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The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) West Africa, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the National Agricultural Research Services (NARS) of five West African countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Senegal have been pooling their respective skills since 2011 to support rural communities, policy makers and their respective institutions to overcome threats from climate change.

This is being done by developing and strengthening their capacities in ​​monitoring and evaluating climate change adaptation projects and programmes.

The ultimate goal is to enable them to achieve food security and improve the living conditions of the population. In Burkina Faso, the project site is a 30 km by 30 km block located in Yatenga Province in the north. The block comprises five rural municipalities and about fifty villages, including Tougou village considered as the epicentre. 

A rich and diverse partnership to test an innovative approach to the planning and monitoring-evaluation of climate change adaptation capacities

Promoting good technical and social practices to achieve food security and sustainable environmental management within a context of climate change requires actors who can analyze the vulnerability and adaptation capacities of communities so as to better support them.

The partnership, led and facilitated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), seeks these objectives through a participatory learning process. This process, which supports the Participatory-Action-Research of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (PAR-CCAFS) Project implemented by the Institute of Environmental and Agricultural Research (INERA) , brings together various rural development actors such as research, local and national development NGOs, government technical services, local authorities and the project target site communities.

In the approach, these various groups, which the programme seeks to influence their behavior, are its local partners. Indeed, through a two-tier process (village and province), the various actors have, in enhancing their knowledge and skills in planning and participatory monitoring/evaluation of adaption capacities, enabled CCAFS West Africa to identify, implement, monitor and evaluate adaptation activities.

The learning process uses TOP-SECAC, a kit with 11 tools that can be used at various stages, such as analysis of vulnerability and adaption capacities, planning of adaptation actions, and their monitoring and evaluation.

In Burkina Faso, TOP-SECAC has been applied successively at village and provincial levels. It has been applied at all levels by a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary team comprising experts in socio-economics, agronomy, animal husbandry, geography, ecology and agroforestry.

The approach was first applied in Tibtenga village, chosen as the entry community for this level. It provided information on the situation of the village (key resources, major hazards and their impacts, and the most impacted resources that have contributed most to the strategies) and helped to identify spontaneous adaptation strategies and resources that could contribute to them, as well as plan strategic adaptation options based on a future vision defined by the community.

The information was then extended to the province during a regional planning workshop with many more and diverse stakeholders, in particular communities of the other 4 CCAFS villages: Koubi-Thiou, Pabo, Ramdolla, and Lemnogo Mossi.

At all these stages, the participants learned new approaches to vulnerability analysis, and that the complexity of climatic phenomena and the uncertainties that accompany them require concerted planning and appropriate responses based on rigorous analysis.

Indeed, without such an approach, the proposed adaptation actions could instead aggravate virtually compromised situations. All in all, about ten researchers, who form the TOP-SECAC team, are now acquainted with the approach and are applying it.

Looking beyond status changes: monitoring and evaluating the process to explain and document adaptation impacts caused by the CCAFS Programme

Workshops (at village and provincial levels) have identified strategies and adaptation activities to achieve the defined vision. Some of these activities (supply of improved seeds, utility plants, training and advisory support, etc.) are carried out in Tibtenga, Ramdolla and Lemnogo Mossi villages by the PAR-CCAFS team.

The added value of the TOP-SECAC approach to planning and monitoring/evaluation is that it builds the capacity of the PAR-CCAFS team to better monitor and document the change process brought about by the physical activities carried out.

The various partner groups at the regional workshop undertook to adjust their methods to contribute to this vision. A monitoring and evaluation plan was developed to highlight and document the impacts of adaptation or change in behavior, relationships, actions and activities resulting from CCAFS activities.

Clearly, in our case and for the moment, the objective is to monitor and evaluate non-physical changes resulting from adaptation support activities proposed by the PAR-CCAFS Project and implemented by the communities of the three villages.

The first impact identification sessions showed that the programme sometimes brings about changes much faster than expected, especially in the acquisition of new knowledge and, to a lesser extent, in activities, relationships and access to resources.

Lessons learned and prospects

The planning and monitoring-evaluation of CCAFS program adaptation activities in Tougou block is in its second year.

The lessons that can already be drawn from the experience are diverse. It has shown that the issue of adaptation to climate change should go beyond spontaneous adaptation. Indeed, it should be supported by planned adaptation with relevant and coherent actions.

For adaptation to climate change to be effective and sustainable, it also needs to be promoted within a partnership and inclusive environment where actors pool their knowledge, efforts, knowledge and resources and agree to change their habits themselves. It is already comforting to note that many local actors are committed to change so as to contribute to the vision developed in agreement with the target communities.

Monitoring of adaptation impacts has already begun with the communities, and will extend to the other CCAFS local partner groups, namely the administration, NGOs, research, IUCN and technical services.