT) at Strathmore to weigh in on several draft regulations on these issues. We have a long way to go to see what restraints make it into the final regulations and how these will be enforced. 

Emerging Technologies

Last, but not least, what will it look like to transform emerging technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning into practical tools that communities and government officials can use to shape decisions in their daily lives and ensure that governance and privacy models are fit for these new technologies? At DG, we have seen how machine learning models can bypass labor intensive mapping to produce whole countries’ cropland usage with high levels of accuracy.

How could or should this affect who owns, uses, updates, and discards the data behind these models? We are looking forward to these conversations and how these can add to ongoing approaches to finding a balance between innovation and protection. 

Conclusion

Data governance approaches are proliferating at national, regional, and international levels, almost faster than we can keep up with. Over the past few years at DG, we have zeroed in on some of the practices that we believe work—namely, centralizing mapping, stakeholder relationships, local ownership, and privacy-forward technology—to help us develop and support strong data governance frameworks. We hope to carry these lessons forward as the governance space continues to shift, addressing new challenges (and opportunities) that arise within specific sectors, across borders, and facing exciting emerging technologies. We will continue to share what we learn as we encounter evolving data governance challenges and hope that you will engage us in conversation as well! 

Photo Credit: Donald Giannatti

Where Are We Going?

Widening DG’s Focus

To understand the new Strategic Plan, we need to discuss the previous Strategic Plan. DG has historically been a technology generalist, but in the last strategy we made a really intentional decision to focus on specific sectors (health, agriculture, and public financial management) and to concentrate specifically in West and East Africa. In addition to our work as implementers, we added a work stream of data strategy and policy. By narrowing our focus in the last plan, we were able to better understand our core value proposition and programmatic offerings. We found that as we worked in fewer regions, more intentionally and deeply, we were able to deliver better change. Now, with our new Strategic Plan, we are uniquely situated to thoughtfully build upon that consolidated base and to scale our impact.

The Current Global Moment

Throughout the conversation, Vanessa, Aleks, and Kristin highlighted the importance of the current moment in global affairs. Between the largest youth population in human history, recent democratic backsliding, societal changes from the COVID-19 pandemic, and more, now is a crucial moment to reassess how we can best use data and digital to solve problems. 

A Growth Agenda

In 2020, I wrote that “A global pandemic may not be the ideal business environment to pursue a growth agenda, but we believe that now is the time for DG to be bolder, and that this boldness will require that we also be bigger.” We are explicit in the new strategic plan that we intend to double the size of DG in the next three years. We see that the world and technology are rapidly changing and if we do not match the scale of these challenges and opportunities, and make aggressive strides, we risk not having the impact DG is capable of. This is where the partnership with IREX is important. By growing our work together, we know that we can leverage our strengths for even deeper change.

DG has spent the last few years positioning ourselves for this growth. We have prioritized systems and processes that will allow us to grow while preserving our culture of innovation and learning, the quality of our work, and while remaining a good partner. In many ways, this is not the beginning of a growth agenda, but rather the midway point. We are now in a position to accelerate this growth in a responsible and impactful way.

This growth agenda also means growing our global team. Over the past five years, DG has gone from 50% based in the United States to less than 25% of our team being based in the US. Our team is now based in more than a dozen countries around the world, and we plan to continue that trend in this growth cycle.

The Process

We had intended to release this Strategic Plan over a year ago, but early in the strategy process our conversations with IREX started, and so we put the Strategic Plan on hold. Last October we finalized the partnership and established a new board, which allowed us to restart the strategy process. From a nuts-and-bolts perspective, we worked closely with the board, but we also wanted it to be a broadly inclusive process as well. In the early stages of development we had one-on-one conversations with DGers to understand what the team was seeing in their programming, what they were excited about, what was working and what was not, and where they saw opportunities. In March, we held an all hands meeting to present a general outline, talk about the process, and allow the team to ask questions. In April, the full DG team had the opportunity to read the strategy and make any additional comments. Throughout the process we had many touchpoints for comments from both the Board and from DGers, which was important for shaping the Strategic Plan.

