1. ISSUES

Session plénière © Surbervie

Market Information Systems (MIS) are devices designed to inform to inform agricultural and foodpolicies and enhance market transparency through the dissemination of information to stakeholders(producers, traders and consumers). The information disseminated by them is meant to help marketparticipants in their purchasing decisions and sales, even production and investment. The mainexpected outcomes are i) improved market efficiency (increased arbitrage and competition) and ii)improving equity (reducing information asymmetries between traders and producers, which shouldresult in better returns for growers).From the 1980s, MIS have been heavily promoted by donors and international organizations astools that help support the liberalization of the agricultural sector. They have increased in Africa,Asia and Latin America for products as diverse as cereals and tubers, vegetables, and livestock.These first-generation MIS all had a somewhat similar configuration: i) each MIS focused on aparticular country and a group of products (cereals, livestock etc.), ii) information focused onprices, iii) the information was collected on a sample of markets covering the entire country beforebeing centrally processed and distributed nationally through radio and other media; iv) theinformation was made freely available to players; and iv) the MIS were centrally managed by thepublic sector or by projects funded by development assistance.In the 2000s, some of these have MIS evolved. New MIS appeared. While all first-generation MISwere roughly similar (regardless of the product and countries), the new MIS tried out very differentorganizing models and provided varied services. So there is now a wide variety of MIS models.Two research projects were set up in 2009 to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of thesedifferent types of MIS to estimate their impact and to make recommendations to the MIS and thedonors who fund them. One funded by the AFD and the CTA has been implemented by CIRAD.The other, funded by the Hewlett Foundation has been implemented by MSU.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP

The Bamako workshop aims to present the results obtained by the two projects and discuss themwith a sample of thirty African MIS and experts on the African agricultural MIS. The workshopwill help finalize a note containing recommendations for MIS, which will be widely disseminated.It will also discuss various initiatives for sharing experience and networking concerning MIS(project website, electronic discussion forum established by the CTA, special issue of the journalCahiers Agricultures on African MIS, the network of MIS in the Americas (MIOA) and the Africannetwork of MIS (AAMIS-Forum) under construction with leadership from UNECA).

3. ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKSHOP

The workshop will be held in Bamako (Mali) from 30 November to 2 December 2011, probably atthe Hotel Nord-Sud. It is organized with the OMA by CIRAD teams and MSU and will be placedheld under the sponsorship of the Food Security Commissioner of Mali.