Événements

The 4th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture (The 4th GSC-CSA) takes forward the initiative on research and science started in October 2010 with the aim to bring science to bear on practical advances in scaling up climate smart agriculture. Three scientific conferences have been held so far (University of Wageningen in 2011; University of California, Davis in 2013 and in Montpellier in 2015). Africa under the custodianship of the NEPAD Agency is hosting the 4th GSC-CSA from the 28th to 30th November, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Conference rationale and purpose: There is growing attention to “climate-agriculture nexus” issues in national, regional and global policies and strategies. At global level, the SDGs and Paris Climate Agreement have explicitly highlighted the climate-agriculture and food systems nexus issues as key success factors in advancing the ultimate sustainable economic growth and inclusive development. The 4th Global SC-CSA brings together various key constituencies to interact – share, learn, build collaborations and alliances – with the aim to bring science and innovations to bear on policy, institutional and technological efforts in building agricultural and food systems that are climate smart.

Conference theme and objectives: Coming just after key global agreements, as mentioned above, the 4th GSC-CSA will focus on IMPLEMENTATION, RESULTS-IMPACT under the theme “catalysing local innovations and actions to accelerate scaling up of CSA”.

Specifically, five objectives are identified:

  1. Highlight emerging science and innovations on Climate-Agriculture nexus issues with a focus on CSA innovations in defined agricultural landscapes and food systems
  2. Showcase experiences and lessons in science-policy interactions fostering accelerated up-take of CSA
  3. Interrogate and share circumstance-specific conditions for success for CSA within the context of the SDGs and the COP 21 Paris Climate Agreement
  4. Networking and opening or consolidation opportunities for collaboration and alliances on CSA
  5. Stimulate and facilitate discussions and dialogue between scientists-researchers and practitioners including policy makers, business, civil society and farmers

The Conference focus on implementation is intended to compel detailed and circumstance-specific examination of implementation related factors including multi-sectoriality, multi-disciplinary and trans-boundary collaboration, partnerships and alliances. The fundamental message is that climate smart agriculture is not a sector issue, nor can it be pursued successfully under one discipline. Individual country action successes are also not sustainable. With science as the primary entry point, the Conference will give equally important attention to policies, human and institutional capacity, financing and local innovations – in the context of how all these elements have to play together, expanding implementation capacity.

Conference participants: The Conference is open to all interest constituencies including policy makers, development champions and practitioners, private sector players and scientists from across the world.

Conference structure: Guided by the principle “everyone has something to share”, the Conference structure is designed to encourage and facilitate formal and informal discussions and networking with specialised interventions to inform the discussions. This will include plenary sessions, parallel thematic sessions as well as knowledge-information kiosk which will be open to all to showcase their work mainly through posters and video documentaries. Break and lunch times will be arranged so as to optimise formal and informal networking.