The Partnership 

IREX is a crucial part of this strategy cycle, and specifically in our growth trajectory. We have had much interest from other nonprofit leaders in how the partnership came together. This came out in my conversation with Kristin as well. Both Kristin and I agree that the most important part is figuring out what you want to do together and why. From there, it is much easier to select a method of partnership. Kristin also emphasized that there is a spectrum to how a partnership of this kind could look – from full merger to a more dedicated plan of working together.

Background and Crisis

Starting in early 2022, fertilizer prices rose almost 30% due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFO has been tracking data related to price and availability across 20 countries in Africa, and the data shows that fertilizer stocks are problematically low, an urgent issue that was seen during the most recent planting season. The image below shows the levels of fertilizer availability in June 2022, with the majority of countries analyzed having limited or low/none fertilizer supply.

Why Does Fertilizer Matter?

We know that increased fertilizer consumption is one factor that can contribute to food security by improving soil health and increasing crop yields. Prior to the invasion, across sub-Saharan Africa, fertilizer use was already insufficient to replace soil nutrients lost every year to crop production and further constrained by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Eighty percent of the total fertilizer consumed across sub-Saharan Africa is imported. Overall, West Africa accounts for 40% of all fertilizer consumed in sub-Saharan Africa. East and Southern Africa make up the remaining 60%. Nigeria is one of the few countries that does not rely on imports to meet fertilizer demand as they produce 70% of their fertilizer domestically. Currently Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, and Zimbabwe are reporting limited inventory and that they will not be able to meet the needs of farmers in the current planting season. Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi (existing VIFAA countries) are also showing a sizable gap in fertilizer supply. 

Policymakers must consider how to structure fertilizer subsidies to meet different demand needs across different countries. If the market is adequately subsidized, this usually incentivizes farmers to increase fertilizer use and impacts the amount of fertilizer demanded for each planting season. Whether subsidies in times of crisis have a positive effect on the market depends on a number of factors. Subsidies often distort markets by creating parallel distribution models—subsidized and commercial value chains, often to the detriment of the private suppliers. In times of crisis, the structure of subsidies could be the difference between farmers having enough fertilizer to meet their needs versus experiencing severe shortages. In countries that are subsidizing fertilizer to counter price increases from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, farmers are seeing the benefit. 

A Deep Dive

Across sub-Saharan Africa, there are severe shortages of fertilizer coupled with high fertilizer prices. Without interventions, this could have disastrous consequences for food security. An estimate from IFDC shows a fertilizer demand reduction of 30% in 2022 is equivalent to 30 million metric tons (MT) less food produced or the sustenance requirements of around 100 million people. To understand the impacts more clearly, we will use Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria as illustrative examples – both because of their importance in the African markets and because the VIFAA Dashboards offer a comprehensive picture of the situation.

Ghana

Currently, Ghana is reporting only 38% of the inventory needed toward the total 550kt demand. The Ghanaian market is highly subsidized and was already experiencing a 61% reduction in fertilizer consumption in 2021 as a result of existing supply chain issues. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has further impacted Ghana by decreasing the global fertilizer supply and thus driving up the prices on whatever fertilizers are available on the market. For most farmers, the current prices are out of reach. In the image below, the low levels of fertilizer imports from August to December 2021 were due to supply chain issues related to COVID-19. The significant decrease in imports seen in April (see image below) occurred because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ghana is particularly reliant on fertilizer from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. In 2020, 10% of Ghana’s fertilizer was from the region. That number rose to 18% in 2021 and was at 52% as of May 2022. And as a heavy consumer of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium – key macro-nutrients in crop production), Ghana has been particularly affected.

As the invasion of Ukraine continues, high fertilizer prices and limited availability are exposing Ghana to reduced tonnages, leading to reduced consumption figures and subsequently, lower production yields. The image below shows the steady increase in the price of fertilizer after January 2022.

Kenya

Kenya also has limited access to fertilizer. Like Ghana, Kenya is seeing continued high prices in the fertilizer market. The government has intervened with an emergency subsidy program for 114 KT, but it is unclear if this support is timely enough to address the supply chain issues for the current planting season. The main cropping season in Kenya is May to July. At this point, what has not already been purchased or secured will not be available for the current season. The image below shows the sharp decline in fertilizer consumption in 2022 compared to the previous two years. 

