WHAT IS AVANTI?

‘AVANTI – Advancing Knowledge for Agricultural Impact’ works with national partners to facilitate systematic self-assessments (‘AG-Scans’) of their country’s capacity to manage for development results in the rural sector. AVANTI is an initiative that aims to strengthen national governments’ Results-Based Management (RBM) practices and contribute to improving reporting against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

AVANTI does this by enhancing capacity in the five pillars of RBM: Leadership, Monitoring & Evaluation, Accountability, Planning & Budgeting, and Statistics. AVANTI’s objective is to improve government decision-making for rural policies and strategies by facilitating the development of an action plan based on the findings of the self-assessment AG-Scan.

HOW AVANTI WORKS

AVANTI has adapted a tried and tested tool – the CAP-Scan – to the rural sector, resulting in the AG-Scan (agricultural scan). The AG-Scan process, methodology and tools are customized to each country context to ensure that each country engages with and owns the process. The AG-Scan motivates key national institutions for rural development, such as government ministries, to assess their capacity and define concrete actions for improvement in a participatory workshop. The output of the AG-Scan is a national action plan owned by the leading institution.

AVANTI identifies knowledge holders and harvests good practices from country AG-Scans to share with an international expert audience online, through exchange and the creation of knowledge products such as blogs, briefs and case studies and in relevant conferences, meetings and events.

A GLOBAL INITIATIVE

By 2021, up to 20 countries* will have taken part in AVANTI, across all IFAD regions.

*The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of AVANTI concerning the delimitation of the frontiers or boundaries, or the authorities thereof.

KEY ELEMENTS OF AVANTI

Country Ownership
AVANTI acts on demands of country governments and is led by a national institution engaged in rural development. It ensures participation of key stakeholders through an in-country team who are familiar with the context and who adapt the methodology, plan and implement the workshop in close collaboration with the lead institution. The resulting action plan is based on self-assessment and consensus among participants and so is wholly owned by them.

Knowledge
AVANTI focuses on the identification, creation and sharing of valuable knowledge. The initiative connects national participants with each other, motivates them to capture knowledge in different ways and share their experiences with a global audience to deepen understanding of sustainable agricultural development and enhance M&E of SDGs for the rural sector in general.

Strengthened Monitoring & Evaluation capacities are vital to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

AVANTI benefits government institutions who want to improve their RBM and ultimately make progress towards SDG results in the agricultural sector. By customizing the AG-Scan to each country, the initiative allows participants to identify and focus on their priority areas.

Evidence-based decision making is enhanced by strengthened M&E capacity and systems at country level

AVANTI by 2021

Up to 20 countries will have participated in the AG-Scan self-assessment and developed a subsequent action plan
Up to 20 countries implement their action plans
More governments and international financial institutions recognize the usefulness of Results-Based Management for rural policy and programme development and invest in it.

AVANTI PARTNERS

AVANTI is implemented by country teams of national and international consultants with the guidance of:

IFAD
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an International Financial Institution and specialized UN agency that works on reducing poverty and food insecurity by investing in rural people for agricultural and rural development.

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation
A learning-oriented INGO focused on poverty reduction of Disadvantaged Groups through project implementation, capacity development and advocacy.

Itad
Monitoring and evaluation specialists who provide insight and ideas to drive more effective use of resources in international development. Itad measures what works, where and why.

Download AVANTI Brochure [pdf, 3.1mb]

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