DR Congo, October 2019
NRDS revision process in DR Congo
DRC produced a first draft of the NRDS that remained to be completed, since the last CARD working week held in November 2018 in Kinshasa. Despite the presidential election process in the country however, the task force had since managed to work on the drafting of the revised NRDS. This working week was organized from 14th to 18th October 2019; to assess the progress made by the taskforce on the drafting and continue the NRDS revision process.
During the working week, the taskforce established a logical Framework for the development of rice sector in the DRC. The key elements include the following: –
- Vision: By 2030, transform DRC into a rice granary for Central Africa with an organized, profitable and sustainable rice sector.
- Overall Objectives: 1. to increase the quantity and improve the quality of rice production in the DRC in order to meet the national and regional markets’ needs; 2. to structure rice value chain in order to ensure a sustainable performance for all its stakeholders.
- Specific Objectives: SO1: Improve productivity and increase rice production in rice development poles; SO2: Make local rice highly competitive and improve incomes of all stakeholders, in all ecologies; SO3: Organize and capacitate the rice value chain actors.
Task Force has defined the following 4 priority strategic areas: – (i) Development of seed sector and access to inputs; (ii) Increasing rice production; (iii) Improving competitiveness of local rice; (iv) Structuring rice actors and Governance of the rice sector. The NRDS emphasizes the importance of private sector involvement in the exploitation of new irrigable land, through appropriate incentives, and to take advantage of the agropole development policy that is being promoted by the Congolese Government.
Key findings and results
At the end of this second working week, the following conclusions and results were obtained:
- Rice Value chain Intervention Element Matrix (VIEM) for the DRC has been developed.
- Elements of logical framework (Vision and objectives) have been confirmed.
- Specific objectives in terms of production, yield and area for 2025 have been set.
- Priority areas for action have been defined and elaborated for short, medium and long term periods.
- Capacity of national managers within the task force is reinforced, and ownership of the NRDS development process by the nationals is further strengthened.
(The above photo: DRC task force participating at the Working week on NRDS revision. Kinshasa, 16th Oct 2019)