Kenya has historically relied on Russia for a sizable proportion of its fertilizer needs, but has had to readjust due to sanctions on Russian exports. In 2022, there was a sharp decline in fertilizer volumes coming from these countries. Kenya has historically imported all of its fertilizer from Russia for tea production. The rise in fertilizer prices globally means Kenya’s other fertilizer requirements are also challenged.

Nigeria

Fertilizer prices have risen in Nigeria, although it remains one of the few countries in the region that is self-sufficient in fertilizer production. Sixty-four percent of the needed inventory is available for the current cropping season, which provides some stability. Nigeria has also been able to hedge extreme price increases due to the existing 6 MT production capacity for urea. Urea traded locally is cheaper than international prices, giving Nigeria an advantage in terms of affordability because of this large production potential. Nigeria also has an established contract with Morocco to trade ammonia for phosphates, ensuring price stability. Eastern Europe supplies a relatively low percentage of fertilizer to Nigeria. Food security is still a major concern as Nigeria is highly dependent on importing food staples such as wheat and rice.

Muriate of potash (MOP) imports are the most affected fertilizer type with limited availability and record high prices. Without MOP, there will be a nutrient imbalance in Nigeria’s fertilizer blends. Nigeria has made strides in fertilizer consumption through the President’s Fertilizer Initiative (PFI). In the past 4 years of implementation (2017 to 2020), the PFI program facilitated the local production and supply of 1.5 million MT of NPK 20:10:10 fertilizer, resuscitated and established 41 blending plants across 17 states, achieved controlled reduction in the price of NPK fertilizer, created over 250,000 direct and indirect jobs across the fertilizer value chain and accrued substantial annual subsidy and FX savings. However, the current shortages and price spikes could put all the gains made at risk.

Areas of Intervention

Without intervention, the fertilizer shortages caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine will create a food security crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. The markets in this region are severely challenged in securing fertilizer for this cropping season, which will likely mean scaling down the amount of fertilizer used by farmers both because of the high price of existing fertilizer and limited availability. Ultimately, the reduction will be reflected in crop yields during harvest season. Reduced yields could mean both high food prices and increased food insecurity within the region. This problem is exacerbated by overall price inflation and the fact that most African economies are heavily dependent on agriculture.

There are several interventions to consider:

• Temporary Subsidies – Governments could step in with temporary subsidies to stimulate procurement from global suppliers outside of Eastern Europe. Kenya has followed this route by buying fertilizer at a high cost on the global market and then subsidizing the cost for farmers locally. Tanzania is also considering adding subsidies as a feature of their bulk procurement system.
• Financing – Importers in sub-Saharan Africa are reporting that financing is currently the biggest barrier. In 2021, a 30kt Urea vessel cost $9 million. This year the cost is three or four times that amount. Financiers at this level are unable to match the costs and have had to be creative to keep their businesses alive by, for example, importing smaller quantities of fertilizers at a higher price.
• Tracking Market Dynamics – Closely tracking market dynamics including price and availability can help inform policy and business decisions. We encourage all stakeholders to reference the VIFAA dashboards to inform interventions across sub-Saharan Africa.
• Invest in Production Capacity – In the mid- to long-term, investing heavily in production capacity domestically or at the intra-African level could insulate sub-Saharan Africa from future risks associated with net importers. Nigeria is an example of a country that has reduced its risk related to fertilizer supply. Other examples include Morocco as an exporter of phosphates, and potentially, the Democratic Republic of Congo with potash reserves yet to be exploited commercially.
• Nutrient Use Efficiency – Identifying ways to prioritize fertilizer use for the crop value chains with the highest return on investment for farmers. A massive farmer awareness campaign and support to farmer organizations doing outreach could be beneficial.

