This research area seeks to address issues around the effectiveness of enabling policy environments for climate-smart agriculture (CSA) by developing innovative approaches and conducting comparative analyses of the enabling conditions required for CSA adoption at scale. It seeks to help bridge the gap between science and policy and to mainstream climate change information into, and link policies for food security with, national agricultural implementation processes.
The enabling environments research area takes a broad view of policy environments, including structures, mechanisms and rules that govern social interactions and behaviour (i.e. institutions) and processes and mechanisms that produce and maintain frameworks, rules and actions (i.e. governance). The research focuses on adaptation and food security plans that incorporate suitable climate-smart technologies and practices, national implementation of global treaties on the availability and use of genetic resources for CSA, and gender action plans that evaluate the potential of policies, practices, and technologies in overcoming gender disparities.
The research area seeks to better understand the broader enabling environment in which climate-smart food and nutrition security policies can be taken to scale, so planning and investments can be targeted effectively towards specific stakeholder groups, information flows fostered between national, regional and global actors, and local voices appropriately taken into consideration in regional and global fora.
The research will utilize a range of methods, including case study syntheses, monitoring and evaluation of different policy processes, and economic evaluation of different policy alternatives using appropriate models and tools.
Some examples of planned outputs include:
- Syntheses of case studies of selected regional and global bodies and comparative analyses of current and emerging climate-related food security policies and “good practice” guidelines on engagement with national planners, and relevant international institutions, in different sectors.
- Monitoring and evaluation of climate and food security policy processes and their effectiveness.
- Capacity strengthening for formulating local and national priorities in regional and global fora.
- Novel analytical tools, indicators, and metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of enabling environments to support the scaling of CSA.
- Global syntheses and evidence of conditions that support scaling and learning under climate uncertainty, including those that are needed to facilitate transformative change.
- Innovative ICT-based tools and gaming to support accountability mechanisms in institutions at multiple scales and to engage youth in decision-making.