Beyond borders – scaling climate-smart agriculture for the African continent

Climate change and its impacts are transboundary – droughts, pests, extreme weather events – and the effects of these are not contained to national or political borders. ?

To effectively build resilience and strengthen climate adaptation in Africa, our response must, in turn, include cross-border and regional coordination and collaboration. ?

Through AICCRA’s partnerships with many of Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs) and their associated networks of regional agriculture and climate change research bodies, we’re helping to connect science with?investments that cross borders, contributing to an ever more widespread use of climate-smart agriculture and climate information services. ??

While AICCRA’s activities to support a climate-smart Africa are concentrated in six anchor countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, and Zambia – the outcomes of our work are now also being realized in many other ‘spillover’ countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, C?te d’Ivoire, Malawi, Nigeria, and Rwanda and many more.??

In upcoming engagements at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AGRF 2023), the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS2023) and UNFCCC Africa Climate Week, the AICCRA team and partners will be sharing insights from our cross-cutting work and collaboration with local, national, regional and even continental organizations to build a climate-smart Africa for small-scale farmers.??

In our newsletter, read more about out how we’re contributing to these key continental climate events and some of our top AICCRA stories from August.??

Join AICCRA at Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week

The AICCRA team and our partners will participate in a number of engagements and events during the landmark Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week, both being held in Nairobi in the first week of September.

• Supported by AICCRA, every day at the Africa Climate Summit, the African Union Commission is hosting a Climate Action Innovation Hub to showcase a diverse range of the bold, innovative climate actions that are taking place across the continent that align to the specific ambitions and goals of the Africa Climate Change Strategy.?
• In a side-event on Tuesday at the Africa Climate Summit, A new vision for scaling climate action in African agriculture: The case for investing in the continent’s regional organizations, the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) , African Union Commission and AICCRA are providing a platform for Africa’s regional organisations to put forward an agenda for action that delivers the technologies, practices and innovation that will transform African agriculture.
• Also on Tuesday at Africa Climate Summit, AGNES AFRICA and partners - the Kenya State Department of Gender and Affirmative Action and AICCRA - will host a side-event to raise awareness about the gender dimensions on climate change impacts on vulnerable communities in Africa, and to share on the preliminary outcomes of the gender and climate change vulnerability hotspot mapping in Botswana, Uganda and Kenya.
• Wrapping up Africa Climate Week on Friday, we're joining a side-event on Unlocking Finance for Cross-Border Adaptation in the Horn of Africa, exploring the challenges which exist in deploying transboundary investments, and to highlight possible solutions to adaptation financing in the most vulnerable regions.

Our event page will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Scaling Innovation, Resilience, Gender and Social Inclusion at AGRF2023

Agribusinesses and agriculture technology companies across Africa are at the forefront of transforming the sector, offering new innovations that increase yields and productivity sustainably, de-risk and improve value chain linkages, increase farmer incomes, create jobs, and strengthen land, food, and water systems. To support the growth of private sector solutions that strengthen food systems, significant investments and support are needed.? ?

Join the AICCRA team at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AGRF) in Tanzania for a knowledge-sharing session on the activities under AICCRA and CGIAR's Ukama Ustawi Initiative on Diversification in East and Southern Africa (UU). Speakers will demonstrate approaches to supporting agribusinesses that address climate change through various gender-responsive approaches.?

All the side-event details are here.

Also at AGRF 2023: On Thursday 7 September, we're hosting an invitation-only Masterclass to guide participants through the CGIAR tools and resources developed through AICCRA, the Hub for Sustainable Finance and Ukama Ustawi CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator Program to facilitate the scaling of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) innovations through agribusiness. Participants will leave equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively identify, prioritize and monitor impacts of CSA activities.

Making the Africa Climate Strategy a reality through strategic partnerships and investment

Ahead of critical climate change engagements in 2023, the African Union Commission gathered key partners for a rigorous discussion on the next steps for operationalizing the AU's Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and to outline the key areas where support is needed.

“We propose the co-design and joint implementation of projects and initiatives to bring together our strengths to achieve the Strategy,” said Leah Wanambwa, Senior Policy Officer, African Union Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy Directorate.

In a new joint blog, read our insights from the interactive Roundtable which highlighted the need for alignment, inclusion and financing to make the Strategy a reality.