The Africa Fertilizer Watch: Tracking Fertilizer across sub-Saharan Africa 

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Development Gateway, IFDC, and AFO developed a COVID-19 Fertilizer Watch Dashboard to support the fertilizer supply chain to visualize related data and respond to the crisis. Similarly, we have developed the Africa Fertilizer Watch to visualize indicators related to the current crisis. The Africa Fertilizer Watch Dashboard will focus on key fertilizer market indicators to support development partners’ and the private sector’s efficient and effective responses to the price increases related to the evolving emergencies and ensure that sufficient quantities of appropriate fertilizers reach farmers in time for planting. This early warning system could inform decisions on subsidies, early positioning of cargo from global markets, credit guarantee schemes, development partners involvement through finance mechanisms, or other interventions to protect fertilizer availability. Indicators include overall market risk, exposure related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, sector responses, affordability, availability, allocations, port and logistics, and transit and borders. 

Development Gateway: an IREX Venture (DG) envisions a world where institutions listen and respond to the needs of their constituents; are accountable; and are efficient in targeting and delivering services that improve lives. Today, we are announcing our strategy for the next steps in achieving that vision.

The new Fiscal Year 2023 to 2025 Strategic Plan builds on two decades of supporting all levels of government, civil society organizations, and other development actors to thoughtfully deploy technology in ways that are sustainable and impactful. DG will continue to design technical tools and programs that meet the needs of public-serving institutions; advise on institutional digital strategy, global data policy, and the evaluation and use of emerging technologies; build scalable technologies that are user friendly, interoperable, and that support informed decision-making; and learn & share from our own experience overcoming barriers and challenges.

Recognizing that the growing demand for our work far exceeded our size and ability to deliver, in 2021 DG entered into a strategic partnership with IREX, becoming an IREX Venture and joining forces with a larger, global, mission-aligned nonprofit. This partnership represents a transformational opportunity to rapidly expand DG’s impact, while maintaining our quality, creativity, and contextualized approach to data and digital development. We will leverage our combined talent and strengths to address the new-to-DG thematic areas of underperforming educational institutions, marginalized youth, and distrust in public institutions and media. At the same time we will continue our work in health, extractives, open contracting, and data strategy, while diving deeper into our existing work in agriculture. Additionally, by embracing new approaches such as digital advisory services and responsibly piloting emerging technology we hope to greatly accelerate and scale up our impact. 

To accelerate greater impact, we will expand our geographical footprint through our strategic relationship with IREX, marrying our organizational strengths and focusing on key regions where we project the greatest likelihood to bring about lasting results. We will partner with communities in new regions such as Central America and Eastern Europe, while expanding our existing portfolio in East, West, and Southern Africa.

Background

On July 24, Development Gateway: an IREX Venture (DG), the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), and AfricaFertilizer.org (AFO) released an update to the Africa Fertilizer Watch Dashboard, a project which grew out of the AFO and DG’s Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) program. The VIFAA Program aims to improve, manage, and visualize fertilizer data in Africa. The Africa Fertilizer Watch Dashboard was originally developed to track COVID-19’s impact on the fertilizer sector. The Dashboard has been updated to cover ten countries in Eastern and Southern Africa and includes added indicators designed to track the impact of the invasion of Ukraine on the delivery and use of fertilizers across the continent. The Africa Fertilizer Watch supports efficient and effective responses to the evolving food and fertilizer crises and ensures that sufficient quantities of appropriate fertilizers reach farmers in time for planting.  

Currently, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the lowest fertilizer usage in the world; it is insufficient to replace the soil nutrients lost every year to crop production. In addition, huge demographic shifts in SSA could have a major impact on food security. Understanding where and how barriers to fertilizer access and availability are affecting farmers is crucial for agricultural productivity.

The Africa Fertilizer Watch was developed through a partnership between IFDC’s AFO initiative and Development Gateway. It is jointly funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, through the Feed the Future Soil Fertility Technology Adoption, Policy Reform, and Knowledge Management under the Sustainable Opportunities for Improving Livelihoods with Soils (SOILS) Consortium, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through the Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) program. Other technical partners include the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) and AFRIQOM.

Russia is the world’s largest exporter of fertilizers. Given that the continent of Africa relies on Russia for some of its fertilizer needs, the Africa Fertilizer Watch monitors the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on fertilizer market systems in SSA. Other key indicators are related to the affordability and availability of fertilizer within the SSA region.

