Projects

Enabling institutions and policies for sustainable climate change governance in agriculture

A view of partners during a conference co-organised by WASCAL and CCAFS
© WASCAL
A view of partners during a conference co-organised by WASCAL and CCAFS

Project description

This project intends to build on the achievements of CCAFS in West Africa to meet major development needs and strategically contribute to emerging policy initiatives such as the National Agricultural Investment Plans (NAIPs), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and development of climate-smart agricultural investment plans. The project uses socio-economic scenarios to understand complex interactions between socio-economic factors, political developments and climate change in order to generate policy recommendations that can be integrated into national agricultural development plans, strategies and programs. In addition, climate science, policy and environmental research, and agricultural modelling will be linked with food systems research and socio-economic scenarios to integrate climate concerns into food security and nutrition planning. Specifically, the project promotes climate-smart agriculture in the NDCs and NAIPs, as well as monitor agricultural contributions to them. The project assists countries in the development of eligible bankable projects to climate finance initiatives such as the Green Climate Fund. It uses climate science, food systems research and CCAFS scenarios methods to influence policy formulation that will permit the scaling up of science-evidenced climate-smart agriculture options, the integration of climate concerns into national policies and the enactment of plans and policies that increase investment toward improved access to diverse and locally acceptable diets. Finally, the project focuses on determining what kind of enabling environment is needed to promote inclusive, gender-equitable and responsible agricultural investments. To achieve the aforementioned objectives, already existing district and national multi-stakeholder policy dialogue platforms established by CCAFS shall be improved and technically assisted to lead the science-policy interfaces on climate change and climate-smart agriculture.

Activities

  • Climate-smart agriculture baseline development and prioritization of climate-smart agriculture options to promote inclusive, gender-equitable agricultural investments.
  • Review and ex-ante evaluation for agriculture and climate-smart agriculture options in the NDCs, NAIPs and agricultural policies.
  • Capacity building and support for bankable proposal development.
  • Enabling policy environments for climate-smart agriculture, food security and improved diets.

Expected outcomes

  • Fostering direct and sustained engagement between scientists and decision-makers using scientifically proven evidences to influence policy decisions for agriculture in the target countries.
  • Countries will be able to define their investment priorities for climate-smart agriculture and mainstream into NAIPs, NDCs and other agricultural development plans and policies.
  • By building capacities and offering technical assistance, national stakeholder institutions should be successful in submitting proposals to climate finance initiatives.

Gender and youth

The project helps determine the provisions defined in the NAIPs to promote inclusive, gender-equitable and responsible agricultural investment.

Partners

  • International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
  • Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA)
  • Conseil National de l'Environnement pour un Développement Durable, Niger (CNEDD)
  • Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Animal Research Institute (CSIR-ARI)
  • Ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Equipment Rural, Senegal (MAER)
  • Direction Nationale de l’Agriculture, Mali (DNA)

More information

For more information, please contact project leader Robert Zougmore, ICRISAT (r.zougmore@cgiar.org).

Project Activities

To meet major development needs and strategically contribute to national policies, programs and plans such as the NAIPS and NDC implementation in the region, we will use socio-economic scenarios to understand complex interactions between socio-economic factors, political developments and climate change in order to generate policy recommendations that can be integrated into national agricultural development plans, strategies and programs. In addition, climate science, policy and environmental research, and agricultural modelling will be linked with food systems research and socio-economic scenarios to integrate climate concerns into food security and nutrition planning to influence the enactment of enactment of plans and policies that increase investment toward improved access to diverse and locally acceptable diets.

CSA mainstreaming into NDCs, agricultural development policies and NAIPs is timely as a means to seizing adaptation-mitigation synergies and defining investment priorities for climate action in the agricultural sector. Following the development of a national baseline on CSA, the contents of country NDCs, NAIPs and other agricultural-related policies/plans/strategies shall be reviewed using applicable methodologies including the CCAFS scenarios-guided policy review processes for CSA mainstreaming. The project will also analyze and highlight potential socioeconomic and environmental benefits of CSA to define entry points for investment planning in review/implementation of NAIPs and NDCs.

With the growing evidence of success for some of the tested CSA approaches at the CSVs in West Africa and the demand for CSA in the region, we shall capacitate and sustain the national science-policy dialogue platforms in the generation of knowledge and leadership in the advocacy for CSA mainstreaming into national agricultural policies, plans, programs and strategies. In addition, the CCAFS national platform will in collaboration with key national stakeholders evaluate both adaptation and mitigation funding needs and develop bankable proposals to source for funding.

For CSA integration into national policies such as NAIPs and NDCs, national CSA baselines shall be established by (1) identifying CSA actions already underway and promising future CSA initiatives, (2) determining the current institutional frameworks associated with CSA, policy enabling environments and barriers of adoption. For implementation, we will hold stakeholder consultation workshops and use the CSA Profiles developed by CCAFS. Where no CSA profiles, exisit, they shall be developed.

Following evidence on the performance of CSA innovations at the CCAFS CSV sites and with reference to literature, a CSA investment plan shall be developed for the countries by also defining the enabling environment needed to promote inclusive, gender-equitable and responsive agricultural investments. This will involve the development of a business case for CSA based on CSA value chains conducted in the countries, costing of CSA innovations and the definition of key critical factors of risks and success.

Project Deliverables