Wrapping up the West Africa Climate-Smart Agriculture Capacity Building Series

Together with the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF), the ECOWAS Commission and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, we have been training local community members, national agricultural technicians, representatives of farmers’ organizations and many others in five West African countries - Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ghana and now Togo.

This month, we held the final session in our series, training participants in Togo on climate-smart agriculture knowledge and technical skill activities to improve the formulation and implementation of climate-smart projects.

Country focus:

ZAMBIA: In celebration of the United Nations International Youth Day on 12 August, in partnershop with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Lusaka-based innovation and technology hub BongoHive, we hosted a Demo Day for the three groups of young startups in the Internship and Innovation Grant (I2G) innovation challenge in Lusaka, Zambia.

GHANA: We shared the story of Alhassan Inushah – a lead farmer for AICCRA in Dehyia. Two years ago, Alhassan started working with AICCRA as one of 40 lead farmers in our intervention areas. As the local ambassador, he engages with other farmers in his community about climate-smart practices, including the benefits of adopting drought and pest tolerant maize varieties. Alhassan also manages a small demonstration plot that serves as a learning centre for farmers from neighbouring areas – with a focus on maize.

MALI: In Bamako, the AICCRA team held a collaborative workshop to design a 'Climate Risk Management in Agricultural Extension' (CRMAE) curriculum to strengthen the climate-smart capacity of agricultural advisors in their work with farmers & agropastoralists, and to formulate a roadmap for the implementation of the curriculum in 2024. We brought together representatives of local technical services and partners to support the inclusive and participatory development of a curriculum for Mali.

SENEGAL: The AICCRA Senegal team and ISRA CERAAS are inviting the public, researchers, producers and even decision-makers to visit the Agricultural Technology Parks where we introduce and promote climate-smart agriculture innovations & methods - including high-yield, multi-purpose crop varieties - to local farmers and agro-pastoral communities.

KENYA: In Makueni County, we're sharing a story of hope thanks to new bean varieties and climate-smart agriculture technologies. Three farmers, Agnes Muendo, Eleanor Muli, and Phoebe Mwangangi ended the 2022/23 cropping season with a significantly increased yield from tiny fractions of their land despite the prolonged drought. The three women are early adopters and lead farmers in their community who embraced climate-smart farming practices promoted by?The?Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT?(The Alliance) and AICCRA.

ETHIOPIA: A new Weekly Voice Messages for Farmers: Livestock Feed and Forage Innovations in Ethiopia series has launched. Produced in collaboration with Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming Systems and AICCRA, the program aims to scale up climate-smart feed and forage technologies in Ethiopia by providing farmers with timely and accurate information on the latest livestock feed and forage technologies. It also aims to strengthen the capacity of farmers and agricultural experts to adopt and use these technologies.

The one-minute audio messages, recorded in local languages, are transmitted using a mobile phone application in four regions of Ethiopia: Amhara/Debre Birhan, Oromia/Bale, SNNPR/Hadiya, and Addis Ababa. To date, the program has reached over 25,730 farmers and agricultural experts.

What we're reading this month:

• In AICCRA's August team meeting, we were joined by Dr Abdou Ali from key AICCRA partner AGRHYMET REGIONAL CENTER - who spoke on the importance of seasonal forecasts for farmers in the West Africa region and the work AGRHYMET has been doing to support the agricultural sector. Through a partnership with AICCRA, AGRHYMET has introduced NextGen forecasting systems and trained national staff to use them, built local communications with end-users, and highlighted drivers for better inclusion of stakeholders - including gender.That's why we're revisiting this InfoNote produced after a COP27 event organized by AGRHYMET and AICCRA to explore the status of climate information and communication for women farmers in West Africa. The InfoNote is rich in insights from event speakers and includes some recommendations for mainstreaming gender and social inclusion in climate information services that are applicable beyond West Africa.

• A blog from CORAF | West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development on how partnerships efforts are strengthening agricultural resilience in West Africa. In collaboration with The World Bank’s Food System Resilience Program (FSRP), we hosted a landmark workshop in Abidjan with CORAF and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT to enhance the climate-smart agriculture capacities of key stakeholders from National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS).

Read these stories and more on our news page or follow us on social media (@CGIARAfrica) for ongoing updates.??

Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is a project that helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank.