Knowledge

The SAIL programme has several components: i) community and livelihood development, ii) agriculture development and diversification, and iii) rural financial services.
The community development activities will focus on the ''new lands'' that have been settled by smallholder farmers. Community development associations will be strengthened so that they can allow for the inclusion of women and youth. The project will also provide buildings and financing for schools, health clinics, community centres and clean water infrastructure.

Overall the KCEP-CRAL project is divided into two objectives, which will be achieved through three technical components. The first project objective is to graduate smallholder farmers to commercially-oriented, climate-resilient agricultural practices through improvements in productivity, post-production management practices and market linkages for targeted value chains. The second objective is to empower local government and communities to sustainably manage their natural resources whilst building resilience to climate change.

The first programme component will focus on three areas: plants/crops, animals and infrastructure. 

Climate change is exacerbating natural resource degradation and reducing the potential of productive lands. For example, rural farmers have to contend with climate shocks such as drought, rainfall deficits, floods and locust invasions. These shocks are reducing yields and making the cropping seasons hard to predict for traditional farmers. Traditional resilience strategies are no longer as effective as they were and the lean season is becoming more challenging to smallholder farmers.

Lesotho ranks 158 out of 186 in the UNDP Human Development Index. Poverty is rife, and it is concentrated in the rural areas of the country, with the greatest incidence in the mountain areas. Lesotho's rural economy is dominated by livestock production. Lesotho's chief export is directly related to this livestock, that of wool and mohair production. Lesotho is the second largest global producer of mohair, and this counts towards a large percentage of the country 's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Only high quality wool and mohair can be exported, and this is dependent on the quality and health of the livestock. The main factor in raising high quality livestock is maintaining healthy rangelands.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries affected by climate
change. During the monsoon period, the Haor region of Bangladesh becomes
completely inundated with 4-8 metres of water for around 6-7 months of the year.
Flash fl oods are common, and in some years 80-90 per cent of crops are lost
because of extreme weather events. The situation is expected to worsen as a climate
change-related shift towards pre-monsoon rainfall is coinciding with the paddy rice
pre-harvest period. This severely affects food output in the Haor, which provides up
to 16 per cent of national rice production.