SADC AgTech Policy Environment

The benchmark results provided a context for the key study areas of the report, particularly around the policy enabling environment. A baseline was conducted on available policies, strategies and legislation to understand to what extent digitalization is being prioritized by SADC member states and whether this is incorporated into the agricultural sector of these states. 

The SADC region is undergoing a digital transition 

Variation in the baseline across 16 countries illustrates differences in the maturity and content of policies, strategies, and legislation available. Most SADC countries are slowly advancing digitalization, and in more advanced cases embedding it in national plans. Most SADC countries are slowly advancing digitalization, and in more advanced cases embedding it in national plans.

Policies only provide one part of an ecosystem necessary to create an enabling environment for innovations

Credit: Diagram - IMC Worldwide, Icons - the NounProject 2022

The presence of a document or piece of legislation does not suggest that a country has a more mature digital economy. The existence of a policy or regulatory framework does not always translate into awareness by relevant stakeholders, effectiveness, or enforcement by institutions of these frameworks. 

Concurrently, a lack of policies or legislation does not inhibit the creation of digital innovations, technologies, or greater digitalization.

There were no examples available of a digital agriculture strategy or policy in any of the 16 countries

Integration of digitalization within available agriculture specific policies or strategies was also limited. 

The most common appearance of digitalization in agriculture occurs in national development plans, general ICT policies or digital economy strategies rather than more specific agriculture sector strategies.

Governments are embracing the digitalization agenda to different extents across the 16 countries of the SADC region

The baseline of policies, strategies, roadmaps and legislation identified that almost all the SADC countries have a version of an ICT or Information Society (IS) policy, and five countries had a specific Digital Economy Strategy or Policy in use. 

Five countries have a specific Digital Economy Strategy or Policy including: Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, and Zambia.

Data policies or strategies were also limited in the region with examples only identified in Mauritius  and South Africa.

Mauritius and Malawi: good examples for further learning

Mauritius is a clear front-runner and the only country to have available a full set of policy and legislative documents focused on driving digitalization.

Mauritius has policies, strategies, or legislation on ICTs, communication, information societies, e-Government, broadband, cybersecurity, data protection or open data, or a digital economy.  It does not however have a current digital agriculture policy or strategy.

Click here to download the Digital Agriculture Country Study for Mauritius here..

Malawi is one of only a few SADC countries to have a Digital Economy Strategy that includes a focus on agriculture including the use of innovative technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), smart farming, and the use of open data.

The Digital Economy Strategy for Malawi extends the focus on digital to wider sectors and functionalities of the economy that have specific and knock-on effects for the agriculture sectors. It also highlights clear partnerships across government and the private sector.

This strategy is the most digitally mature and ambitious plan that Malawi has put forward and provides a clear response and solution to unlocking the digital economy, and therefore the digital agriculture economy.

Click here to download the Digital Agriculture Country Study for Malawi here.

Icons - credit to NounProject https://thenounproject.com/