Agriculture and social protection are fundamentally linked in the context of rural livelihoods in Africa. Poor and food-insecure families depend primarily on agriculture and partly on non-farm income and private transfers for their livelihoods, and are the main target of social protection interventions (FAO, 2015). When embedded within a broader rural development framework, stronger coherence between agriculture and social protection interventions can assist in improving the welfare of poor small family farms by facilitating productive inclusion, improving risk-management capacities, and increasing agricultural productivity – all of which enable rural-based families to gradually move out of poverty and hunger (Tirivayi et al., 2013). An important step in strengthening coherence is to assess the existing state of coherence within a given country and identify potential entry points for strengthening it. In relation to this, this Diagnostic Tool can assist you in: identifying and mapping the scope and nature of linkages between agriculture and social protection interventions in their countries, including supportive and constraining factors; and understanding people’s experiences and perceptions of linkages between agricultural and social protection programmes and how these linkages (or lack of them) affect their livelihoods. This will provide a basis for identifying options for strengthening coherence, which will inevitably depending on specific country contexts.