Africa Fertilizer Watch: Tracking the Fertilizer Situation Across Sub-Saharan Africa

The Africa Fertilizer Watch is publicly available online and monitors eight indicators: overall fertilizer market risk with regard to stock levels and supply anomalies, availability, affordability, and distribution measures to track and visualize the invasion of Ukraine’s impact on access and use of fertilizers across Africa. It also monitors:

• how countries are allocating fertilizer, whether for food production or otherwise, in light of the global fertilizer crisis
• countries monthly inventory level
• government responses to the ongoing crisis
• and fertilizer-specific measures and/or logistical issues affecting the movement of fertilizers from ports to farms (ports, roads, borders, retail, stocks, and sector-wide responses). 

Data on the war in Ukraine is obtained from various public press releases. Overviews of market risk, affordability/availability, and distribution bottlenecks are informed by direct communications from fertilizer stakeholders and regional fertilizer associations, government agencies, local media, and other relevant trackers. The Africa Fertilizer Watch data is periodically updated as needed or as new information is available. More information about the methodology can be found on the Africa Fertilizer Watch website.

Project Partners

International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) – As an independent non-profit organization, IFDC works throughout Africa and Asia to increase soil fertility and develop inclusive market systems. Combining science-backed innovations, an enabling policy environment, holistic market systems development, and strategic partnerships, the organization bridges the gap between identifying and scaling sustainable agricultural solutions, resulting in improved household food security and enriched family livelihoods around the world. Using an inclusive approach, IFDC employs locally driven solutions that are environmentally sound and impact oriented that bring change at local, regional, and national levels.

Sustainable Opportunities for Improving Livelihoods with Soils (SOILS) Consortium – IFDC has implemented the USAID-funded Bureau for Resilience and Food Security Feed the Future Sustainable Opportunities for Improving Livelihoods with Soils (SOILS) Consortium (BRFS-SFT-SOILS) program since 2015. The project bridges the gap between scientific research and technology dissemination to smallholder farmers. BRFS-SFT conducts research with partners from universities, national and international research and development institutions, and the private sector. The overall goal of SOILS is to offer practical, profitable, scale-appropriate soil, and land-use management technologies and recommendations for healthier and productive farming systems globally. SOILS priority areas include developing and transferring soil fertility technologies that improve nutrient use efficiency, in alignment with the 4Rs of Nutrient Stewardship: right source, right time, right rate, and right place. This is achieved by strengthening inorganic fertilizer-based systems and promoting integrated soil health and fertility management practices for optimal economic returns, focusing on smallholder cropping systems.

AfricaFertilizer.org (AFO) – the premier source for fertilizer statistics and information in Africa. It is hosted by IFDC and supported by several partners, key among them being the International Fertilizer Association (IFA), Argus Media, and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation through Development Gateway under the VIFAA program. Since 2009, AFO has been collecting, processing, and publishing fertilizer production, trade, and consumption statistics for the main fertilizer markets in sub-Saharan Africa. AFO has an extensive network of fertilizer industry players in the main fertilizer trade corridors and maintains key information on the major producers, their production facilities and capacities, importers/suppliers, and various distribution channels.

African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) – an independent non-profit organization founded in 2012 by a partnership of African development organizations. It was built on the work of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), a framework for achieving ambitious agriculture development goals set by African nations and leaders. AFAP implements sustainable development projects and advises the public sector, private sector clients, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and donors on policies and market-driven business solutions in the agriculture inputs and agribusiness value chain. AFAP is a technical partner of the Africa Fertilizer Watch.

AFRIQOM – an independent privately held firm that provides market research, analytics, trading intelligence, and consultancy studies, with a focus on African fertilizer markets. By doing so, and being the leaders on the continent, AFRIQOM brings transparency to an opaque market to help and contribute to an Africa Green Revolution. AFRIQOM has recently launched the AFRIQEVENTS program, in partnership with major associations, for conferences around the continent that offer a novel platform to develop the fertilizer consumption rate in Africa.