Knowledge

Climate change and malnutrition are among the greatest problems in the twentyfirst century; they are “wicked problems”, difficult to describe, with multiple causes, and no single solution.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits. 

This Household Mentoring handbook is a tool to assist household mentors to mentor selected poorer households.

Ethiopia is the second most populated African country with an estimated 96.9 million citizens. Of the total population, 81 per cent are classified as rural. The population is also growing at a rate of around 3 per cent per year. Whilst extreme poverty is declining, it is still widespread and in 2011 was counted at 30 per cent. 

This “Lessons Learned” document of the conservation agriculture (CA) in sub-Saharan Africa toolkit reviews experiences over the last two decades.

Conservation agriculture (CA) in sub-Saharan Africa has multiple, but often very specific, niches for investment that need to be understood to support its inclusion and implementation in projects.

This “How To Do” note offers guidance on the design, implementation and scaling up of a CA programme or project in sub-Saharan Africa. It begins with a summary of the key issues and associated questions  and follows this with lessons gained from experience.

South-South and triangular cooperation has an enormous potential role in agriculture and rural development in developing countries, both in unlocking diverse experiences and lessons and in providing solutions to pressing development challenges.

From the cases that follow, a number of common lessons emerge. First, it is important to create a space for interaction and cross-country learning. In the Scaling up Micro-Irrigation Systems project or with the household mentoring approach, for instance, workshops and ‘writeshops’ gathered people from diverse countries who could then share their own knowledge and experiences. In such spaces, participants could compare how a similar approach or technology required certain adaptations to better fit with local cultural, social and environmental contexts, offering important lessons for future scaling up.

Sometimes individual champions can make a difference. In Madagascar, the project design for a public/private partnership improved drastically when an IFAD consultant with similar experience in another country became involved. In this case, it was also an ‘unexpected outcome’, as the innovation came from a replacement for the regular consultant, who had broken his foot …. So even through small staff changes, knowledge of a complementary innovation from another country can have a big impact.

​Biodiversity is about more than plants, animals, and micro-organisms and their ecosystems – the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992) recognizes that it is also very much about people and our need for food security, medicines, fresh air, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment. Biodiversity is also essential for the maintenance of ecosystem-based services, such as the provision of water and food for human, animal and plant life. When we make an effort to conserve biodiversity, we are helping to maintain critical global biological resources to meet our needs today as well as those of future generations. Biodiversity conservation is therefore central to achieving recent global commitments for sustainable development under “Agenda 2030”, adopted by the United Nations in 2015. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recognizes that losing biodiversity means losing opportunities for coping with future challenges, such as those posed by climate change and food insecurity. 

​This report is aimed at readers who seek to build economic evidence in support of the inclusion of actions on agriculture in climate change plans and programmes, particularly at the national level under the umbrella of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the December 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to restrict a rise in global temperatures and manage risks. Agriculture is a sector especially sensitive to climate change. It also accounts for significant emissions and is, therefore, a priority for both adaptation and mitigation plans and actions at global, national and local levels. 

Present in each continent and covering over 40 per cent of the earth, drylands generally refer to arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, and are home to more than 2 billion people.

Declining soil fertility, escalating costs of farm inputs and lack of capacity are persistent problems that farmers in eastern Africa continue to grapple with. Such factors have resulted in high levels of poverty and food insecurity due to poor performance of the agriculture sector. Climate change adds a big blow to the already bad scenario with serious ramifications on the smallholder-farming subsector. The region is predicted to experience warmer temperatures and decreased rainfall from June to August by 2050. This being an important season for food production in countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia, adaptation measures are necessary for sustainable food production. Evergreen Agriculture refers to the practice of incorporating selected trees and/or shrub species into annual cropping fields. It can be practiced under conventional farming practices but ideally seeks to combine agroforestry with the principles of conservation farming. Evergreen agriculture practices are now part of the solution to tackle climate change and the adoption is on a rising trend in several countries in the region. Conservation Agriculture, including agroforestry, specialty crops, and permanent cropping systems, promotes food sufficiency, poverty reduction, and value added production through improved crop and animal production and production in relation to market opportunities. 

Developing smallholder pig value chains in Uganda to increase rural incomes and adapt to climate change.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits. 

The Integrated Approach Programme (IAP) on Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa, supported by the Global Environment Facility, focuses specifically on promoting sustainability and resilience through management of the natural resources– land, water, soils, trees and genetic resources – that underpin food and nutrition security. 

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits.

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits. 

The Integrated Approach Programme on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa targets agro-ecological systems where the need to enhance food security is directly linked to opportunities for generating local and global environmental benefits.

This module provides guidance and a comprehensive menu of practical tools for integrating gender in the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of projects and investments in climate-smart agriculture (CSA). The module emphasizes the importance and ultimate goal of integrating gender in CSA practices, which is to reduce gender inequalities and ensure that men and women can equally benefit from any intervention in the agricultural sector to reduce risks linked to climate change. Climate change has an impact on food and nutrition security and agriculture, and the agriculture sector is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. It is crucial to recognize that climate change affects men and women differently. The initial assumption is that social differences, particularly gender inequality, must be taken into account to strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of CSA interventions. Women are key players in the agricultural sector, yet compared to men, they own fewer assets and have access to less land, fewer inputs, and fewer financial and extension services.

It is now beyond a reasonable doubt that the earth’s changing climate is a result of human actions.

The expanding total volume of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is precipitating higher global surface temperatures and sea level rise.

The effects of human-induced climate change threaten the very existence of numerous species across the planet, including our own.

Strengthening Climate Resilience of the National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (CHOSSO) – National Agricultural Land and Water Management Development Project (NEMA)

Higher temperatures, wildlife extinction, rising sea levels, droughts, floods, heat-related diseases and economic losses are among the consequences of climate change. Climate change disproportionally affects the poorest and most marginalized communities living in vulnerable regions, among them indigenous peoples, whose livelihoods depend on natural resources. 

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.

Policies affect every dimension of the institutional and legal context in which poor rural people pursue their livelihoods. They shape the world they live in and the economic opportunities open to them. This means that supportive policies can go a long way towards providing the conditions in which people can lift themselves out of poverty. Conversely, policies that do not create opportunities, or that exclusively reflect the interests of other economic players, can be an insuperable barrier or an unbridgeable gulf – roadblocks barring the way out of the poverty trap.

Climate change is the most compelling challenge facing the world today. It affects rural smallholders across the developing world, with effects that pose a grave threat to their own, and to the world’s food security.

Fisheries and aquaculture are important contributors to food security and livelihoods at household, local, national and global levels. However, while aquaculture production is growing rapidly throughout the world, particularly in Asia and Africa, many of the world’s fisheries are at grave risk from human pressures, including overexploitation, pollution and habitat change. Climate change is compounding these pressures, posing very serious challenges and limiting livelihood opportunities.

​The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted a critical trade-off between agricultural development and climate change mitigation.